After months of activism from people like you, President Obama announced in his State of the Union speech the creation of a new task force to investigate and hold banks accountable for causing the foreclosure crisis and financial meltdown.

The task force will have five co-chairs, one of whom is New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a progressive hero who has worked tirelessly to hold the Wall Street banks accountable for their crimes.

CREDO joined other groups in calling on President Obama to announce an investigation into the mortgage fraud that led to the economic collapse.

And we are heartened that the President of the United States responded to this grassroots pressure with such a high-profile mention in his State of the Union address.

This is especially remarkable when some were speculating that the president might use the address to announce a deal with the mortgage servicers that would grant the Wall Street banks immunity from prosecution of crimes that have not yet been investigated.

Given the White House’s abysmal record on holding Wall Street accountable, President Obama’s State of the Union announcement was so extraordinary that many of our allies in the progressive movement have declared victory.

We certainly hope they’re right, but from our perspective it is still too soon to know whether this will lead to the kind of meaningful justice the American people both need and deserve.

One of the greatest sources of potential good in the creation of this task force comes from the inclusion of New York Attorney General Schneiderman, who has been at the forefront of bank accountability fights, as one of its five co-chairs.

Yet aside from Attorney General Schneiderman, none of the other co-chairs has done literally anything that achieves our goal of holding banks accountable or prosecuting bankers for criminal activity.

What’s more, the task force won’t be independent but will be housed in the Justice Department’s Financial Fraud Task Force which President Obama established in 2009 “to hold accountable those who helped bring about the last financial crisis.” That earlier task force has failed to prosecute a single banker in conjunction with the mortgage crisis or hold Wall Street accountable in any kind of meaningful way.

It’s also concerning that three of Schneiderman’s four co-chairs are already members of the current, failed task force at the Department of Justice.1 This means they will have to start behaving very differently if this new task force will follow through on the president’s promise of a real investigation.

Time will tell whether Attorney General Schneiderman will be empowered to aggressively leverage the authority and investigatory resources of the federal government to hold banks accountable, or if his inclusion will serve as a little more than a symbolic ploy in an attempt to quiet the restive base that has reacted with outrage at the lack of accountability for Wall Street’s crimes.

We expect Attorney General Schneiderman will push very, very hard to make the work of the task force a meaningful step toward the prosecutions that have shamefully been missing from any federal action on Wall Street accountability in the last three years.

If Attorney General Schneiderman is able get his fellow co-chairs on board and launch investigations with teeth from his perch within the Department of Justice, this will be a good development indeed.

And we have no doubt that if Attorney General Schneiderman is muzzled in Washington, DC he will simply return to New York, where he can use subpoenas and his powers under the Martin Act to investigate and then prosecute. This is exactly what he did to help scuttle the terrible 50-state deal with the banks pushed by the Obama administration, as did several other Attorneys General, including California’s Kamala Harris and Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto.

All that said, we still need to make sure that the Obama administration doesn’t close the door on accountability for foreclosure fraud even while it opens the door to investigate other kinds of misdeeds by Wall Street.

This is particularly important given the news over the weekend that a terrible settlement deal with mortgage servicers is closer than ever.

The robo-signing scandal is just the tip of the iceberg. It simply makes no sense for anyone to settle with the largest banks over foreclosure fraud when there has yet to be a full investigation despite what Reuters called “copious evidence” of “widespread forgery, perjury, obstruction of justice, and illegal foreclosures….” 2

Six months ago many people thought that this kind of mortgage servicer settlement was a done deal, and that in addition to letting the banks off the hook for fraud and misdeeds when servicing mortgages, the banks would also be given immunity for precisely the behavior President Obama has tasked this new task force with investigating.

Not a single Wall Street banker has gone to jail for crimes related to the mortgage servicing scandal or the financial meltdown. But thanks to your activism, we have thus far stopped the federal government and state attorneys general from giving a sweetheart deal to banks that lets them off the hook for massive amounts of mortgage and foreclosure fraud.

We will continue to fight together to bring Wall Street criminals to justice.

In the wake of the State of the Union we celebrate your activism and its continuing impact on the White House. When there are indictments we will celebrate victory.

