Obama brushed aside a request to apologize for its support of dictator Augusto Pinochet. Obama not apologizing for Pinochet

SANTIAGO, Chile—President Barack Obama on Monday brushed aside a request that the United States apologize for its longtime support of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, but Obama said he may be willing to share additional U.S. government records that could shed light on events such as the reputed American role in the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power.

Asked by a Chilean radio reporter whether “the United States is willing to ask for forgiveness for what it did in those very difficult years in the ‘70s in Chile,” Obama suggested U.S. policies and actions in that era may have been unwise but he went no further.


“I think it’s very important for all of us to know our history,” Obama said during a news conference with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera. “And obviously the history of relations between the United States and Latin America have at times been extremely rocky and have at times been difficult.”

“I think it’s important, though, for us, even as we understand our history and gain clarity about our history, that we’re not trapped by our history,” Obama said, while noting that United States has supported democratic reform in Chile for two decades. “So, I can’t speak to all of the policies of the past. I can speak certainly to the policies of the present and the future.”

Obama’s decision not to offer an explicit apology may have been aimed avoiding another round of criticism from Republicans at home, who have previously accused him of being on an “apology tour” during his past travels. They have cited remarks he made about the “arrogance” of past U.S. attitudes toward Europe and even some comments on Latin America, though none have appeared to be outright apologies.

During an Oval Office meeting with Pinera’s predecessor in 2009, Obama passed up a similar suggestion that he apologize for America’s backing of Pinochet and reported role in the murder of the country’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, whose left-leaning positions drew the ire of President Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger.

“I think that the United States has been an enormous force for good in the world. I think there have been times where we’ve made mistakes,” Obama said then. “But I think that what is important is looking at what our policies are today, and what my administration intends to do in cooperating with the region.”

At a briefing Monday for reporters traveling with Obama, the National Security Council point person for Latin America, Dan Restrepo, indicated that some U.S. actions in the region were “bad.” However, he declined a reporter’s suggestion to be more specific about the impact of U.S. backing for Chile’s brutal dictatorship.

“There are 34 countries in the Americas and … that time could cover 200 years. The U.S. has had a complicated history with different countries in the Western Hemisphere over the course of our independence,” Restrepo said. “So, if you had a long time, we could go through each country and whether the U.S. was good or bad in a particular decade or a particular century.”

In a speech Monday billed as Obama’s key address to the people of Latin America, he praised the region for moving away from its polarized past.

“Latin America is at peace. Civil wars have ended. Insurgencies have been pushed back. Old border disputes have been resolved,” Obama said.

“And just as old conflicts have receded, so too have the ideological battles that often fueled them — the old stale debates between state-run economies and unbridled capitalism; between the abuses of right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing insurgents; between those who believe that the United States causes all the region’s problems and those who believe that the United States ignores all the problems,” the U.S. president said.

“Those are false choices, and they don’t reflect today’s realities.”