Pinochet’s rule threatened

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34047, 10 January 1976, Page 13

Pinochet’s rule threatened

(By a special correspondent of “The Times''through N.Z.P.A.)

LONDON. The first serious split in the Chilean military junta is threatening the personal rule of President (ieneral Augusto Pinochet. According to reports coming out of Chile, 10 of the country’s senior generals handed an ultimatum to the President two weeks ago in which they demanded his resignation plus radical changes in Government policy. The ultimatum, which the Government has banned from publication in Chile, set March as the deadline for reforms, which included the dissolution of General Pinochet’s secret police force — the Dina — urgent measures to save the economy from collapse, and an improvement in what is recognised as the junta’s disastrous image overseas.

At least one of the top men in General Pinochet’s Cabinet is said to be among the signatories, together with senior officers of the three armed forces. Just before the second anniversary of the coup last September, General Leigh, commander of the Chilean Air Force and the one liberal in the military junta, said in

|an interview in “The Tinies” that the junta had agreed to adopt more liberal policies immediately, including handing over political prisoners to civilian tribunals and lifting the curfew and state of siege which had been in force since the coup. He also indicated that the military planned a gradual return to a more democratic political s\ stem. But General Pinochet failed to act on these agreements. On the advice of Right wing civilian officials, he has strengthened his personal dictatorship instead. While reacting against this personal aggrandisement of General Pinochet, the other generals are also deeply disturbed by the growing isolation of Chile and by the united opposition of the churches. The Roman Catholic Church, especially, has become the strongest voice of international criticism — perhaps the only genuinely free voice in Chile today.

It dominated the InterChurch Committee for Peace in Chile — a post-coup institution pursuing conciliation and freedom that was dissolved by Government decree on December 31 because it was allegedly infiltrated by Marxists. Now it has set up a successor group called Jus-

tice and Peace to continue the work of the old committee. Especially since the arrest of eight priests in November — some of whom were associated with Dr Sheila Cassidy — the head of the Church in Chile, Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez, has emerged as the chief symbol of reasoned resistance to the regime. He is known to have warned General Pinochet that he would be excommunicated if the Government continued to support campaigns against the Church. Church criticisms have also contributed to Chile’s international isolation. This was underlined at the United Nations in November when Chilean violations .of human rights were condemned by a huge majority. In turn, the regime’s failure to win foreign friends or aid has prevented economic recovery. Foreign investment, even from the United States, has been minimal. Inflation still runs at more than 300 per cent and one fifth ,of Santiago’s workers are unemployed. Washington is said to be opening its ears and its doors to the junta’s opponents — 20 former supporters of President. Allende were

granted American visas recently — and when General Pinochet proposed to outlaw the moderate Christian Democrat Party the American ambassador threatened diplomatic reprisals. Since October, Christian Democrat leaders and some priests have increased their contacts with the more liberal generals in the regime, and this had led to speculation in Santiago that if General Pinochet can be persuaded to resign within th e next two months, a new regime may be evolved with the co-operation of some of the former politicians. It would certainly not mean a return to Chile’s old democracy, or the abandonment of all the present security restrictions, for the generals are still aware of the potentially violent challenge from the extreme Left. It might not mean more than a more sophisticated and intelligent form of Fascism, with greater attention to the needs for economic reforms, especially to benefit the poor. Even that, however, would mean less .of the indiscriminate torture and fear that characterises Genera) Pinochet’s rule and the birth of a new joint military-civilian Government with a more human face.