Chile, Latin America: Week in Review
Autopsy Reveals Chile’s Salvador Allende Committed Suicide
July 20, 2011 By Staff
Top Story — New autopsy results determined that former Chilean President Salvador Allende killed himself with an assault rifle during the 1973 coup that overthrew him. The forensic analysis, which was overseen by a team of Chilean and international experts, ends 37 years of speculation over whether Allende shot himself or was murdered when troops stormed the presidential palace of La Moneda. Allende’s remains were exhumed in May of this year on the behest of a judge investigating 726 human rights cases linked to the 17-year military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The forensic experts said there was only a single entry and exit wound in Allende’s skull and that there was no evidence of a second weapon. There was, however, evidence that two bullets may have been discharged by an AK-47 assault rifle. The findings brought relief to the Allende family, who view his suicide as a source of pride. He “made the decision to end his life before being humiliated or having to go through some other situation,” Senator Isabel Allende, his daughter, said on Tuesday.
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Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- A new public opinion poll by Latino Decisions shows that immigration remains a decisive subject for Latino voters due to their personnel connection to the debate.
- Gunmen in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey killed four people, including two police officers, while security forces killed five gunmen in a shootout in the western state of Jalisco.
- Authorities in Mexico arrested 58 people in connection with the discovery of the one the largest marijuana fields in the country’s history.
- A Mexican television station discovered zip lines used by Central American migrants to cross over into the country from Guatemala
Caribbean
- The Dominican State Sugar Council said Monday that it will file a criminal complaint against a Spanish businessman over an armed confrontation at a sugar plantation that left two people dead, including a police officer.
- Cuba is forced to import more than 400,000 tons of rice each year, 60 percent of the total amount of this dietary staple consumed on the island, according to official figures published Sunday by the daily Juventud Rebelde.
Central America
- Honduran President Porfirio Lobo claims to have received death threats from business owners over his proposal to raise taxes to fund better security.
- State health workers in Costa Rica went on an indefinite strike on Tuesday to ask, among other things, that authorities to account for the financial crisis at the state institution.
- A Mormon missionary, who was mauled by lions in Guatemala, returned to Utah to recuperate after the attack.
- Cubic Applications received a nine-month contract from the Organization of American States (OAS) to provide seaport security assessments and training for six ports in Panama.
Andes
- Bolivian President Evo Morales says a local aid program will no longer depend on Venezuelan funds.
- A British tourist was shot and killed during a robbery and his brother was wounded, Venezuelan police said Tuesday.
- Colombian protesters blocked crude oil production at the Andean nation’s highest-producing field in the Llanos Basin on Tuesday before security forces took back control.
- Peru’s leftist President-elect Ollanta Humala said he would retain the government’s current central bank president, who is known as a tough inflation fighter, a sign of continuity in economic policy that buoyed investors.
Southern Cone
- Argentine musician Fito Paez generated political controversy by writing in a newspaper column that “half of Buenos Aires disgusts me” for supporting incumbent Mauricio Macri in the city’s July 10th mayoral elections.
- Aaron Robinson, a 24 year-old U.S. snowboarder, died Tuesday in Chile after sustaining a head injury in the backcountry.
- Uruguay advanced into the Copa America finals Tuesday after beating Peru 2-0 with two goals from Luis Suarez.
Image: Jaume D’Urgell @ Flickr.
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