Missing (1982), is based on a true story about an American journalist who simply vanished during the Chilean Pinochet coup of 1973.
There has been some considerable debate about the U.S. government and their purposes in other countries. What comes out within the structure of this particular film is that what is good for the 'nation' is not always good for the 'people'. In this particular for instance, the good of the nation is the prevention of communism and Marxist regimes, especially in the Western hemisphere. The good of the 'people' was put to the test when Charles Horman found out too much and was silenced.
Historically, facts have shown that the American government did, in deed, support the coup against the Allende regime and that this support of Pinochet resulted strictly from Allende's favor of communist belief systems. Unfortunately, the human rights record of the Pinochet regime was not very good. But what becomes even sadder is the fact that the US government turned its back on an American citizen who died at the hands of that regime. No government regime, communist or otherwise dictatorial or free is worthy of American support at the expense of human rights.
This is an interesting lesson and one that few Americans pay heed. Just now we are in a position of helping a regime (the Northern Alliance) in Afghanistan who was put in power after our decision to support a previous regime (the Taliban) backfired and resulted in the largest scope of human rights violations, especially against women, in history.
Another note that most Americans take for granted is that they somehow have the same bill of rights in another country as they do here. When one travels within a foreign nation, especially one with a military dictatorship in power, and forges an alliance with those who are not government sympathizers, they must expect to pay the consequences of their subversive and treasonous (within that country) ac...