McCain

By
John Dinges                                                                      Read Spanish Version

From
The Huffington Post

John
McCain, who has harshly criticized the idea of sitting down with
dictators without pre-conditions, appears to have done just that. In
1985, McCain traveled to Chile for a friendly meeting with Chile’s
military ruler, General Augusto Pinochet, one of the world’s most
notorious violators of human rights credited with killing more than
3,000 civilians and jailing tens of thousands of others.

The
private meeting between McCain and dictator Pinochet has gone
previously un-reported anywhere.

According
to a declassified U.S. Embassy cable secured by The Huffington Post,
McCain described the meeting with Pinochet "as friendly and at
times warm, but noted that Pinochet does seem obsessed with the
threat of communism." McCain, a member of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee at the time, made no public or private statements
critical of the dictatorship, nor did he meet with members of the
democratic opposition in Chile, as far as could be determined from a
thorough check of U.S. and Chilean newspaper records and interviews
with top opposition leaders.

At
the time of the meeting, in the late afternoon of December 30, the
U.S. Justice Department was seeking the extradition of two close
Pinochet associates for an act of terrorism in Washington DC, the
1976 assassination of former ambassador to the U.S. and former
Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier. The car bombing on Sheridan Circle
in the U.S. capital was widely described at the time as the most
egregious act of international terrorism perpetrated on U.S. soil by
a foreign power.

At
the time of McCain’s meeting with Pinochet, Chile’s democratic
opposition was desperately seeking support from democratic leaders
around the world in an attempt to pressure Pinochet to allow a return
to democracy and force a peaceful end to the dictatorship, already in
its 12th year. Other U.S. congressional leaders who visited Chile
made public statements against the dictatorship and in support of a
return to democracy, at times becoming the target of violent
pro-Pinochet demonstrations.

Senator
Edward Kennedy arrived only 12 days after McCain in a highly public
show of support for democracy. Demonstrators pelted his entourage
with eggs and blocked the road from the airport, so that the Senator
had to be transported by helicopter to the city, where he met with
Catholic church and human rights leaders and large groups of
opposition activists.

Mark
Schneider, a foreign policy aide and former State Department human
rights official who organized Kennedy’s trip, said he had no idea
McCain had been there only days before. "It would be very
surprising and disappointing if Senator McCain went to Chile to meet
with a dictator and did not forcefully demand a return to democracy
and then to publicly call for a return to democracy," Schneider
said.

McCain’s
visit with Pinochet took place at a moment when the Chilean strongman
held virtually unrestricted dictatorial power and those involved in
public, democratic opposition were exposed to great risk.

McCain’s
presence in Chile was apparently kept as quiet as possible. He and
his wife Cindy arrived December 27 and traveled immediately to the
scenic Puyehue area of southern Chile to spend several days as the
guest of a prominent Pinochet backer, Marco Cariola, who later was
elected senator for the conservative UDI party.

The
trip was arranged by Chile’s ambassador to the United States, Hernan
Felipe Errazuriz. According to a contemporary government document
obtained from Chile, Errazuriz arranged for a special government
liaison to help McCain while in Chile for the "strictly private"
visit, and described him as "one of the conservative congressmen
who is closest to our embassy."

Errazuriz
also arranged the invitation for the McCains to stay at the farm of
his wealthy friend, Marco Cariola, according to Cariola, who did not
know McCain previously. The McCains spent the three and a half days
fishing for salmon and trout and riding horses. The area is one of
Chile’s most beautiful tourist attractions, with dozens of crystal
clear lakes and rivers surrounded by luxurious estates such as the
Cariola farm where the McCains were staying.

On
December 30, McCain traveled back to Santiago for a 5 pm meeting with
dictator Pinochet, followed by a meeting with Admiral Jose Toribio
Merino, a member of the country’s ruling military junta.

McCain’s
meeting with Pinochet in 1985 are described in a U.S. embassy cable,
based on McCain’s debriefing with embassy officials:

"Most
of his 30-minute meeting with the president, at which foreign
minister [Jaime] Del Valle and a ministry staff member were present,
was spent in discussing the dangers of communism, a subject about
which the president seems obsessed. The President described Chile’s
recent history in the fight against communism and displayed
considerable pride in the fact that the communist menace had been
defeated in Chile. The President stressed that Chile had stood alone
in this battle, and complained that United States Foreign Policy had
left them stranded. The congressman added that talking to Pinochet
was somewhat similar to talking with the head of the John Birch
Society."

Other
than to describe the warmth of the encounter, the cable does not
contain any account of what McCain said to Pinochet. There is no
indication that the subject of human rights or return to democracy
was raised with Pinochet. At this time in history, Pinochet was
overtly ostracized by most world democratic leaders because of his
refusal to move toward a restoration of democratic, civilian rule.

A
second declassified U.S. diplomatic cable refers to a letter from
then-U.S. Ambassador Harry Barnes giving further detail of McCain’s
meeting with Pinochet..

From
his meeting with junta member Merino, however, McCain passed on an
tidbit of political intelligence that the embassy found useful. "The
most interesting part of the conversation, according to the
congressman, was Merino’s statement that he and other members of the
Junta had recently told Pinochet that he should not expect any
support from the junta if he should decide to be a candidate for
president in 1989."

In
fact, three years later Pinochet was defeated in a plebiscite in
which he was the only candidate, and free elections a year later
restored democratic government. A healthy list of U.S. congressmen
traveled to Chile in support of the transition to democracy,
including Republican Senator Richard Lugar. McCain, by then a first
term senator, did not return to Chile.

In
addition to the Chilean document and the U.S. cable cited above, at
least four other declassified documents refer to McCain’s meeting
with Pinochet and his interest in Chile.

McCain
campaign press office said no one was available to comment on the
story.

Former
ambassador Errazuriz, reached by phone, said repeatedly "it is
not true" that McCain met with Pinochet, that he would have
known about it if it had, and that the state Department cable was
possibly a fabrication.

On
September 11, 1973, Army General Pinochet led a bloody coup that
overthrew the democratically elected government of President Salvador
Allende. The four-man military junta that seized power bombed the
presidential palace, padlocked the congress, outlawed all political
activity and actively persecuted its opponents. Pinochet remained in
power until 1990 and in 2006 he was charged with 36 counts of
kidnapping, 23 counts of torture and one count of murder. He was
spared a trial for health reasons and died at age 91 in December
2006.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-dinges/mccain-meets-a-bloody-dic_b_137422.html