Chile inherited from the dictatorship a voucher system under which the government pays money to the school of the parents' choice.
In the eyes of many here, the downfall and execution of Mr. Ceausescu merely removed the leader of the old Communist Bloc's most intrusive dictatorship, leaving the system beneath largely intact.
In a dictatorship, or any system of repression, there is an ascending, or perhaps descending order of moral culpablity and responsability; the higher up you go, the more responsible, in my view.
It is time to examine in measured fashion what can be done to re-balance our "imbalanced constitution"; to move from our "elective dictatorship" to a system where it is recognised that all actors in the constitution (including the fourth estate, pressure groups and individuals), have roles to play in advancing the cause of liberty.
General Tohamy, as recent investigations reveal, was central to the old dictatorship's corrupt system and brutal enforcement.
Although this young democracy has been vibrant since the end of the dictatorship in 1985, the system is entwined with social inequality, impunity and rampant corruption.
The worse episodes of state violence in the 20th century also remain shrouded in official silence, chief among them are the crimes committed by Brazil's military dictatorship, which ran a system of torture and selective assassinations from 1964 to 1985.
Habré consolidated his dictatorship through a power system that relied on corruption and violence with thousands of people estimated to have been killed under his rule.
Criticizing the PRI by name, he commented, "I don't believe that there has been in Latin America any case of a system of dictatorship which has so efficiently recruited the intellectual milieu, bribing it with great subtlety".
