Chilean election

[Magda Hassan]

There has been an enormous amount of coverage in Chile of the 40 th anniversary of the US backed coup that overthrew the democratically elected Allende government and installed Pinochet. In fact it is pretty much the first time it has hit the MSM there. The coup has not been taught in the school history curriculum and it is actually unknown to far too many people there unless they have a relative who was involved. These revelations have been something of a huge social upheaval there. People have lost their fear. The Pinera government has realised that they are unelectable and are trying to make as many changes as possible to make them more palatable to the voters. One move is to move the military prisoners from their comfortable jails where they have staff and jacuzzis and bbqs and place them in the ordinary criminal prison system where they will be treated as just another prisoner. Some are not coping too well with the news.

Chile 'Caravan of Death' general commits suicide

The former general committed suicide at home while on release from prison
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A former Chilean general and director of intelligence during Augusto Pinochet's rule has killed himself while on weekend release from prison.
Odlanier Mena, who was 87 years old, was serving a six-year jail term.
The crimes were allegedly part of the "Caravan of Death" - a military operation thought to have killed more than 100 opponents of the 1973 coup.
On Thursday, President Sebastian Pinera announced plans to close the jail where Mena was being held.
A lawyer representing Mena said his client had been worried about having to be moved from Cordillera to another military facility at Punta Peuco.
Mena is said to have shot himself in the head at home on Saturday. He had been due to return to prison the following day.
At Cordillera, prisoners have access to the internet, cable TV, a tennis court, gardens and a barbecue area.
"He had been terribly upset by the move. It affected him a lot that in Punta Peuco he would not have the medical attention he needed," Jorge Balmaceda told 24 Horas TV.
The comfortable conditions at the prison have been sharply criticised by many in Chile, including former Presidents Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet.
Mena's lawyer said his client was upset about being transferred From Cordillera
Critics say military prisoners should not be given different treatment to others serving prison terms.
President Pinera's decision to move the prisoners of Cordillera to Punta Peuco also follows a controversial interview by one of its 10 inmates, the notorious former head of Pinochet's intelligence agency, Manuel Contreras, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the 1973 coup.
Contreras told reporters there was no torture at the Villa Grimaldi, one of the secret police's main complexes, and that all of the dead during the Pinochet dictatorship were killed in armed confrontations with security forces.
More than 3,000 people died or disappeared in Chile between 1973 and 1990 and nearly 30,000 are believed to have been tortured.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-24319770