Augusto Pinochet

General Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte{{an|Name}} (born November 25, 1915) was head of the military government that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990. He came to power in a violent coup that deposed Salvador Allende, a Marxist physician who had become the first Socialist to be elected President of Chile. The coup ended a period of strained relations between the United States?which had actively sought Allende's removal?and the South American country, and allowed Pinochet to implement profound neoliberal economic reforms and, at the same time, to commit extensive human rights violations, both at home and abroad.

Related Topics:
November 25 - 1915 - Military government - Chile - 1973 - 1990 - Coup - Salvador Allende - Marxist - Socialist - President of Chile - United States - South America - Neoliberal - Human rights violation

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On September 11, 1973, the military, led by Pinochet, stormed the presidential palace and seized power from President Allende, who was found dead soon after. A junta headed by Pinochet was established, which immediately suspended the constitution, dissolved Congress, imposed strict censorship, proscribed the leftist parties that had constituted Allende's Popular Unity coalition, and halted all political activity. In addition, it embarked on a campaign of terror against leftist elements in the country. As a result, approximately 3,000 Chileans were executed or disappeared, more than 27,000{{an|Tortured}} were imprisoned or tortured, and many were exiled and received abroad as political refugees.

Related Topics:
September 11 - 1973 - Junta - Congress - Leftist - Popular Unity

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In 1980, a new constitution was approved, which prescribed a single-candidate presidential plebiscite in 1988, and a return to civilian rule in 1990. Pinochet lost the 1988 plebiscite, which triggered multi-candidate presidential elections in 1989 to choose his replacement. Pinochet transferred power to Patricio Aylwin, the new democratically elected president, in 1990; however, he retained his post as commander-in-chief of the army until 1998, when he assumed a seat in the Chilean Senate, which was intended to be his for the duration of his life, according to the constitutional amendments of 1980. In 1998 Pinochet, who still had much influence in Chile, travelled to Britain for medical treatment. While there, he was arrested on a warrant from Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón and kept under house arrest for over a year, before eventually being released on medical grounds. He returned to Chile and resigned his senatorial seat in 2002, after a Supreme Court ruling that he suffered from "vascular dementia" and therefore could not stand trial for human rights abuses. (Such claims had been filed numerous times before his arrest, but never acted upon.) In May 2004, Chile's supreme court ruled that he was capable of standing trial, and he was charged with several crimes in December of that year.

Related Topics:
1980 - Plebiscite - 1988 - 1990 - 1989 - Patricio Aylwin - Commander-in-chief - 1998 - Chilean Senate - Britain - Baltasar Garzón - Human rights - May 2004

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Supporters of Pinochet credit him with staving off the beginning of communism, fighting terrorism from radical groups such as MIR, and implementing neoliberal market policies that laid the groundwork for rapid economic growth that continued into the 1990s. His opponents charge him with destroying Chile's democracy, pursuing a policy of state terrorism in which thousands of opponents were killed and tortured, catering exclusively to private interests, and adopting economic policies that favored the wealthy and hurt the country's middle- and low-income sectors.

Related Topics:
Communism - MIR - Neoliberal

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