Councillor SAM WHEELER says there’s a tangible shift in mood on the left in the city whose mayor has recently become PM — but there’s no room for complacency
IF THERE are over 150 of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s military personnel now languishing in prison, it is largely due to the ceaseless and determined work of Chile’s foremost human rights lawyer, Eduardo Contreras, who has just died in Santiago aged 84.
My companero Ricardo and I have been friends with Eduardo since we first met in his native city, Chillan, in 1969. Then a young lawyer, Eduardo had already been elected a municipal councillor representing the Communist Party of Chile.
It was the year before the historic victory of Socialist Salvador Allende, who was elected Chile’s president in September 1970, leading an alliance of socialist and progressive parties called Popular Unity (PU).
19.01.1930-23.04.2026
Kate Clark pays tribute to Ricardo, whose life spanned the hopes of Allende’s Chile, the horrors of military dictatorship and decades of campaigning for justice in exile
Far-right forces are rising across Latin America and the Caribbean, armed with a common agenda of anti-communism, the culture war, and neoliberal economics, writes VIJAY PRASHAD
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died 50 years ago today November 20. JIM JUMP looks back at his blood-soaked rule and toxic legacy on Spain today



