Conservative Love for Bukele and Pinochet

When we consider the deep love and adoration that American conservatives had for Chilean strongman Gen. Augusto Pinochet, it is not difficult to see why American conservatives have fallen in love with Chilean strongman Nayib Bukele.

When Pinochet took control of the Chilean government in a U.S.-supported coup in 1973, American conservatives loved it. After all, after three years of socialism under democratically elected President Salvador Allende, Pinochet vowed to restore stability, patriotism, and law and order to the country.

Pinochet had his goons round up some 50,000 people. They then proceeded to brutally torture them. The women were raped and sexually abused in unimaginably brutal ways. Some 3,000 of the 50,000 were ultimately disappeared or killed.

Chilean strongman Gen. Augusto Pinochet greeting U.S. government official Henry Kissinger, a conservative. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Chile license.

What was their offense? Pinochet and his goons said that they were terrorists, subversives, socialists, communists, or supporters of Allende’s socialist regime.

But there was one big problem: None of them was ever convicted of a criminal offense. Instead, Pinochet and his goons simply accused them of being threats to “national security.” That was enough to round them up and brutally punish them.

What about the lawyers and the courts? They were enveloped in the tsunami of fear that swept across the country. Like most everyone else, the Chilean lawyers and judges were so scared that Pinochet and his goons might do bad things to them that they went silent or even supportive. Pinochet and his goons had a free hand to do whatever they felt needed to be done to restore economic stability, patriotism, and law and order to Chile.

At the same time, Pinochet introduced “capitalism” to Chile by appointing “free-enterprise” economists to run Chile’s welfare state and regulated/managed economy.

Do you see why American conservatives loved and adored Pinochet so much? They loved his destruction of civil liberties. They loved the fact that he wielded omnipotent power to deal with terrorists and communists, with no interference whatsoever from either the Chilean congress or the Chilean courts. They loved that he was appointing “free-enterprise” advocates to his government to better manage Chile’s welfare state and regulated economy. They loved that he was a “patriot.” They loved that he was bringing “law and order” to Chile. And they loved that he could remain in power indefinitely, especially without having to go through elections.

Given their deep love of Pinochet, can you see why American conservatives have also now fallen in love with Bukele? Even though Bukele has shown a proclivity for socialist central planning, for American conservatives his disdain for civil liberties, his willingness to become a loyal and obedient member of the U.S. Empire, and his tyrannical assistance in the U.S. war on immigrants, trumps his socialist tendencies. I wouldn’t be surprised to see conservatives erecting a monument in Washington, D.C., featuring both Pinochet and Bukele.

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