Augusto Pinochet
General Augusto Pinochet was Dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1989.
Pinochet came to power in a military coup d'etat in September 1973 that was described by the BBC as "the bloodiest in 20th century South America". More than 3,000 people were killed in the fighting. Pinochet's forces used fighter jets to bomb the Presidential Palace which held Salvador Allende, the democratically elected President.
Pinochet had support of many Chileans initially because he promised to help them escape the poverty into which many were driven by an economy in crisis. The inflation rate in 1973 was reported to be 150%, and a complete economic collapse was looming. The economic system under Allende included state ownership of many important companies in a socialist system. Pinochet promised to allow, and even assist, the development of a more capitalist market, in his own words "to make Chile not a nation of proletarians, but a nation of entrepreneurs".
The Allende government was friendly with the Cuban ideology of Fidel Castro. It has been alleged that the Pinochet attack to the democracy was assisted by the United States.
The violence and bloodshed of the coup itself was continued during Pinochet's administration. Once in power, Pinochet ruled with an iron hand. Dissidents were "disappeared" or murdered for speaking out against Pinochet's policies. It is unknown exactly how many people were killed by government and military forces during the 17 years that he was in power, but it was certainly in the thousands or higher. Torture was also commonly used against dissidents. Thousands of Chileans fled the country to escape the regime.
These acts that were going on in Chile came to the international consciousness in 1976 when a former Chilean ambassador to the United States was murdered by a car bomb in Washington, D.C. The ambassador had served under Allende's administration.
In 1986, an assassination attempt was made on Pinochet's life, but it was unsuccessful. Pinochet suffered only minor injuries.
Pinochet called for a plebiscite in 1990, which he expected to win. To his surprise, however, the people voted against him, and he stepped down from office. Due to the constitution of the country, which Pinochet himself was largely responsible for since it was drafted by his regime, he remained the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces until 1998. After he left office, he was given a senatorial position for life, which guaranteed his immunity from prosecution in Chile. As a Senator, he also maintained his diplomatic passport, which also provides some legal protections from prosecution by foreign governments.
While travelling abroad, Pinochet was arrested in October of 1998 in London. The arrest warrant was issued by Spain, and he was placed under house arrest in the clinic where he he just undergone back surgery. The charges include 34 counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to commit torture. Britain had only signed the international convention against torture recently, so all of the counts were from the last 14 months of his regime.
There was some controversy over whether he should be brought to trial due to his fragile health. He was 82 years old at the time of his arrest. There was also some legal maneuvering in an attempt to prevent his extradition. The government of Chile opposed his arrest, extradition, and trial.
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