Chile Elects First Female President

Pretty cool stuff. Zakaria saw it coming.

Here's what the WaPo tells us:

Bachelet's victory will keep the Socialist Party in the presidential palace for four more years, following the presidency of Ricardo Lagos. When Lagos won the 2000 election, it was the first time a Socialist had held the seat in Chile since 1973, when Pinochet overthrew the government of Salvador Allende. What followed was a 17-year dictatorship, marked by widespread human rights violations, that would fundamentally shape the personal and political life of Bachelet.

Ummmm...but the WaPo kind of left out a few details. In talking about how Ms. Bachelet was tortured under the Pinochet regime, they left out the fact that it was Richard Nixon and his U.S. government that overthrew Allende, thus leading to the torture, rape, and murder of tens of thousands - one of the torture victims being Ms. Bachelet.

Nice folks, those Americans.

In recent discussions of free speech right here on this blog (don't ask) - I mentioned that I didn't want the government - our government, nor anybody else's - being the ultimate arbiter of history or 'the truth'. It took 20 years and lots of work by lots of people to finally get the U.S. government to release documents admitting its role in deterring democracy in Chile over a period of several years, to the tune of millions of dollars, most likely including a whole bunch of other despicable stuff (What? You don't think the U.S. government, operating through the C.I.A., is evil enough to torture and rape, and possibly have a dog rape an American Catholic nun? Don't ask me - ask Sister Dianna Ortiz, who experienced this type of treatment in Guatemala, when Reagan had unleashed the C.I.A. and others to do whatever they wanted to do in order that democracy could be effectively deterred in that country, too. The list of countries is long.). The Wiki page has got the scoop on America's evil work in Chile.

So, you have the WaPo version of events - essentially, the 'truth' as seen by the U.S. government, and then you have reality, available via Wiki and other sources - at least in America. Thank you, free speech.

UPDATE: fixed link.