Until then here are five things you can do to bring justice to Wall Street.

Tell New York Attorney Eric Schneiderman: Indict Wall Street criminals immediately and we will have your back.
Thank California Attorney General Kamala Harris for continuing to help block a bad 50-state settlement.
Tell your State Attorney General not to accept any settlement with the Wall Street banks that grants them immunity for crimes not yet investigated.
Tell House Democrats: Co-Sponsor the Baldwin resolution and go on the record opposing any deal that would grant mortgage servicers criminal or civil immunity for potential wrongdoing related to illegal mortgage and foreclosure practices.
Tell President Obama: Stop pressuring the state attorneys general to cut a sweetheart deal with the banks.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

1. “There’s Already a Financial Fraud Task Force,” David Dayen, FDL News Desk, 01-25-12.
2. “U.S. AG Eric Holder, DoJ Head Lanny Breuer Linked To Banks Accused Of Foreclosure Fraud ,” Scot J. Paltrow, Reuters, 01-19-12.

Lyubou Kavalyova is living a mother’s worst nightmare — in November, her son was sentenced to death for participating in a terrorist attack in Belarus, based only on a confession allegedly obtained by torture.

Now, Lyubou and a growing movement of people across Europe are racing against the clock (and dodging Belarussian intelligence) to save her son, Uladzislau Kavalyova, and his friend Dzmitry Kanavalau from being put to death for a crime that 88% of Belarussians — and even victims of the attack — believe they did not commit.

As part of her tireless campaign, Lyubou started a petition on Change.org to the Belarussian government and European officials — and the reaction has been stunning.

Almost 20,000 people have signed Lyubou’s petition, prompting officials from the European Council and the Parliament of Europe to meet with her and join her campaign. As the international pressure grows, so does the possibility of Europe’s highest offices intervening to tell Belarus to stay the executions. Click here to sign Lyubou’s petition now and demand that European officials intervene to save Lyubou’s son and his friend from potentially wrongful execution in Belarus.

The clock is ticking: Uladzislau Kavalyova and Dzmitry Kanavalau could be killed at any moment. Belarus executed two men in 2010 without informing their families of the time and method of their executions. And their bodies were never returned to their families.

But Uladzislau and Dzmitry’s case has been an explosive news story in Belarus, Russia and other parts of Europe, garnering overwhelming public support to save them. Since Belarus is the last country in Europe with the death penalty, growing global outcry could make Uladzislau and Dzmitry’s fate a European issue, and put the brakes on their execution.

Lyubou’s heart is breaking, but she’s willing to sacrifice everything to save her son. “Even the victims of the attack believe that these two boys are innocent and should not be murdered,” she has said. “But if they want more blood, I want them to send me to death instead of my innocent son; I have lived enough.”

Click here to sign Lyubou’s petition to save the lives of two men, including her son, from being executed by the Belarussian government because of a confession obtained by torture.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

- Weldon and the Change.org team

Racial Jeopardy and American Politics

During a roundtable chat with a group of emerging young evangelical leaders recently, someone posed the question: “Has America become a post racial society?”

Well, we haven’t had a race riot in a while — does that mean race isn’t relevant anymore?

A black president just gave the State of the Union Address. How about that? Does that mean America’s OK with the race thing?

Our nation is a more ethnically diverse nation than it has ever been. Does that count for anything?

Scholars across disciplines agree that what we think of as “race” literally was invented here in the 17th century to delineate castes within a system of extreme privilege and subjugation.

So, rather than thinking about the dreaded word, “racism,” to answer the question, perhaps it would be more helpful to think about how our society has been “racialized” and then ask if such a racialization still exists or reverberates in today’s American culture.

In 1662, the Virginia legislature declared that children born to enslaved women would be slaves “in perpetuity” (a.k.a. “forever”) no matter what the father’s race. It was the first law delineating legal difference in status between blacks and whites passed in the New World.

Before the Virginia law’s instatement, the status of a person had been based upon the status of the father. This new law made it possible for white slave masters and overseers to rape their female slaves and gain more “chattel” to work their land. In fact, the Virginia law created a new kind of permanent underclass — the black slave — to support a new kind of permanent nobility — the white American.

