Obama in Chile. US Imperialism. Pinochet. When dictatorship suits it it goes for dictatorship.

Obama has just made a twenty four hour visit to Chile. This is against the background of mass movements against dictatorships in the middle east and north Africa and the attack on Ghaddafi. So the nature of regimes would have been easy to discuss.

However there has been one glaring gap in Obama's speeches and agenda on his Chilean trip. He has said nothing about the seventeen year regime of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The US organized the coup which brought this dictatorship to power. This dictatorship then went on to murder tens of thousands of Chilean trade unionists and activists. As I say it was organized by the US government.

The Allende government which it overthrew was trying to bring in land reform and better wages and jobs to help the poor. But there was to be none of that. The US government and its rich allies in Chile took action. They launched a slaughter and put in a dictatorship.

US imperialism will do whatever suits it. If a bourgeois democracy suits it best it will go for that, if a military dictatorship suits it best it will go for that, if a fascist regime suits it best it will go for that. And Obama is no different from the rest of the vicious leaders of US imperialism. He can go to Chile and not say a word about the role his class played there and the suffering it caused. You can only have contempt for him and the class he represents.

Sean.