22 March 2011

CHILE: Obama Would Consider Opening Records Of Painful Pinochet Era.

M. HERALD / J.WYSS/  Overview/

    President Obama and his family arrived in Chile for a short stay after speaking in Brasilia, touring Rio's tourist sites, visiting a repatriated favela/slum and even kicking around a soccer/futbol.
  His Santiago visit was met with a small protest of environmental groups and university organizations.
  At the  news conference, a journalist asked Obama whether he also would “ask for forgiveness” for the USA's role in the 1973 coup that brought dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power and for the “open wounds” that remain. Obama said that his administration would consider requests for information but that neither country should be “trapped by our history.”  “So I can’t speak to all of the policies of the past,” he (Obama) said. “I can speak certainly to the policies of the present and the future.”
  “I know I’m not the first president from the United States to pledge a new spirit of partnership with our Latin American neighbors,” he said. “Words are easy, and I know that there have been times where perhaps the United States took this region for granted.”
OBAMA/ PINOCHET COVERAGE:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/21/2127064/obama-says-us-ready-to-help-chile.html