INTRODUCTION

1. Following are a few quotations from the referenced article (1) which illustrates a typical Opus Dei pattern of assuming (2) control over entire countries. In this example the article refers to Chile, South America.

2. The M+G+R Foundation has made some commentaries which are deemed appropriate to clearly illustrate the point being made.

3. At the end, the reader will be able to access the original news report to confirm that the quotations were not out of context.


QUOTATIONS

"Juan Jaque, a Chilean newspaper vendor for the past 20 years, gestures impatiently to a newspaper hanging from his busy Santiago newsstand. 'We're sickening our minds with this stuff,' he says."

"Jaque is referring to El Mercurio, the country's oldest and most influential newspaper. "These are all a waste of time," he continues in disgust, pointing to the array of papers."


"Most are owned by two groups that have dominated Chile's print media for the past 30 years and that have strong ties to the country's conservative business elite."

"Jaque is not the only one who feels this way."


"Both were Chilean-owned and espoused editorial views in support of Pinochet's free-market economic policies and the social values of the most conservative wing of the Catholic Church." (5)

"The latest business that tried to challenge the top two -- IberoAmerican Media Holdings, owned by Venezuela's Cisneros Group -- failed miserably. After two troubled years in circulation, its daily newspaper El Metropolitano folded last month, snuffing out hopes by Chileans like Jaque and Sunkel that it would provide some fresh editorial input on the newsstands."


"Few details have emerged about El Metropolitano's collapse. But its demise was widely mourned as a loss for freedom of speech and democracy in Chile, where the traditional papers are seen as mouthpieces of business and right-wing political parties."

"The arrival of foreign companies would bring a great benefit because there's an ideological monopoly that is very conservative in the sense of being retrograde, Catholic, economic neoliberalism mixed with Opus Dei, basically everything that the military government was," said Sunkel, referring to Pinochet's iron-fisted rule between 1973 and 1990."


"But a diverse collection of new print and electronic outlets for writers of news and editorials is enabling Chileans to hear other voices."

"'Opus Gay' is the latest creation to hit the newsstands, poking fun at the ultra-conservative wing of the Roman Catholic Church Opus Dei, which has many members in Chile."

"While the small papers strive to introduce dissident opinions, the job of challenging El Mercurio and Copesa on business terms is left to bigger companies."

"Spanish media giant Grupo Prisa, owners of El Pais newspaper, is interested in buying La Nacion, according to Chilean media reports. Prisa confirmed to Reuters it aims to expand in Latin America but would not comment on specific plans."


Nobody knows for sure if and when Chile's newspaper empire will crumble but all agree on one thing, the change will be welcome.










En Español:  El poder del Opus Dei - Muy temporal - Las razones

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