Tag: Chile

Australia's Shame

Overthrowing Allende: Australia’s special role in destroying a democracy – Pearls and Irritations

Salvador Allende Image source: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional / Wikimedia Commons /licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Chile license.

Australia remains a Colony

Five decades on, some parliamentarians have called for a formal acknowledgement of Canberra’s role in the destruction of a democracy that led to the death and torture of tens of thousands by a brutal military junta. The Greens spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Peace, Senator Jordon Steele-John, stated his party’s position: “50 years on we know Australia was involved, as it worked to support the US national interest. To this day, Australia’s secretive and unaccountable national security apparatus has blocked the release of information and has denied closure for thousands of Chilean-Australians.”

In calling for an apology to the Chilean people, the Greens are also demanding the declassification of any relevant ASIS and ASIO documents that would show support for Pinochet, including implementing “oversight and reform to our intelligence agencies to ensure that this can never happen again.”

Source: Overthrowing Allende: Australia’s special role in destroying a democracy – Pearls and Irritations

Australia's Shame

Destroying Chilean Democracy: Australia’s Covert Role Five Decades On – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In 1983, Australia’s Attorney-General Senator Gareth Evans told the Senate that no Australian security agency had gotten its hands dirty in activities that eventually led to the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende. In what can only count as a stunning whopper of a statement, Evans stated the following: “To the extent that some intelligence co-operation activity may have occurred at an earlier time, there is no foundation for any suggestion that Australia in any way assisted any other country in any alleged operations or activity directed against the Allende regime.”

FOI has revealed the shameful involvement of the UK in their support and involvement in the Pinochet Coup in Chile, America’s involvement was always patently clear. How is it ours in Australia remains a well-held secret. One that would show just how influenced we are by the more pwerful?

In calling for an apology to the Chilean people, the Greens are also demanding the declassification of any relevant ASIS and ASIO documents that would show support for Pinochet, including implementing “oversight and reform to our intelligence agencies to ensure that this can never happen again.” With the monster of AUKUS enveloping Australia’s national security, the good Senator should not hold his breath.

Source: Destroying Chilean Democracy: Australia’s Covert Role Five Decades On – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Opinion

CHILE 50 YRS: Had There Been No Coup in 1973

Imagine this scenario. On Sept. 11, 1973, the reactionary sections of the Chilean army, led by General Augusto Pinochet and given a green light by the U.S. government, did not leave their barracks.

Source: CHILE 50 YRS: Had There Been No Coup in 1973

Mining & Politics

Chile: The Aussie Connection, An Interview with Clinton Fernandes – CounterPunch.org

Due to the complexity of this document and the niche scientific target audience, no alternative description has been provided. Please email Geoscience Australia at clientservices@ga.gov.au for an alternative description.

JH: Can you say more on Investor Rights.  For instance, Australia owns the second largest lithium supplier in the world. This just in time for the EV revolution. China would love that opportunity.  But I’ve read recently that the US has just offered to “buy out” a major supplier in Perth.  Could Australia get caught up on a slippery banana and fall prey to foreign predators, like Chile did?

CF: On lithium and other critical minerals: in 2013, Geoscience Australia conducted a study of ‘Critical commodities for a high-tech world’. It found that Australia was rich in antimony, beryllium, bismuth, chromium, cobalt, copper, graphite, helium, indium, lithium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, niobium, platinum-group elements, rare-earth elements, tantalum, thorium, tin, titanium, tungsten and zirconium. We could establish a nationally owned company that exercised ownership and control of strategically important minerals. We would then be in a position to increase domestic innovation and support higher value-added sectors, such as high-technology research and development, advanced manufacturing, and energy efficiency.

Instead, Australia has established a Critical Minerals Facilitation Office, which involves creating a benign environment for private investors to carve up our critical minerals.

Source: Chile: The Aussie Connection, An Interview with Clinton Fernandes – CounterPunch.org

Palestine

Boric Says Chile Will Open Embassy in Occupied Palestine

Boric Says Chile Will Open Embassy in Occupied Palestine

We cannot forget a community that is suffering from an illegal occupation, a community that is resisting, a community that is seeing its rights and dignity violated every day,” Chile’s leftist president said. Brett Wilkins Dec 23, 2022

Source: Boric Says Chile Will Open Embassy in Occupied Palestine

Australian Constitution

In Chile, Even Water Is Privatized. The New Constitution Would Change That.

Imagine Australian Conservatives think our Constitution is Sacred and Untouchable

In 1980, the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet replaced Chile’s constitution with a new charter employing the principles of famed American free-market economist Milton Friedman. Forty years later the dictatorship is gone, but the constitution — and a key provision called the National Water Code that privatized Chile’s vast natural water supply — is still in effect.

Following an uprising in 2019 that drew millions to protest across the country, and against the backdrop of a 15-year drought that has left over half of the country in an official water emergency, a popularly elected body has been tasked with rewriting the constitution from scratch.

With only a year to draw up the document, they must attempt to rectify the consequences of the lingering dictatorship policies and the devastating water code in their new draft.

In Chile, Even Water Is Privatized. The New Constitution Would Change That.
Australia's Shame

Australia Played a Key Role in Chile’s 1973 Coup. Chilean Exiles Are Demanding an Apology.

Australia suffers more than one virus. Racism was introduced and has been here with the coming of the Europeans 200 years ago. Covid is just recent. The LNP and it’s ideology might not be  as old but it certainly had it’s roots here first along side Racism and has taken root generationally. It has spread and has taken us to war in other places. AUKUS is yet just another of it’s symptoms.

Newly declassified documents reveal that Australia helped the US overthrow Chile’s democratically elected socialist government and install the brutal Augusto Pinochet regime. Chilean exiles in Australia are demanding an apology.

Source: Australia Played a Key Role in Chile’s 1973 Coup. Chilean Exiles Are Demanding an Apology.

Uncategorized

‘The Other 9/11’: Progressives Remember Allende’s Chile | Common Dreams News

La Moneda, Chile's presidential palace in Santiago, is bombed by the nation's armed forces on September 11, 1973. Salvador Allende, the country's democratically elected socialist president, died during the U.S.-backed coup that brought to power Augusto Pinochet, who imposed neoliberalism through military dictatorship. (Photo: Bettmann via Getty Images)

“On this day in 1973, Salvador Allende’s democratically elected socialist government was overthrown in a military coup led by the U.S.-backed fascist Augusto Pinochet.”

Source: ‘The Other 9/11’: Progressives Remember Allende’s Chile | Common Dreams News

Uncategorized

Old Dog Thoughts- Why are Morrison and Murdoch intent on dividing us?

Fighting Fake News with REAL 13/9/20 Stop Complaining about Dan. We could be Chile or the USA. Why is Morrison doing the Trump and dividing us? News Corp is trying to divide and make us American

Protest, Uncategorized

Over 1 Million Chileans Take to the Streets to Demand Political Reforms, Change to Country’s Neoliberal Economic System | Common Dreams News

Protesters wave a Chilean flag during the eighth day of protests against President Sebastian Piñera's government on October 25, 2019 in Santiago, Chile.

The World is Young and so there’s hope. You can’t get a Million people to a right-wing demonstration only guns(ODT

via Over 1 Million Chileans Take to the Streets to Demand Political Reforms, Change to Country’s Neoliberal Economic System | Common Dreams News