Myth and reality of the Pinochet regime of Chile
Sponsored by the office of Godfrey Bloom, UKIP MEP, with co-operation from the office of Nirj Deva, MEP:
Speaker: Sasha Renate Bermann
Presentation: “Myth and reality of the Pinochet regime of Chile“, by Hernán Büchi,
Time/date: Tuesday 24 April 2012, 6-7pm (directions here)
Venue: European Parliament, ASP A1H1
Organised by: Michael Jose and Niels Meyer
The seventeen year Pinochet regime (1973-1990), is often portrayed by European media as totalitarian, and sometimes pure evil. But how does this fit with the fact that later governments, all democratically elected, have continued the Pinochet line and not strayed from his reforms which have dominated Chile ever since. According to the Heritage Foundation, on a scale of economic freedom Chile is the world’s seventh freest country, with a lower level of corruption than Spain. The recent Chilean growth rate has been around seven percent for several years, and poverty has reduced substantially.
So what really happened in Chile? What is reality and what is myth?
The European media have often been biased against Pinochet and his regime, but what does the regime have to say for itself? This presentation will explore these questions via key persons from the regime. Firstly the former minister of Finance Hernan Buchi, and secondly the former minister of social security, José Piñera.
Hernan Buchi was minister of Finance under Pinochet, and carried out many of the market orientated reforms. Later he ran for president, unsuccessfully. Then he founded Chilean think-tank ‘Libertad y Desarollo’, which is active in shaping public policy and opinion in Chile.
José Piñera, a student of Milton Friedman, is a Chicago school economist. He was one of the ‘Chicago boys’, who all studied at Chicago University, then translating their ideas into a plan for Chile’s further development called ‘El Ladrillo’. This became the bible of the Pinochet regime: the Chicago boys and Milton Friedman shaped the economic and societal development of the country. Piñera became minister of social security and labour, and carried out many reforms such as the pension reform. He is now affiliated with the Cato institute in the US.
Additional references:
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