Salvador Allende was a Pro Castro Lenninist politician, hardly a standard bearer for democracy and human rights.
He was the antithesis of a Leninist, as he worked for a societal transition within the confines of the existing democratic system. He was no revolutionary trying to topple the current State to impose the dictatorship of the proletariat. It also seems like a weird take to paint him as Pro Castro. It's safe to assume he was Anti-Batista and he did reopen diplomatic relations with Cuba, but that does not make him suddenly a cheerleader for everything Castro said and did. Castro, while certainly sympathetic to Allende's platform, was also critical of it.
Socialism and Big Government are the gods that failed in the 20th century, no ideology has been responsible for so many crimes and murders.
Considering the amount of people murdered by their governments in the 20th century its amazing how people are so willing to trust their governments with bigger powers in the 21th century…..
This is a weird mix of tautology, wrong labeling and logical fallacy. Cool.
Allende was overthrown by a military coup in 1973, thus probably forestalling the usual catalog of nation-wrecking Leninist horrors — slave-labor camps, famines, etc. — the international Left was outraged. Pinochet while often brutal and corrupt in the way of military dictatorships, restored Chile’s economic health and eventually stepped aside to let the nation return to democracy.
Guy who did nothing wrong was on the brink of becoming a terrible person, I swear! Ridiculous. Allende's three years in power came with a number of successes and a number of problems. Most notably, while the inflation was initially controlled , it got ultimately out of hand, so, even if the wealth inequality got greatly reduced, the economy was in deep trouble. Macroeconomics not being an exact science it's very difficult to know what was the impact of the involvement of the US in the affairs of Chile, like pouring millions into the coffers of Allende's political opponents and financially supporting lengthy trucker strikes that crippled the primary and secondary sectors.
It must be remembered that Pinochet was one of the few dictators in history to quit the job while the going was good.
He voluntarily gave up his powers and restored democracy, something no dictator had done since Lucius Cornellius Sulla retired in 78 BC.
Totally factually incorrect. Constitutional reforms made him organize a referendum which failure would mean he would have to step down. It's unclear whether he miscalculated his actual support or miscalculated how much he could rig the results (as he did in the past), but the referendum failed. Upon this outcome, he tried to find different ways to stay in power, but, as he had exhausted his political capital, the police and other members of the military junta refused to help him craft this "auto-coup".
We should all be in favor of allowing Dictators to retire unmolested and allowing them to happily live out their days like Plutarch tells us Sulla did “ consorting with actresses, harpists, and theatrical people, drinking with them on couches all day long."
Socialist Dictators lacking a classical education and knowledge of history just keep on murdering till they get a bullet or die of old age.
Friendly reminder we are talking about Allende, whose biggest crime is to have nationalized the copper mine industry (that the junta never re-privatized), and Pinochet who had thousands of political opponents killed and tens of thousands tortured and put in political internment camps.
