Chile: Another Public Relations Victory

Before his election last December, many commentators on the left expressed concern at the possibility of a Piñera presidency. And yet, despite it all, Piñera's first few months in office haven't turned out all that bad as he has largely stuck to Concertación policies. Robert Funk quite poignantly commented that Piñera's State of the Union address to Congress even sounded more like a fifth Concertación government than the return of the right.

So then why the concern before Piñera's election?

Well, because he's surrounded by people who say things like this:

"The majority of Chile didn't feel the impact of the dictatorship. On the contrary, they were relieved. Because before you couldn't buy anything imported, you had to pay for what was produced in Chile--expensive and bad. Over night, you started to find out what was missing. The people won. Then the streets were cleaned and people started to have jobs."

And who's the dumbass who said that? It's Miguel Otero, Chile's ambassador to Argentina and Renovación Nacional insider. Maladjusted has argued before that Piñera and his government lack a certain sensistivity when it comes to human rights and addressing the dictatorship's legacy, but this is just too much.

Will Piñera act with the same swiftness as in past scandals and fire Otero? Let's hope so.

Update:

Otto at IKN has the scoop: Piñera has booted Otero out of his post as ambassador. Props are definitely in order.