Our forbears mirrored England’s caste system, with its aristocracy and servant classes where privilege or subjugation was inherited by birthright or circumstance, with one crucial difference. In England, everyone was white, so blood lineage, rather than race, was the delineator.

America’s founding fathers believed that in our hallowed land, every man should be the king of his own castle, so-to-speak. Here every man is free and equal and able reap the benefit from the land, its resources, and representative democracy. Every man, that is, except the ones who were not white.

Just seven years after the end of the Revolutionary War, our forbears felt the need to clarify who could enjoy the ultimate privileges and protections of U.S. citizenship. Through the Naturalization Act of 1790, they made it clear. The privilege of citizenship was reserved for “white” people.

Yeah, yeah, Lisa, but that was like 220-something years ago. That doesn’t prove that racialization still exists in America today. Come on! We have a black president.

OK. Let’s play a game. It’s called “Racial Jeopardy.”

1) Name the year race-based slavery ended in the United States. What is 1865?

(Good! That’s right. It ended at the conclusion of the Civil War.)

2) Between 1865-1876, this number of African-Americans held elected office.

What is about 1500?

(Yes. Great! African-Americans experienced 11 years of absolute freedom after the Civil War and look what they were able to accomplish with total freedom — right after being enslaved for more than 200 years! There were black senators, representatives, judges, mayors, lieutenant governors — you name it.)

3)This is the year that state and local Jim Crow laws begin to clamp down on southern blacks’ ability to vote, move freely, receive education, or receive equal protection of the law.

What is 1876?

Good.

4) How many lynchings of black people happened between 1876 and the start of the Civil Rights movement in 1954?

What is 3,438?

(Yes.)

5) Now, this is the year that the Jim Crow system was outlawed in America.

Um … I don’t know.

(AAAARRRRNNNNKKK! Sorry. The answer we were looking for is, “What is 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was passed, or What is 1965, with the Voting Rights Act.)

6) So, how many years have African-Americans been actually free in the United States?

What is 47?

(Yup.)

Now answer this:

7) What two pieces of legislation are credited as having laid the foundation for the American middle class?

What are the Homestead Act of 1862 and the WWII GI Bill?

8) When the Homestead Act of 1862 was passed how much free land did folks get from the government? And who got it?

What is 160 acres? And who are white folks?

(Uh-huh.)

9) Who benefited from the GI Bill?

Who is everyone?

(AAAARRRRNNNNKKK! Technically, yes, everyone should have benefited equally from the GI Bill. And by 1956, 7.8 million World War II veterans had received free college education or training and 2.4 million were carrying home loans backed by the Veterans’ Administration. But the GI Bill was crafted it in such a way that it made it difficult for African-American GIs to take advantage of the benefits. So, the white middle class far out-paced the development of the African-American middle class.)

10) Has the United States ever sought to repair the damage done by more than two hundred years of institutionalized racialized slavery and one hundred years of racialized Jim Crow law?

What is “no”?

(Correct.)

As a result, the median wealth of white U.S. households in 2009 was $113,149, compared with $5,677 for blacks and $6,325 for Latinos, according to July 2011 data from the Pew Research Center.

As a result, at the height of the economic downturn, the poverty rate in the black community was 27 percent, compared with 9.9 percent for whites.

As a result, if you were to lay down a map of the nation’s most toxic or polluted land and lay on top of that a map of all the most black, Latino, and Native American communities in the country, you would find a nearly one-to-one correlation.

As a result, the United States incarcerates black men at a rate 6.6-times higher than that of white men.

So, my answer to the question of whether America has become a post-racial society is this: African-Americans have been completely free for just 47 years.

Our nation still has work to do. Race will continue to matter in the United States until we take active, structural steps to counter the more than 300 years of racialized politics and policies — more than 300 years of sin.

Lisa Sharon Harper is the Director of Mobilizing at Sojourners. She is also co-author of Left, Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics and author of Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican … or Democrat.

