A L S O +T O D A Y The costs of Mitch By Mary Jo McConahay Can a hurricane threaten the fragile new democracies of Central America?   T A B L E+T A L K Newt resigns! Mull over the soon-to-be-former speaker's decision in the Headlines area of Table Talk   R E C E N T L Y A day to remember? By Jeff Stein Police and federal agents brace for violence as anti-abortion forces observe a new "holiday" (11/11/98) Can we talk? By Rebecca Bryant Gay rights groups should rethink their drive for affirmation at the ballot box after Tuesday's drubbing (11/10/98) Newtron Bomb By Bruce Shapiro Will Gingrich's self-purge save the Republican Party? (11/06/98) Newt to U.S.: You won't have me to kick around anymore Jerry Brown, Christopher Hitchens, Maxine Waters, Dan Schnur, David Horowitz and Mark Hertsgaard react to Newt Gingrich's stunning announcement that he will not stand for reelection as speaker (11/06/98) Body slam By Micah L. Sifry Jesse Ventura turned out turned-off voters on Election Day, and upended the nation's political elite (11/06/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.
		He can't go home again NO MATTER WHAT THE HOUSE OF LORDS DECIDES, FORMER CHILEAN DICTATOR AUGUSTO PINOCHET IS FINALLY BEING HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT SALVADOR ALLENDE -- AND CHILEAN DEMOCRACY. ___________________ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Left: Isabel Allende, daughter of slain Chilean President Salvador Allende, holds her head as she leaves the House of Lords in London on Nov. 5. Allende had attended a hearing on the extradition to Spain of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to face charges arising from his rule. BY MARC COOPER For the last month, as former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has languished in British custody facing possible extradition to Spain, I have thought often of the democratically elected president he overthrew 25 years ago, Salvador Allende. At the time of the Sept. 11, 1973, coup I was living in Chile and working as President Allende's translator. As a 22-year-old Southern Californian, freshly radicalized by the anti-war movement, I felt I had stumbled into the front row of history. Here I was working directly for the world's first freely elected Marxist head of state, a principled and sincere doctor/politician who was promising to lead a peaceful transition to democratic socialism. Through the haze of a quarter-century, I still remember Allende as a political leader of a breed virtually unknown today -- one of enormous moral dimension, of unimpeachable integrity and absolute honesty. I cannot claim he was a friend of mine. He was the president, and he was my boss. But I remember him in human terms as warm, compassionate and patient -- the authentic "people" traits that modern day pols like President Clinton assume as a rehearsed stage identity. The fiery death of Allende's revolution three years after his election turned out to be much more than a temporary setback in what we thought was the great unstoppable forward sweep of history. Then came the massacres in Cambodia and East Timor, the dirty wars in Argentina and Guatemala, CIA Central American murder manuals, the rise of Thatcherism in Europe, the Reagan regime here at home. For all these reasons, and more, that September 1973 morning of Pinochet's coup is hard-wired into my memory. I can still feel the fledgling sun, the fresh chill in the air, even smell the thickly sweet scent of newborn jacaranda in that Santiago spring. But what has lingered most indelibly were Allende's last words. Since daybreak, Pinochet's troops had been shooting their way into power -- occupying shanty towns, universities and government buildings. He choked the capital with a ring of steel and armor. The coastal cities squirmed under naval infantry occupation while U.S. gunboats smiled on from just offshore. Learning of the coup under way, I turned the big tuning wheel of a friend's Grundig radio and heard a wall of military marches. Then came two Orwellian communiqués from Pinochet's junta: Allende must surrender or face bombardment. And the same punishment for any radio station not linking up with the military broadcast network. Rolling the Grundig dial another quarter-turn I found the last electronic holdout. The left-wing Radio Magallanes was still defiantly on the air. Via a primitive telephone link-up from inside the Moneda Palace, President Allende addressed the nation. Knowing he was doomed, Allende's metallic voice assured us that one day there would be a "moral sanction" for the "treachery and felony" being imposed that morning. Within an hour, two Hawker Hunter jets dive-bombed and strafed the Moneda. Soon, Allende -- along with 100 years of Chilean democracy -- was dead. Allende had warned of the encroaching darkness in that farewell speech. But the full horror imposed by Augusto Pinochet and his collaborators could never have been completely anticipated. I was lucky. Given refuge in a diplomat's house, and with help from the Mexican Embassy and the United Nations, I escaped alive. But many of my friends didn't. Some were herded into the National Stadium, tortured and murdered. Others were "disappeared" by Pinochet's men. I gasped when, a decade later in a Beverly Hills movie house, viewing the Costa-Gavras film "Missing," I saw two of these friends -- Americans Charlie Horman and Frank Teruggi -- materialize on the screen like celluloid ghosts. N E X T+P A G E+| Clinging to hope through 17 years of terror