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Yes. It was terrible there. It was terrible in France. It was terrible in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was terrible in the Soviet Union. It was terrible in Red China. It was terrible enough in Cambodia to push the Nazis down to second place, which is not an easy feat.
Because that's the best-known example in the English-speaking world, and where someone realised how badly that kind of paranoia-spiral always ends up and wrote a memorable poem about it; the poem can be applied to many nations and ages.
For those who have negative associations with that poem from its usage by hypocritical Blue-Tribers ignoring that it can also apply in the other direction (First they came for the anti-vaxers, but I Trusted The Science, so I stayed silent), I can point to a different quote applicable to the same danger:
Do not call up that which you can not put down.
Interesting you didn’t specifically say it was bad in Chile. 5 highest per capita income. The rest are smaller countries one of which is small and oil country and another is Panama which is a direct US vassal.
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This is obviously talking about importing hostile foreigners in order to prop up a lagging welfare state. It's too on the nose for any other interpretation.
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I think that’s historically untrue. Sometimes right wing authoritarians governments are necessary and they don’t end up in a spiral where they end up killing a bunch of undesirables.
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