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THE ARTICLE

Former Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet is once again under house arrest, and being charged with heinous crimes, this time in his native Chile. The leader who ruled Chile with an iron fist in his 1974 to 1990 regime has previously escaped many attempts at bringing him to justice. He has been accused of a litany of murders, torture and human rights abuses but has always escaped trial claiming mental problems and old age as excuses. The present judge, however, deems him fit to face prosecution. This time round he is indicted over the disappearance of nine opposition leaders and murder, as well as tax fraud charges and money-laundering.

In 2000 Pinochet was accused of the Caravan of Death case and the deaths of more than 70 political prisoners. More than 3,000 people died and 28,000 people were tortured during his dictatorial rule. He is still hailed as a great ‘friend’ of Great Britain by ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Chile under Pinochet supported Britain in the Falklands (Malvinas) War against Argentina. The Chilean government’s chief prosecutor, Clara Szaranski, said, “It's the road to the rule of law, where responsibility is attributed to these grave acts.” Viviana Diaz, a human rights activist, said, “This is great news for all those Chileans who do not accept impunity in the violations of human rights.”

WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about Chile / Pinochet / the Disappeared / human rights abuses / Margaret Thatcher / …
To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. WORLD VILLAINS: History is full of despots and brutal dictators. Depending on the cultural make-up of your class, choose from the following for students to talk about:
- Adolf Hitler (Nazi Germany)
- Josef Stalin (former Soviet Union)
- Manuel Noriega (Panama)
- Idi Amin (Uganda)
- Francesco Franco (Spain)
- Pol Pot (Cambodia)
- Benito Mussolini (Italy)
- Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)
- Saddam Hussein (Iraq)
- Mao Zedong (China)
- Others?

3. PINOCHET BRAINSTORM: Ask students for facts / feelings / opinions on the General Augusto Pinochet. Students talk about these in pairs.

4. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept:
Pinochet should stand trial. vs. He’s too old.
Dictators should receive fast-track justice. vs Even dictators deserve the same human rights as others.
Margaret Thatcher has blackened the image of the UK for befriending Pinochet. vs She’s a fine woman.
Pinochet should die for his crimes. vs. The death penalty is wrong.
The families of the murdered and missing should decide his punishment. vs. We should not be encouraging kangaroo courts.
Dictators always escape justice. vs. Things are changing.

PRE-READING IDEAS


 
 

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘trial’, and ‘arrest’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:
(a)  General Augusto Pinochet was once president of Chile.  T / F
(b)  He has been accused of heinous crimes against humanity. T / F
(c)  He has been in prison many many times.  T / F
(d)  He has been indicted over the disappearance of nine opposition leaders and murder.  T / F
(e)  More than 3,000 people died and 28,000 people were tortured during his dictatorial rule..  T / F
(f)  Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher hates him.  T / F
(g)  Pinochet supported Britain in the Falklands (Malvinas) War against Argentina.  T / F
(h)  This is great news for most Chileans.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)

former

homeland

(b)

heinous

thinks / considers

(c)

native

abuses

(d)

iron fist

very very serious

(e)

deems

saluted

(f)

fraud

ex

(g)

dictatorial

cheating

(h)

hailed

brutal force

(i)

grave

incredibly wicked

(j)

violations

repressive

4. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)

former

arrest

(b)

under

prisoners

(c)

house

arrest

(d)

heinous

of murders

(e)

a litany

human rights

(f)

human rights

president

(g)

mental

as

(h)

political

abuses

(i)

dictatorial

crimes

(j)

hailed

acts

(k)

grave

rule

(l)

violations of

problems

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

Pinochet indicted for murder

Former Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet is __________ again under house arrest, and being charged with heinous crimes, this __________ in his native Chile. The leader who ruled Chile with an iron fist in his 1974 to 1990 regime has previously escaped __________ attempts at bringing him to justice. He has been accused of a litany of murders, torture and human rights abuses but has always escaped trial claiming mental problems and old age __________ excuses. The present judge, however, deems him fit to face prosecution. This time round he is indicted __________ the disappearance of nine opposition leaders and murder, as well as tax fraud charges and money-laundering.
 

 

as
once
over
many
time

In 2000 Pinochet was __________ of the Caravan of Death case and the deaths of more than 70 political prisoners. More than 3,000 people __________ and 28,000 people were __________ during his dictatorial rule. He is still hailed as a great ‘friend’ of Great Britain by ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Chile under Pinochet __________ Britain in the Falklands (Malvinas) War against Argentina. The Chilean government’s chief prosecutor, Clara Szaranski, said, “It's the road to the rule of law, where responsibility is __________ to these grave acts.” Viviana Diaz, a human rights activist, said, “This is great news for all those Chileans who do not accept impunity in the violations of human rights.”

 

accused
attributed
died
supported
tortured

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

4. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

5. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.
5. ‘TRIAL/ ARREST’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

6. HUMAN RIGHTS DISCUSSION:  Students think of two or three questions relating to human rights issues around the world. Teacher pools / corrects on board. Students discuss in groups, or circulate and discuss. As a follow-up students rank the human rights issues according to how heinous they are, and agree on and attribute a sentence to the perpetrators

7. IN THE DOCK:  Students (pairs / groups) choose one of the dictators from the list in the warmers and create a prosecution case against him. Present the case to the class, which discusses the merits of each and votes on the most convincing case.

8. 10-MINUTE DEBATES:  Students debate the points in the warmer section more comprehensively.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Augusto Pinochet. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. PINOCHET BIOGRAPHY: Create an information poster of the biography of Augusto Pinochet.

4. LETTER TO PINOCHET: Write a letter to former Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet telling him your opinion of his charges.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:
(a)  General Augusto Pinochet was once president of Chile.  T
(b)  He has been accused of heinous crimes against humanity. T
(c)  He has been in prison many many times.  F
(d)  He has been indicted over the disappearance of nine opposition leaders and murder.  T
(e)  More than 3,000 people died and 28,000 people were tortured during his dictatorial rule..  T
(f)  Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher hates him.  F
(g)  P inochet supported Britain in the Falklands (Malvinas) War against Argentina.  T
(h)  This is great news for most Chileans.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)

former

ex

(b)

heinous

incredibly wicked

(c)

native

homeland

(d)

iron fist

brutal force

(e)

deems

thinks / considers

(f)

fraud

cheating

(g)

dictatorial

repressive

(h)

hailed

saluted

(i)

grave

very very serious

(j)

violations

abuses

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)

former

president

(b)

under

arrest

(c)

house

arrest

(d)

heinous

crimes

(e)

a litany

of murders

(f)

human rights

abuses

(g)

mental

problems

(h)

political

prisoners

(i)

dictatorial

rule

(j)

hailed

as

(k)

grave

acts

(l)

violations of

human rights

 

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