September 7, 1986: Attempted assassination of Chilean dictator Pinochet

LAS ACHUPALLAS, CHILE – Just how far can one go to rid the world of a brutal dictator – murder?

I recall a philosophical argument years ago that asked a simple question: if you had had a chance to kill Adolph Hitler in 1929, or even as an infant, before he took over Germany and facilitated the Holocaust, would you have done so?

Looking back in hindsight the answer may be an unequivocal yes! After all, if someone could have eliminated a man who launched WWII with its subsequent 75 million deaths and the six million slaughtered in concentration camps, would that not have been a justified contravention of the biblical advice ‘do not kill’?

I will leave the morality of this question, not to mention the difficulty in determining exactly what an infant will he do when he grows up, to others more qualified. But there is a link to today’s attack.

On this day in 1986

Members of the Chilean Marxist terrorist group Frente Patriotico Manuel Rodrigues (FPMR) tried to assassinate that country’s dictator Augusto Pinochet while he was returning from his retreat in El Melocoton to Santiago. Five people were killed and 11 wounded but Pinochet escaped unscathed.

We are in a war between democracy and Marxism, between chaos and democracy.

Augusto Pinochet after the attack

Given that upwards of 3,200 Chileans were killed and more than 80,000 tortured during the Pinochet era (1973-1990) would it have been better if the FPMR had succeeded? It would have most definitely been an act of terrorism, but would it have been sanctioned? Does this mean that other similar acts can be okayed?

What do you think?

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