Newt Attacks Romney for Profiting Off Florida Foreclosures

http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/newt-gingrich-is-telling-the-truth/

This morning, Newt launched a new broadside against Mitt Romney, attacking him for personally profiting, via a Goldman Sachs investment, off mortgage lenders responsible for thousands of foreclosures in Florida.

The charges Newt is leveling against Romney stem from an exclusive item ThinkProgress broke yesterday. ThinkProgress’ Josh Israel explains:

A ThinkProgress examination of Mitt Romney’s presidential personal financial disclosures from May 2011 reveal that the former Massachusetts governor and his wife own or owned millions of dollars worth of a Goldman Sachs investment fund invested heavily in mortgage-backed obligations. And the current owners of those mortgage debts began foreclosure proceedings against thousands of Floridians.

Along with his investments in Bain Capital funds linked to offshore tax havens, the Romneys have large investments in the Goldman Sachs Strategic Income Fund (institutional class). The firm’s March 2011 annual report for the fund notes that about 8 percent of the fund is invested in banks and 24.5 percent is invested in mortgage-backed obligations. Romney’s form says he has invested between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000 in the fund and his wife Ann has invested an additional $1 million-plus. Since the 2008 economic meltdown and the enactment of the Troubled Asset Relief Fund, this fund has done quite well, growing 7.88 percent between April 2010 and March 2011.

The mortgage-backed securities in the fund include adjustable rate mortgages from Bear Stearns, Countrywide, IndyMac, and Washington Mutual. A 2009 Center for Public Integrity report identified all four of those companies as among the top-25 subprime lenders in the lead-up to the market’s collapse. Countrywide ranked first in that report and Washington Mutual ranked second. While the remnants of those companies have been purchased by major financial institutions, an array of mortgage loan service companies bought up the individual mortgages.

An examination of civil cases filed in Miami-Dade county alone, by just the current owners of the mortgage obligations for now-defunct Washington Mutual and Countrywide, suggests more than 5,000 foreclosure cases were filed in 2010.

And Miami-Dade makes up only about 13 percent of the Florida population, suggesting that these and the other owners mortgage-backed securities included in this fund likely have attempted to foreclose on tens of thousands of Floridians.

A review of Romney’s August 2007 financial disclosure for his 2008 campaign reveals no mention of the Goldman Sachs Strategic Income Fund, suggesting the investment was made at some point between the two campaigns.

The funds are identified on the disclosure form as technically being in a “blind trust,” but now that he has publicly disclosed these assets, the trust is no longer functionally “blind.” The trustee for the trust, R. Bradlford Malt, said this week that he dropped some other Romney investments that conflicted with the Republican Party’s values.

In October, Romney suggested that the solution to the foreclosure crisis was “don’t try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.” While that process is bad for Florida homeowners, these investments show it may have been good for the Romneys.

The Romney campaign responded with a single word: “Wow,” and then leveled their now familiar (and tired) charge that this is an attack on the “free enterprise system.” Tellingly, the Romney campaign did not deny the substance of the allegations — that Romney personally profited, via a Goldman Sachs investment, in mortgage lenders responsible for thousands of foreclosures in Florida.

As we’ve said before: we’re not attacking the free enterprise system. We’re not attacking capitalism. We are attacking a broken economy where the game is rigged in favor of a privileged few at the expense of everyone else.

Instead of an economy where someone can amass a quarter-billion dollar fortune — on which they pay a lower tax rate than middle class workers — by laying off workers, bankrupting companies, and foreclosing on homes, we need an economy that works for everyone.

Burma: The Time is Right to Expand Humanitarian Space

By Refugees International

A man stands in his home in Burma.

Refugees International traveled to Burma this past November/December. The team was there to assess the serious humanitarian needs facing Burma as it continues its historic political transition to civilian administration. Currently, Burma is experiencing a wave of reforms brought on by significant political shifts. There are positive signs that the country is moving toward a more peaceful future. Still, those living far from Yangon are much more cautious in their optimism after almost 50 years of heavy-handed military rule. As ceasefires are hammered out with the Karen and Chin rebel groups, conflict continues to force tens of thousands from their homes in regions such as Kachin state. RI is calling on the international community to provide an increase in humanitarian aid inside Burma, and for the Burmese government to reach out to all groups to find a peaceful solution to ethnic conflicts.

