Margot Honecker, the widow of Erich Honecker, the longtime ruler of Communist East Germany, and a powerful hard-liner in her own right as the minister of education for 26 years until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, died on Friday in exile in Chile. She was 89.

A family friend and member of the Chilean Communist Party confirmed the death, The ( Read more... )

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As Americans remember Sept. 11, 2001 with video montages, scattered candlelight vigils, and an avalanche of #neverforget Facebook and Twitter posts, Chileans are remembering a different 9/11-Sept. 11, 1973, the day a CIA-backed military coup ousted a democratically elected president with a right-wing strongman.

Tensions in the South American ( Read more... )

An 11-year-old Chilean girl who has become pregnant from rape is renewing a contentious debate over abortion in the conservative Catholic country, where the medical procedure is illegal under all circumstances. Doctors have warned that continuing the pregnancy will be dangerous for the 11-year-old’s health, as well as for the health of her fetus. ( Read more... )

And We were This Close of Starting Operation Condor, Part II: Mooslim Edition Open Society: Freedom Watch.

¡Yanqui, No!: Why Latin America Didn't Join Washington's Counterterrorism Posse
Only one region on earth avoided participating in our post-9/11 torture system all-together.

The map tells the story. To illustrate a damning new report, " ( Read more... )

A judge in Chile has ordered the exhumation of the remains of the poet Pablo Neruda, as part of an inquest into his death in 1973. The left-wing Nobel Prize winner died 12 days after a military coup replaced the socialist president Salvador Allende with General Augusto Pinochet ( Read more... )

Chileans students protest for-profit schools

Thousands of college and high school students took to the streets of Chile's capital on Thursday to protest the existence of schools [universities] run as for-profit enterprises and renew demands for free, quality public education.

The march followed the release last week of a congressional report accusing ( Read more... )

A popular student rebellion shows that, as Chileans become better off, they want the government to guarantee a fairer society. Politicians are struggling to respond.Apr 14th 2012 | SANTIAGO | from the print edition ( Read more... )

The hotel had a musty, Pinochet-era atmosphere - dark bar, heavy furniture, bartenders in white shirts and black ties - and drew mostly businessmen. But when the bartenders found out that my friends and I were going to the student march, they cut lemons for us and put them into plastic bags with salt. In case of tear gas, you were supposed to bite ( Read more... )

Despite her defeat, Camila Vallejo's influence keeps growing


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