Castro or Pinochet: Worse Dictator?

[TDAS04]

Who was the worse dictator?

[DavidB.]

Pinochet (normal)

[mencken]

Pinochet (normal)

Did you read the question?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Pinochet (normal)

Did you read the question?

No, and sadly, neither did I.

The answer to the poll question is obviously Pinochet.

[TDAS04]

Pinochet (normal)

Did you read the question?

No, and sadly, neither did I.

The answer to the poll question is obviously Pinochet.

At least your votes cancel each other out.   I better include the question in the thread title.

[DavidB.]

Pinochet (normal)

Did you read the question?

As you all guessed, I didn't I accidentally voted Pinochet, but then the answer's Castro, even though it's not really the opposite of the question I thought it was.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Castro

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Seeing as Castro almost started a nuclear war, I say he's the worst of the two.

[Clark Kent]

Definitely Castro.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Both are brutal, disgusting tyrants. However, Pinochet was defeated for re-election and left. The Castro regime has suppressed democracy for decades. So Castro is clearly worse.

[Boston Bread]

Pinochet gave up power eventually, so that would make Castro worse.

[Bigby]

Castro, easily.

[ElectionsGuy]

Castro, easily.

[warandwar]

Both are brutal, disgusting tyrants. However, Pinochet was defeated for re-election and left. The Castro regime has suppressed democracy for decades. So Castro is clearly worse.

Pinochet did not want to leave. He was forced out after others decided that falsifying the election results wouldn't end well for anyone related to the regime.

[SWE]

Pinochet (correct)

[Lumine]

Castro.

[Arturo Belano]

Pinochet (correct)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Castro, but it was pretty close.

[Murica!]

Pinochet(doesn't think that castrated corpses with their dicks in their mouths is normal)

[buritobr]

Fidel Castro took the power after defeating Fulgencio Batista, another dictator.
Augusto Pinochet took the power after a coup d'stat against the democratic elected government of Salvador Allende

Fidel Castro faced the Invasion of Pig Bay
Augusto Pinochet did not face this kind of threat

There were many people executed in Cuba after having beeing condemned, and this is very bad. But unlike Pinochet regime, Castro regime never dissapeared people by throwing them from airplanes to the ocean.

So, I think Pinochet was worse.

[DavidB.]

Pinochet(doesn't think that castrated corpses with their dicks in their mouths is normal)

Would you have a problem with that if the victims were powerful "capitalists" instead of socialists? As a communist, you really can't take the moral highground on this.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Both are brutal, disgusting tyrants. However, Pinochet was defeated for re-election and left. The Castro regime has suppressed democracy for decades. So Castro is clearly worse.

Pinochet did not want to leave. He was forced out after others decided that falsifying the election results wouldn't end well for anyone related to the regime.

Of course he didn't want to leave. No one ever wants to leave. Fact remains that he didn't tighten his grip on the country's neck enough to stop it from happening.

Pinochet may have been the more brutal of the two - Castro seems more fond of disappearing people into prison for life than public executions - but there's still no question that when you compare Castro's 50 years to Pinochet's 12, more people have suffered under Castro.

[buritobr]

I am very happy because, until now, noboody wrote that the Chicago Boys saved Chilean economy.

[Jacobtm]

These are Latin America's best two leaders in the modern era.

In their own ways, Cuba and Chile have overcome many of the issues that continue to plague the rest of Latin America.

First of all, you can look at the UN's measure the Human Development Index, and not that Chile and Cuba are currently the top two Latin American countries by this measure.

In Cuba they have eliminated a lot of the extreme poverty that is all too common without Latin America. Obviously they aren't doing great by American standards but the amount of people who are absolutely destitute is miniscule compared to any other Latin American country. The AIDs rate there is the lowest in the Caribbean, lower than the U.S., thanks to Castro's prompt quarantining of anyone with HIV in Cuba. Infant mortality in Cuba is famously lower than in the U.S. The homicide rate in Cuba is lower than that of the U.S. as well.

Chile is the opposite, they are the most prosperous country in Latin America, and very safe as well. Their homicide rate is right on par with the U.S. Their HDI is the highest in Latin America, and since Pinochet their country has been remarkably stable and easily the best place to live in South America.

Here are some comparisons:

Homicide rate per 100,000:

Cuba: 4.2
U.S.: 4.7
Chile: 3.1
Argentina: 5.5
Costa Rica: 8.5
Peru: 9.6
Panama: 17.5
Dominican Republic: 22.1

The fact that most people think these two men deserve scorn shows a real lack of caring about outcomes of governance. Both of these men were NOT democrats and provided better results for their countries than corrupt Latin American democratic government has provided practically anywhere.

[PJ]

Both are brutal, disgusting tyrants. However, Pinochet was defeated for re-election and left. The Castro regime has suppressed democracy for decades. So Castro is clearly worse.

Pinochet did not want to leave. He was forced out after others decided that falsifying the election results wouldn't end well for anyone related to the regime.

Of course he didn't want to leave. No one ever wants to leave. Fact remains that he didn't tighten his grip on the country's neck enough to stop it from happening.

Pinochet may have been the more brutal of the two - Castro seems more fond of disappearing people into prison for life than public executions - but there's still no question that when you compare Castro's 50 years to Pinochet's 12, more people have suffered under Castro.

The need to compare dictators being odd in and of itself, it doesn't make sense to base which one was worse off of body counts. Context matters.