A Tale of Two Dictators

Washington Post via RCP.

Very interesting article noting the differences between Chile's dictator Augusto Pinochet and Cuba's Fidel Castro. Pinochet is often vilified, and with reason; Casto is often lauded, despite his (to me, anyway) very obvious flaws. Now while it is more than a little crass to say so to their victims and their families, I have to believe that the people of Chile are far better off today than the people of Cuba. I'll note for the record that Pinochet left power voluntarily - Castro?

John O'sullivan of the Chicago Sun-Times has more, including a comaprisons to Franco, Mao, Hilter and Stalin, along with the leader of the island paradise 90 miles from our shores.

"As for Pinochet's economic legacy, it outstrips that of most advanced democracies, let alone the economic rubble of all the communist dictators. Within a decade of the 1973 coup, Chile was a stable growing economy transformed by monetary, supply-side, trade and labor market reforms introduced by Pinochet. When Chile returned to democracy in the late 1980s, the Christian Democrat government of Patricio Aylwin continued his free-market approach."

He also makes the point that while Castro has traveled freely around the world, Pinochet has been constantly forced to defend himself in courts around the world - even though the courts in Chile had granted him amnesty. It is certainly illustrative of way they are viewed.