There was, in fact, only one project, in which terror was the central tool of the free-market transformation. “Repression for the majorities and ‘economic freedom’ for small privileged groups are in Chile two sides of the same coin,” Letelier wrote. (...)
Letelier dismissed Friedman’s claim that urging Pinochet to introduce economic “shock treatment” (...) was merely “technical” advice, unrelated to the human-rights abuses. On the contrary, Letelier insisted that Pinochet’s political violence was what made his economic violence possible. Indeed, only by murdering and imprisoning left leaders, and by terrorizing the wider society, could Pinochet force the same nation that had democratically elected Allende a few years earlier to accept this savage clawback of social gains.
#répression #Chili #Letelier #Friedman #Pinochet #Allende #néo-libéralisme #violence #Klein
▻http://www.bilaterals.org/?40-years-ago-this-chilean-exile&lang=en