DON'T PUSH CHILE, PINOCHET WARNS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050030-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: July 23, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Si Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25:
ARTICLE q-Plea
OS PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
23 July 1985
Don't push Chile,
Pinochet warns
By Roger Fontaine
THE WASHINGTON TIMES FOREIGN SERVICE
SANTIAGO, Chile ? Chile's
return to democracy is going
according to schedule, and will nei-
ther be hurried nor delayed, Pres-
ident Augusto Pinochet said in an
interview with The Washington
Times.
"We have a calendar where all the
plans and programs are being devel-
oped, with date certain. ... We will
strictly follow this schedule," he
said.
"Some people are very worried,
and want the I implementing legis-
lation dictated from one day to the
other. No, senores. Everything is
being studied," Gen. Pinochet said.
Under the 1980 constitution
approved by two-thirds of the Chil-
ean electorate, a presidential
plebiscite and congressional elec-
tions are scheduled for 1989.
In a rare interview with an
American journalist, Gen. Pinochet,
who remains commander-in-chief of
the armed forces, also described
relations with the United States as
normal ? a diplomatic term for
mediocre.
Looking fit and relaxed over an
early morning breakfast at the
Moneda Palace, the Chilean pres-
ident responded freely to questions
on a wide range of subjects, includ-
ing touchy ones regarding human
rights practices in Chile.
But under direct questioning, he
refused to disclose his own plans for
1989, citing a variety of reasons,
including personal health. The Chil-
ean president ? who even his politi-
cal enemies here concede is a wily
politician ? continues to play his
cards very close to the vest.
As to when the decision will be
made, the Chilean leader said, "the
year 1989."
"Before then, I remain silent and
tranquil. I am doing things as I
always have done them. That's the
luck of being military," he said.
At 68, Gen. Pinochet is also
reportedly in good, if not excellent,
health, with only rumors of a high
blood pressure condition circulating
in this politically sophisticated capi-
tal.
Gen. Pinochet rejected any sug-
gestion that the United States could
alter his plans through the use of
pressure tactics.
"When the United States wants to
impose something on us, we don't
accept it," he said.
"Although we may die from hun-
ger, we are not going to accept pres-
sure from anyone," he said, adding
that the removal of Marxist Pres-
ident Salvador Allende in 1973 by
Chile's armed forces "did not cost
the United States one dollar, one
shot, one weapon, one man."
"No one can say in the United
States: We helped Chile.' That is not
the case. We did it ourselves, here in
Chile."
Mr. Pinochet warned, "We are
friends with the United States, but
we are not subordinate, nor a colony."
Describing current relations with
the Reagan administration, Gen.
Pinochet said: "not so close that I
may get burned, nor so far that I may
get cold."
Impatience, if not criticism, has
been increasing lately from at least
the middle levels of the U.S. State
Department over the pace of the
transition toward representative
democracy. U.S. officials have
expressed a fear that Gen. Pino-
chet's seeking an eight-year term in
1989 will constitute "continuism" ?
a term that the general rejects.
"Continuism would be if I
remained for life ... but there are
elections here," he said. At the same
time, the Chilean president made
clear he would not step aside prema-
turely.
Gen. Pinochet insists that what he
will leave Chile is a "protected
IA-RDP90-00965R000302050030-2
democracy" ? that is, protected
from a communist takeover.
Chile "does not have confidence in
absolute pluralism because through
absolute pluralism, democracies
die," he said.
Under the new party law which is
currently being written, the Com-
munist Party will be banned, accord-
ing to Gen. Pinochet. On the other
hand, other parties will be allowed to
function.
In addition, a constitutional tribu-
nal will be established with the
power to outlaw "totalitarian
groups."
As to the possible identity of other
groups, Mr. Pinochet hinted at the
fate of the socialists ? or at least the
faction allied with the Chilean com-
munists.
"For me, the socialists are first
cousins of the communists," Gen.
Pinochet said.
As for terrorism in Chile, Gen.
Pinochet said it will continue in his
country "because it is the armed
arm of the Soviet Communists."
Chile's urban terrorist movement,
the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic
Front, killed a policeman last week
in downtown Santiago during rush
hour traffic, blocks from the
Moneda palace.
Charging that Chile's terrorists
have been trained in Cuba and the
soviet Union, Gen. Pinochet also
said that intelligence services in the
region are exchanging information
on 'terrorist movements.
As for Chile's human rights
situation, which critics ? including
some members of the Reagan
administration ? have long
attacked, Gen. Pinochet insisted that
"congressional [critics] and others
know very little of South America."
Reacting to the murder of three
communists last March ? a matter
of continuing controversy within
Chile ? Mr. Pinochet said, "I am an
enemy of crime and Jam not approv-
ing of the crime."
"Now the government has given
all the facilities so that it can inves-
tigate. The government has used
every means to find out," he said.
lb Gen. Pinochet, the method of
the killings ? throats cut ? sug-
gests "Mafia characteristics."
"Chileans don't kill by cutting
throats," he said, making a stabbing
motion over the breakfast table in
the direction of the interviewer's
chest.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302050030-2