Learn more about RI’s findings and recommendations in our latest field report and photo report.
Read the Guardian article about lifting sanctions on Burma for increased humanitarian aid.
Read Lynn Yoshikawa’s blog post Burma: Unraveling the paradox on The Hill.

By Rob Kall

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Forget-SOPA-and-PIPA-Obam-by-Rob-Kall-120127-788.html

Congress has handed President Obama more executive branch power, further damaging the “balance of power” that protects Democracy. This time he’s signed ACTA, an international treaty that could make the worst fears about SOPA and PIPA seem minor.

::::::::

Here’s how the system works: There’s a bill that big corporations want — the corporations that pay for the TV ads that win elections. The voters don’t want the bill to pass. What’s a corporatist congressman or senator to do? The answer, again and again in recent decades, has been to punt and let the president make the decision — by grabbing power that should have been held by congress.

This time, President Obama has done it with the issue of protecting intellectual property rights on the internet. He signed an international treaty, ACTA, in October 2011 as an “Executive Agreement” rather than having it authorized by congress as a binding agreement, which, by law, must be approved by congress. Techdirt discusses this at length.

Last fall, after President Obama signed the US on to the act, Senator Ron Wyden wrote a letter protesting the signing. The letter said …

Asking why the administration believes the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) does not require Congress’s formal approval. According to legal experts, cited by Wyden, if the USTR ratifies ACTA without Congress’ consent it may be circumventing Congress’s Constitutional authority to regulate international commerce and protect intellectual property and would therefore represent a significant expansion of the executive branch’s authority over international agreements.

“It may be possible for the U.S. to implement ACTA or any other trade agreement, once validly entered, without legislation if the agreement requires no change in U.S. law,” Wyden writes.”But regardless of whether the agreement requires changes in U.S. law”the executive branch lacks constitutional authority to enter a binding international agreement covering issues delegated by the Constitution to Congress’ authority, absent congressional approval.”

ACTA makes SOPA and PIPA look like small problems. It allows the most repressive nations to demand that internet service providers (ISPs) remove content or even whole websites on demand. Picture China demanding removal of a website criticizing some policy or action. Google was just about shut down in China in response to Chinese demands. Imagine if China could have the same chilling effect in the US and the rest of the world.

The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) opposes ACTA, saying,

“ACTA is being negotiated by a select group of industrialized countries outside of existing international multilateral venues for creating new IP norms such as the World Intellectual Property Organization and (since TRIPs) the World Trade Organization. Both civil society and developing countries are intentionally being excluded from these negotiations. While the existing international fora provide (at least to some extent) room for a range of views to be heard and addressed no such checks and balances will influence the outcome of the ACTA negotiations.”

and

“…the same industry rightsholder groups that support the creation of ACTA have also called for mandatory network-level filtering by Internet Service Providers and for Internet Service Providers to terminate citizens’ Internet connection on repeat allegation of copyright infringement (the “Three Strikes” /Graduated Response).”

The EFF expresses concern that since ACT will be tied to organizations associated with the World Trade Organization (WTO) then for all countries that become signatories to the WTO or other free trade agreements, “accession to and implementation of ACTA by developing countries will be a condition imposed in future free trade agreements.”

This Opednews.com article reveals more problems with ACTA, here is a small portion of the issues the article lists:

* Civil society groups and developing countries excluded from discussion during ACTA’s development, a classic example of policy laundering.

* The treaty will restrict fundamental civil and digital rights.

* The negotiations were classified as secret in the US on the grounds of “damage to the national security.”

* Apart from the participating governments, an advisory committee of large US-based multinational corporations was consulted on the content of the draft treaty.

* The treaty calls for the creation of a committee to make amendments, for which public or judicial review are not required.

* Industry representatives may have “consultatory input” to amendments.

