While Mr. Moore’s commentary on the rise and fall of the economic stability of Chile [“The Fall of Chile Is a Warning to America, published March 31, 2021] has some salient points, he neglects to mention a few of the facts that have had a profound and long-lasting impact on Chileans. In 1969, Salvador Allende was elected as Chile’s president. Although he openly espoused a leftist agenda, he was not able to move the economy forward as he hoped. Four years later, Augusto Pinochet and the military ousted Allende in a bloody coup that led to 17 years of a right-wing dictatorship, over 3,000 people who were assassinated or ”were missing,“ and 40,000+ plus victims of human rights abuses. It was during this period (1973–1989) that Mr. Moore states that Chile ”embarked on one of the boldest sets of free-market economic reforms in history.”
He goes on to state that the situation today is bad and growing worse. Interestingly, the current president is a right-wing conservative with strong ties to the U.S. and other influential democratic governments.
