Last week, we asked which “football miracle” was credited to the 2013 election of Jorge Bergoglio as pope. All respondents picked Argentina’s 2015 Copa América title … but Argentina didn’t win the Copa América that year, losing to Chile in the final, on penalties.
The correct answer is more personal: Pope Francis’ beloved San Lorenzo won its first-ever Copa Libertadores in 2014 — a triumph that fans jokingly attributed to divine intervention.
IN THIS ISSUE
Matthei tries, but fails, to lure the far right
Evelyn Matthei during her 2013 campaign, when she lost a runoff to center-left former President Michelle Bachelet. Photo: Flickr
Center-right presidential hopeful Evelyn Matthei shook Chile’s electoral race by downplaying the crimes of General Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 military dictatorship.
In her words. In an interview, Matthei said that Pinochet’s coup, which led to the death of democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende, was “necessary” because “otherwise, [Chile] would have gone the way of Cuba.”
“At the start, in 1973 and 1974, it was inevitable to have deaths, because we were in a civil war. By 1978 or 1982, when these things kept happening, then no,” the candidate added.
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