VITACURA – In the San Francisco de Sales church in Vitacura, representatives of the Pinochet Foundation commemorated the 1973 coup yesterday. Among those attending was Marco Pinochet, the youngest son of the former dictator Augusto Pinochet. The idea behind the mass was to ´remember those who gave their life for Chile´.
In the form of a so-called ´Misa de Acción de Gracias´, or a Thanksgiving-Mass, the Pinochet Foundation held its annual commemoration in the Vitacura church yesterday afternoon. The goal of the mass was to pay tribute to Augusto Pinochet, who came to power after a military coup and installed a dictatorship that lasted until 1990, and to ´remember those who gave their life for Chile´, especially the military men who died during the uprising against president Salvador Allende.
The former right-hand man of Pinochet and ex-deputy commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, Guillermo Garín, who is vice president of the Pinochet foundation, defended the mass by stating that “we just came together, like any other year, to say thanks”. About the military coup, yesterday exactly 45 years ago, Garín said: “Unfortunately we had to interrupt the democratic process, to avoid a civil war”. On the day of the coup itself, 500 people died.
Government ´likes´ controversial pro-Pinochet tweets
As if September 11 wasn´t controversial enough already for most Chileans, the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications, had to apologize today after liking tweets of controversial Chilean politicians. José Antonio Kast and Camila Flores (RN), two far-right wing politicians, known for their support of the Pinochet regime, had tweeted yesterday about the coup. The tweets read: ´On September 11, 1973, Chile chose freedom, thanks to the men and women who revolted against the Marxist revolution´ (Kast), and ´Today is day to thank those men and women who risked their life in defense of the homeland. …´ (Camila Flores).
El 11 de Septiembre de 1973, Chile escogió la libertad y el país que tenemos hoy, es gracias a los hombres y mujeres que se alzaron para impedir la revolución marxista en nuestra tierra pic.twitter.com/SQNNxSv9Yq
— José Antonio Kast 🇨🇱 (@joseantoniokast) September 11, 2018
Later, the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications released in a statement that their Twitter account had been hacked, resulting in controversial ´likes´. They ended the statement saying that they ´didn´t share the content of the messages liked´.
Editor-In-Chief Boris van der Spek is the founder of Chile Today.