When History Called on the General

How Pinochet Checked Out

You’ll see the General’s image at nearly every gathering of the new right: Proud Boys, Patriot Front, Oath Keepers, anti-vaxx Freedom Convoys. He is their new icon and they’ve taken to adorning themselves and their trucks with his face on shirts, stickers and flags. His craggy image, often behind dictator shades, is usually depicted alongside his favorite instrument of mass death: the helicopter, the hovering abattoir from which he had his enemies–students, teachers, trade unionists, feminists, indigenous activists–pitched into the Pacific Ocean.

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Jeffrey St. Clair is editor of CounterPunch. His most recent book is An Orgy of Thieves: Neoliberalism and Its Discontents (with Alexander Cockburn). He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net or on Twitter @JeffreyStClair3

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