Chile backs off removing 'dictatorship' from texts
Jan 6, 2:52 PM EST
Chile backs off removing 'dictatorship' from texts
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- Chile is backing off a controversial plan to remove the word "dictatorship" from school textbooks in reference to the military government of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
President Sebastian Pinera's new Education Minister Harald Beyer sparked a political uproar when he discussed the plan Wednesday, which was publicized in a local newspaper. He suggested grade-school students be taught a more "general" term by calling the 1973-1990 rule of Pinochet a "military regime."
Sen. Isabel Allende, whose father Salvador Allende was ousted in Pinochet's coup, called the change "unacceptable."
"It goes against common sense, because the entire world knows that during 17 years what Chile had was a ferocious dictatorship with the most serious human rights violations, where there was no parliament, where there was no liberty, where there was persecution, murders and disappearances," Isabel Allende said. "I don't want to return to that epoch - I want things to be called what they are."
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