Chile Changes Textbook Terminology

Chile’s National Education Council has triggered a political row, announcing a decision to change the way school textbooks refer to the military rule of General Augusto Pinochet from ‘dictatorship’ to ‘regime’.

More than 3,000 Chileans were killed or disappeared under Pinochet’s rule which lasted from 1973 – 1990.

The center-right government has defended the move, saying they were not directly involved in the decision, but approve of the use of a ‘more general term such as military regime.’

The left wing opposition has called the change an attempt to ‘whitewash history.’

‘History cannot be changed by a decree or a law,’ said former President Eduardo Frei, who led Chile from 1994-2000. ‘There is only one history and it is clear: it was a dictatorship, full stop.’