Snubbed Pinochet cuts ties with Philippines

Press, 26 March 1980, Page 9

Snubbed Pinochet cuts ties with Philippines

NZPA-Reuter Santiago j I President Augusto Pinochet, who cancelled an Asian tour while in Fiji after apparently being snubbed by President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, returned to a hero’s welcome in Santiago, the Chilean capital, yesterday. He announced that Chile) would sever diplomatic relations with the Philippines, declaring angrily: “I cannot) accept a slap in the face to my country.”

Eight jet fighters swooped overhead and thousands of spectators at pudahuel Airport cheered, waved Chilean flags, and tossed rose petals at General Pinochet as he left the plane and entered a motorcade car for the 24km drive into the capital. The General, known for his stern visage and emotionless demeanour, appeared to be near tears as

people lining Santiago’s] I streets chanted: “Pinochet, if Pinochet.” . i 5 He announced the break in ]- relations after arriving at j the headquarters of the mili- t tary junta in the Diego Por- ( tales building, where several ] 3 thousand people had gath-l ered. “No honourable coun-'< try can so offend another,”'] he told the cheering crowd. I , General Pinochet, the)]army commander who led ‘ the Right-wing coup in Sep- c tember, 1973, that ousted the t late Marxist President, Sal- e vador Allende, had flown to] Fiji on Saturday to begin an] c 11-day tour of Asia when he s was informed he would not'j be received by President ], Marcos. | r Information Ministry offi-lr cials in President Marcos’s If martial-law government had Ip said President Marcos ■would]r be out of Manila on unspeci-1 fied “urgent busines-s" and:( could not meet General'i

Pinochet. Hundreds of Filipinos had protested General Pinochet's planned visit, accusing his Government of human-rights violations, and leaflets were scattered throughout Manila calling General Pinochet a “bloody assassin.” Later, after relations were severed, a spokesman for the Presidential palace in Manila said the official visit had been called off because “foreign terrorists” had entered the Philippines with the intention., of killing General Pinochet. Some 4000 anti-Pinochet demonstrators staged a shouting protest when General Pinochet’s plane landed in Nandi, Fiji, and he did not even go to a scheduled reception in Suva. He had planned to be in the Philippines for five days and then make private visits to Hong Kong and Tahiti “to reaffirm Chile's presence in the Pacific.”

-1 Government offices and 1 private firms were closed in • ■Santiago for General Pino’i chet’s return, and buses (were provided to take resii[dents to the airport. ;j All of Chile’s television ■i stations covered his return I The Government-owned 3 [newspaper, “El Cronista.” rjsaid President Marcos’s aciltion was “unparalleled in . i world diplomatic history and »]is wound up in the Marxist j| campaign against Chile.” ii President Marcos’s Gov- . I eminent recently said comt imunism was the greatest -Ithreat to the Philippines. j] Chile’s Minister of Gov- . [eminent (Mr Sergio Badiola) I was in charge of arrange--1 ments to welcome General 1 Pinochet back, and he told I reporters: “The Government . cannot deny citizens the II right to express themselves ■' freely, especially in view of ! I the impact the situation has 'caused on public opinion.”