So Chilean President Sebastián Piñera, in Rio de Janeiro for the summit on sustainable development, is giving an interview to the BBC’s Spanish-language service when correspondent Gerardo Lissardy tries to ask him a final question about the Pinochet film screening/tribute held in Santiago earlier this month.
At that point Piñera’s press secretary Constanza Cea places herself in front of the camera and declares the interview to be over, saying they were out of time. Not only that, but she places her hand over the camera lens and the audio plug is pulled, and Piñera ends up looking like an apologist for the dictatorship.
“Chilean Declines to Answer Pinochet Question,” reads the headline on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18551391
And the incident hits the headlines in Chile and elsewhere. “If I was her boss, I’d fire her,” a furious Chilean colleague e-mailed me.
Notes on the Americas 