General Augusto Pinochet, the former president of Chile, was awarded the Spanish Grand Cross of Military Merit in 1975, just two years after taking power from communist president Salvador Allende. But now, the leftist Spanish government has decided to strip the former Generalissimo of that honour.
The Spanish Council of Ministers announced the removal of the military honour from General Pinochet, who died in 2006, on September 11th, the 50th anniversary of Pinochet’s coup against the Allende government, El Mundo reports.
Spanish acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez , leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), celebrated the move saying,
50 years ago, Chilean democracy was the victim of a brutal attack that shook the world. Today, 11 September, is the time to redress a historical injustice. The Council of Ministers will withdraw tomorrow the Grand Cross of Military Merit to the dictator Pinochet granted in 1975.
The stripping of the medal from General Pinochet is just the latest act of the Sánchez government regarding elements of the past his party and their far-left allies regard as problematic, particularly the regime of former Spanish leader General Francisco Franco.
In 2007, Spain passed the Law of Historical Memory, which looked to give compensation to those whose human rights had been allegedly violated during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime.
The law considered the Franco regime to end with the death of General Franco and the subsequent ratification of the Spanish constitution in 1978. This time is known as the period of transition in which both the Right and Left agreed to a general amnesty regarding the abuses of the Civil War and of the Franco-era.
In 2022, however, the Sánchez government passed a new law, the Law of Democratic Memory, which extended the scope of the Historical Memory Law until 1983 and sought to control speech in Spain by enacting heavy fines and possible property confiscation against anyone who dared express favourable views about the Franco regime.
Some have also noted that the law seeks to whitewash the atrocities committed by the Left during the Spanish Civil War, which included the rape and murder of thousands of Catholic Priests and nuns among other acts of brutal violence.
The law also calls into question the institutions set up in Spain after the Franco regime, specifically the Spanish monarchy, now headed by King Felipe VI. Some have even suggested that the intent of the law is to give ammunition to those on the Left in Spain who do not regard the monarchy as legitimate.
The Palm Beach Freedom Institute president Paul de Quenoy also notes that the law effectively scrapped titles from nobles who had received their titles during the Franco regime; even if those who received noble titles had little to do with the regime itself and adds that the law may violate the 1977 amnesty law.
Like Franco’s, General Pinochet’s legacy has not only been called into question but denounced by mainstream media and leftist elements in the Western world, with some calling his coup the death of democracy.
However, The European Conservative magazine Editor-in-Chief A.M. Fantini pushed back against Pinochet’s detractors this week in an article on the anniversary of the coup.
He wrote:
So, why would we, The European Conservative, devote any pages to a country in South America—or to a person as notorious and divisive (and defamed) as Pinochet? In part, it is because we think the coup was necessary, and that he and his officers were on the correct side. For months, they watched the government of Allende’s Unidad Popular mismanage everything, create economic chaos, instigate social unrest, and allow crime and insecurity to skyrocket. We should not forget that these are the tried-and-true tactics of totalitarian governments everywhere (Venezuela, most recently). The army was compelled to act.
He added:
Too often, our cultural elites are quick to point to the missing and the dead but ignore the plight of millions who have suffered under the boot of Marxist-led totalitarian regimes. They are quick to express outrage over conservative or military governments, accusing those who deposed Allende of trampling on a “democratically elected government.” They ignore the fact that this was merely a leftist totalitarian regime in a democratic disguise—and that, left unstopped, Allende would have ushered in a revolution that surely would have brought even greater misery and death to untold numbers of Chileans.
