Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, born in Valparaíso in 1915 and died in Santiago de Chile in 2006, was a Chilean soldier and dictator. Appointed head of the army by the socialist president Salvador Allende, on 11 September 1973 he was among the initiators of the coup against the president. Having come to power, he governed Chile as head of a military junta until 1990. His regime was characterized by the harsh repression of his opponents, many of whom were subjected to torture and killed by the political police, and by his liberal economic reforms. After the end of the dictatorship, Pinochet’s crimes were the subject of judicial investigations in Chile and other countries, but the former dictator was never put on trial.
Youth and military career
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was born in Valparaíso, Chile, on November 25, 1915. As a teenager he enrolled at the Bernardo O’ Higgins Military School, embarking on a career in the armed forces, and in 1945 he entered the War Academy. In 1951 he returned to the Military School as a teacher and later also became a professor at the Academy. From 1956 to 1959 he lived in Quito, Ecuador, as a member of a Chilean military mission. Upon returning home, he continued his military career. In 1968 he obtained the appointment as brigadier general and in 1971 he became division general.
His career took a turning point in June 1973, when he earned the respect of the president, Salvador Allende: a coup attempt against the government took place in Chile and Pinochet contributed with his soldiers to repress it. Allende, certain of the general’s loyalty, appointed him commander in chief of the Chilean Army on 23 August 1973. The choice would soon prove to be a fatal mistake.
The coup d’état: Pinochet and the military against Salvador Allende
Chile was traditionally one of the most democratic countries in Latin America. Allende, who came to power in 1970 following regular elections, had introduced economic measures to support the poorest sections of the population, nationalizing the copper mines, one of the country’s main economic resources (he thus completed the policy started by his predecessor, the Christian Democrat Frei). He also supported the secular state and civil rights; in foreign policy he had shown that he did not accept US hegemony, re-establishing, among other things, relations with Cuba (in which the socialist government of Fidel Castro was in power).
For these reasons, Allende earned the enmity of the United States, which introduced economic measures against Chile and financially supported his opponents. The conditions of the country worsened and discontent spread among a part of the population.
In 1973 the military, led by Pinochet, organized a coup against Allende. On September 11, military planes bombed La Moneda, the presidential palace, and soldiers attacked the palace. The president was killed (perhaps committed suicide) during the assault. Power was assumed by a military junta composed of representatives of the various armed forces. Pinochet was appointed head (in 1974 he would be named supreme leader of the nation).
The coup was certainly supported by the United States, but their role has never been fully clarified. Also supporting the coup were landowners, damaged by Allende’s policies, and numerous former Nazis who had sought refuge in Chile after the Second World War.
The presidency, repression, crimes and reforms
As soon as it came to power, the military junta embarked on a policy of harsh suppression of its opponents. The political police, the DINA (Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional), regularly used torture to interrogate prisoners, using particularly brutal techniques. Thousands of opponents were murdered and, in some cases, their bodies disappeared. In the days following the coup, the National Stadium in Santiago became a concentration camp, in which opponents suffered the most atrocious brutality. Among the victims locked up in the stadium were also famous people, such as the poet Victor Jara, and citizens of other countries.
The exact number of victims of the dictatorship is not known. A commission established after the return of democracy estimated that the deaths, including the disappeared, were 2279, to which must be added approximately 30,000 people who were victims of torture. These are, however, approximate figures. Furthermore, some Chilean political leaders were assassinated abroad.
At the same time as the repression, Pinochet developed a liberal economic policy, overturning Allende’s approach and, thanks also to the support of the United States, managed to obtain good results, to the point that some economists, such as Milton Friedman, spoke of the “miracle of Chile”. Instead, according to other analysts, such as Amartya Sen, Pinochet’s economic results represent the failure of liberalism.
What is certain is that on an international level, the regime received much criticism for its repressive policy, but enjoyed the support of the United States. Furthermore, in 1987 he received a visit from the Pope, John Paul II. Inside the country, despite the harsh repression of opponents and censorship of the press, the dictatorship was not appreciated by some Chileans.
The end of the dictatorship, the legal case and death
In 1988 Pinochet called a referendum to ask to extend his mandate for another 8 years, convinced that he would win easily. Contrary to the dictator’s expectations, the no votes prevailed and two years later Pinochet left the presidency. The change was made possible by the fact that the international geopolitical context was no longer that of the 1970s, thanks to the end of the Cold War, and therefore democracy could be restored in Chile. Pinochet, after leaving the presidency, was appointed senator for life and retained his position as head of the army.
The crimes committed when he was in power, however, were not forgotten. In 1998 the former dictator was arrested in London on the orders of a Spanish judge. After long legal-diplomatic controversies, in 2000 he was able to return to Chile. Even in his country, however, he had to face judicial problems: his parliamentary immunity was revoked and he was placed under house arrest several times, for short periods. However, he was not subjected to a real trial, also because a part of public opinion and the Chilean ruling class continued to be aligned in his favor.
Pinochet died in Santiago on 10 December 2006, aged 91.
