De Vido slams Cobos as ‘Pinochet admirer’

Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido said yesterday that “there is no doubt that” former vice-president Julio Cobos “really admired the Pinochet years,” after Cobos said in a radio interview with a Chilean radio that he has regularly visited the country since he was 18 years old and that he “has only seen it grow.”

“Cobos was born in 1955, so his first trip to Chile was in 1973, the same year that (Augusto) Pinochet ousted democratic president Salvador Allende, to establish a de facto government of fire and blood for 17 years in our sister republic,” said De Vido.

“What no-one asked Cobos is which growth he liked best during the 39 years he has been visiting Chile: Pinochet’s 17 years, or the 22 of democratic recovery, since he pondered the country’s growth from his first visit onwards,” said De Vido.

“The former vice-president’s aim was to contrast Chile’s growth with what he called the wrong examples of Bolivarian republics, which according to him is where our stubborn and irresponsible government is heading to,” said De Vido, and added that “there is no doubt that Cobos really admired Pinochet’s government.”

De Vido’s comments came on a day in which Cobos questioned Argentina’s desire for constitutional reform to allow President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to run for a third consecutive term. In a radio interview, the former vice-president said that “this is not on the agenda for Argentines, and would serve as a distraction,” calling for a system of government that depends on “effort, work, goals and ideals.”

Herald with Telam, DyN