Bronze-level articleAugusto Pinochet

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Dictator Augusto Pinochet, wearing his trademark oversized peaked cap.

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (November 25, 1915 - December 10, 2006) was a murderous dictator and criminal money launderer[1] who ruled Chile from 1973 until 1990. He attained rule by overthrowing the socialist government of Salvador Allende by military force (with support from the US government, as it was the case with other Latin American dictatorships), following a resolution from the right wing-dominated Chilean Congress accusing that government of many "civil rights abuses."[2] Ironically, however, he himself performed many of those abuses to a much greater extent than his predecessor.

A fierce supporter of economic neoliberalism, he has been called the "ultimate free marketeer,"[3] although he did not respect dissidents' self-ownership enough to refrain from interning them in soccer stadiums, brutally torturing and murdering them, including the great Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara.

Contents

[edit] Life and ascension to power

Born in the province of Valparaíso, Pinochet entered the military career at 17, after having been rejected three times. According to his biographer, James Whelan, Pinochet lived a quiet childhood, with his mother playing a very important role in the formation of his character.

Quietly, but quickly, Pinochet rose through the officer corps and, as early as the 1950s, was involved in politics, as he headed the clampdown[4] on the Chilean Communist party. Paradoxically, it was for his apparent lack of political ambition that he advanced to the rank of commander-in-chief, under the left-wing Popular Unity government led by Allende, who believed in Pinochet's trustworthiness.

In fact, many believed that Pinochet backed Allende's government. Since Allende's election in 1970, Chile had teetered precariously on the edge of full-blown civil war. Allende's socialist platform advocated nationalizing foreign-owned industry and rectifying Chile's gross economic disparity. Further polarizing the situation, the US government under Richard Nixon smuggled funds to the military for arms and anti-Allende propaganda.

Allende appointed Pinochet Commander-in-Chief of the Army on August 23, 1973, but by September 9, Pinochet joined a CIA-supported four-man junta to overthrow the government. By September 11, Santiago was under a state of siege that would be lifted infrequently over the next 17 years. Pinochet assumed complete control of the group because he decided that such a volatile situation could be controlled only by one leader.

Early on the morning of September 11, the junta informed Allende that he must surrender to the army. Allende refused, and British-made warplanes bombed the presidential palace. Pinochet's treachery perhaps shocked Allende most, and in the first hours of the coup he believed that the junta had taken his general hostage. Once Pinochet's treason and the forces against the ousted leader became clear, Allende committed suicide.

[edit] Dictatorship

Declaring himself as "Supreme Chief of the Nation" in 1974, Pinochet eliminated Congress, political parties, freedom of speech, habeas corpus, and trade unions. He also founded the DINA (the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional - National Intelligence Directorate) as his secret police, charged with ferreting out opposition and silencing the nation with intimidation and oppression. All of this, of course, was in the name of preserving human rights.

The reign of terror (irony again) began immediately after the coup, interning and torturing thousands of dissidents in Santiago's soccer stadium. Pinochet's government is charged with killing or "disappearing" thousands of citizens and causing thousands more to flee during his rule; Amnesty International cited a figure of between 10,000 and 20,000 Chileans killed in the coup and in the months following the coup in 1974.[5] The Pinochet government also activated Operation Condor in 1975. Operation Condor effectively synchronized the repressive activities of the security forces in the region, with the DINA in Chile acting as a nucleus or base of operations. Within the framework of Operation Condor, the participating governments in the region murdered over 80,000 people and illegally detained an additional 400,000 (most of whom were tortured).[6] The United States initially backed Pinochet's takeover, especially through Henry Kissinger, and actively supported the Pinochet regime militarily and economically after the takeover. The CIA also assisted Pinochet in the creation and establishment of the DINA in the aftermath of the coup and made many of its operatives, such as its director Manuel Contreras, into paid contacts.[7] However after a series of prominent atrocities, including the gruesome murders of former Allende Ambassador to the U.S. Orlando Letelier and his 25-year-old American assistant Ronni Karpen Moffitt by a car bomb in downtown Washington D.C. the international community cautiously removed support, but only on the surface. The United States formally suspended military aid to Pinochet under the Carter Administration in 1977.

Like the haze overhanging Pinochet's quick about-face, questions remain about the dictator's motives for ruling through terror. Some note a driving lust for power that Pinochet concealed well in the army, while apologists believe that Pinochet was at heart a nationalist, condoning one-man rule to return order.

[edit] Friedman-fighter

Today's Chilean society remains sharply divided towards Pinochet. At the beginning of his tenure, Pinochet gave free rein to a group of economists called the "Chicago boys," nicknamed because of their devotion to University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman's free-market theories.

By offering generous incentives to foreign investors and privatizing business, it has been argued Pinochet's government transformed Chile into a modern land of plenty and boosted life expectancy, salaries, access to health services, and educational standards above those of any other Latin American country. Even today, conservatives around the world herald Pinochet's economic ends and ignore his means, even though his practices ended up increasing the income disparity ratio in Chile, a large proportion of the populace was in poverty and they could not protest or demand better salaries, and in fact Chile's GDP per capita under Pinochet consistently lagged behind the South American average and only increased after his time in office. Yay?

Pinochet called a plebiscite for the 1988 presidential election, but lost. Surprisingly, the dictator respected the vote and stepped down from the presidency in 1990, to be substituted by the democratically-elected Patricio Aylwin. Yet politics in Chile remained under his watchful eye as army commander, frequently reminding the new authorities of his lingering control.

[edit] Last years and death

On March 10, 1998, Pinochet stepped down from the army, and entered the Senate as senator-for-life, a post created in the constitution written under his regime. On October 16, while recovering from back surgery in England, Pinochet was arrested on a warrant issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, who sought his extradition to Spain on charges of torturing and murdering Spanish citizens in Chile. Held for 17 months, British authorities allowed him to return to Chile because of "deteriorated health." However, in a hilarious (for him) moment, as soon as he put a foot on Chilean soil, his health problems seemed to disappear as he stood up from the wheel chair he was in and started to walk like nothing had happened to him.

In 2001, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia issued a first indictment of Pinochet on human rights charges. But the case faltered because courts found his poor health ruled out a trial. Three years later, a U.S. Senate investigation revealed that Pinochet had a fortune in foreign bank accounts, estimated by a Chilean judge at US$28 million, and he was indicted for tax evasion.

In 2006, Pinochet suffered a heart attack, and died on December 10 (Human Rights Day,[wp] oh baby). Days before, on his 91st birthday, Pinochet had issued a half-assed statement taking "full political responsibility" for the crimes of his regime, just like Jorge Rafael Videla not too long after. Despite the evils committed under him, Margaret Thatcher stood by him until the end.[8]

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Augusto Pinochet 'amassed $21m fortune', Belfast Telegraph
  2. Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile's Democracy
  3. Political Compass
  4. Some desperate reference to The Clash! surely needs to be entered here.
  5. Amnesty International Annual Report 1973-1974, 38: [1]
  6. Los Archivos del Horror del Operativo Cóndor by Stella Calloni, on Nizkor's website (Spanish)
  7. CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression, George Washington University
  8. Thatcher stands by Pinochet, BBC
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