Pinochet one of the greatest Chileans?

Fans of Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet line up to see his body after his death in Dec. 2006.

When the Chilean television network TVN was putting together a program celebrating the 10 greatest Chileans in history, a dilemma immediately arose.

Without a doubt, the most influential Chilean of the late-20th century if not the entire 20th century was Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who oversaw a brutal 1973-1990 dictatorship that claimed more than 3,000 victims.

Despite the horrors, Pinochet helped shape what is modern Chile, which enjoys one of Latin America's most successful economies and is regularly held up as a model of good government for the region. As the public outpouring of adoration after his 2006 death showed, Pinochet still has plenty of admirers here, although their numbers are dwindling.

So the question was: Should Pinochet be included in the list?

TVN decided against it. A committee of historians, scientists and artists put together a first cut list of 60 people and then asked teachers and students all over the country to vote for the 10 greats. Pinochet didn't even make the first cut much less the top 10.

After the program airs documentaries about each of the top 10, viewers will vote for the greatest Chilean.

The final 10 included such leftist legends as socialist President Salvador Allende, whom Pinochet ousted when he took power in 1973, and folk singer Victor Jara, whom the regime executed. Also included are obvious greats such as Nobel Prize-winning poets Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda and folk singer Violeta Parra.

The Pinochet omission has drawn protest from critics, who say Chileans deserved at least a chance to vote for the dictator if they wanted to.

"They avoided 'by committee' the possibility that the authoritarianism of the masses would rush to their computers and vote in favor of Pinochet," wrote historian Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt in a column for the newspaper La Tercera. "The final list, nevertheless, came out slanted toward a certain politically correct leftism."

Recently, a similar poll conducted in Russia resulted in dictator Joseph Stalin being named the greatest Russian in history.

Just Pinochet making the top 10 would have created uncomfortable ripples. What if he was chosen as the greatest? Controversial, yes, but it would have made for very interesting television.