Yesterday, 22 EU Countries — most of the European Union, ratified ACTA.

flickr image By Unia Polityki Realnej

The Poles have yet to ratify the agreement. Polish protesters have taken to the streets in protest.

screenshot from RT TV of Polish street Protests of ACTA

Now, the White House is asking the senate to ratify the agreement.

It will be a lot easier for the Senate to ratify and accept ACTA as already done deal as an executive agreement, than to pass SOPA and PIPA. That may actually satisfy the big Media firms that have been lobbying for its passage and even threatening to stop donating to Obama if he blocks it.

But if the Senate does ratify the agreement, avoiding lobbyist and constituent ire, it will be handing over more power to the Executive branch, further weakening the balance of powers established by the constitution, setting further precedent that reduces true democracy in America.

Last week, Wikipedia, Google and many other websites took a stand in opposition to SOPA and PIPA. Unless a similar stand is taken, educating the public on ACTA, it is likely that the senate will slip ratification in on some low media visibility late Friday afternoon, or during a day of high media activity that draws attention away from it.

The next sign of ACTA will be when the Justice Department, responding to a DEMAND by China or some other signatory to ACTA, shuts down a website or forces it to pull an article critical of that country, or of some group in that country — maybe settlers in Israel or an Islamic group in Malaysia.

It’ll be too late then.

This is not just about ACTA. It’s about the continuing pattern of congressional cowardice — of members of congress allowing, even handing over to the Executive Branch, powers that should be retained and protected by congress. We’ve seen it with the Libyan war, the rights of corporations related to corporate personhood, and in countless other examples where Bush and Obama used signing statements to neutralize the will of congress — of the people’s elected officials. It’s time for this to stop.

For more details, check this out…

Submitters Bio:

Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com

With his experience as architect and founder of a technorati top 100 blog, he is also a new media / social media consultant and trainer for corporations, non-profits, entrepreneurs and authors.

Rob is a frequent Speaker on the bottom up revolution, politics, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero’s journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates, and optimizing tapping the power of new media. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
To learn more about me and OpEdNews.com, check out this article.
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To Watch me on youtube, having a lively conversation with John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here Now, wouldn’t you like to see me on the political news shows, representing progressives. If so, tell your favorite shows to bring me on and refer them to this youtube video

My radio show, The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show, runs 9-10 PM EST Wednesday evenings, on AM 1360, WNJC and is archived at www.opednews.com/podcasts Or listen to it streaming, live at www.wnjc1360.com

Rob also host a health/mind/body/heart/spirit radio show– the Rob Kall Futurehealth radio show. Check out podcasts from it at futurehealth.org/podcasts

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A few declarations.
-While I’m registered as a Democrat, I consider myself to be a dynamic critic of the Democratic party, just as, well, not quite as much, but almost as much as I am a critic of republicans.

-My articles express my personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.

Recent press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party’s Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table

Unlike the Keystone XL Pipeline, increasing fuel efficiency standards for American cars is a crucial way to reduce our dependence on oil.

President Obama announced a major increase in these standards last year — after significant public pressure, including from over 50,000 CREDO Activists. Now we need to make sure the 54.5 mpg standard is implemented fully.

The Obama Administration is currently accepting comments on the plan and our friends at Save Our Environment are working to build a significant show of support. Please read their message below and submit a comment to protect strong fuel efficiency standards now.

-Elijah Zarlin, CREDO Action

Tell the EPA & DOT: I Want 54.5 MPG!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/27/efrain-rios-montt-genocide-trial

Efraín Ríos Montt: Guatemala human rights groups welcome genocide trial

Judge rules that Guatemala’s former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt must face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity

by Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent guardian.co.uk,

Human rights groups celebrated on Friday after a court in Guatemala ruled that the former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who presided over one of Latin America’s bloodiest civil wars, will face trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile in Chile, in a further sign of the region’s grappling with its authoritarian past, the government decided to resume using the term “dictatorship” when referring to Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 rule. Late last year Sebastian Piñera’s centre-right administration caused controversy by amending the term to “military regime” in textbooks. It backtracked after being accused of trying to veil history.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/archbishop.pays.tribute.on.holocaust.memorial.day/29221.htm