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Augusto Pinochet
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Augusto Pinochet is alleged to have caused the kidnapping, death or "disappearance" of more than 3,000 political opponents after he rose to power in Chile in a 1973 coup. A career military man, he overthrew a democratically elected socialist president, Salvador Allende, only months after Allende had named him commander-in-chief. Pinochet is then said to have ruthlessly eliminated remaining Allende supporters, in some cases by giving orders to a squad of assassins known as the "Caravan of Death." Pinochet appointed himself President in 1974; with the approval of a new constitution in a 1980 plebiscite he secured an 8-year elected term. In 1988 voters called for an election to choose a new president. Patricio Aylwin took office in 1990, but Pinochet continued as army commander until 1998.
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Augusto Pinochet was a tragic figure. Instead of being remembered for saving Chilean democracy from a communist takeover, and starting the country on the longest-lasting economic expansion in Latin America, which he did, he will be remembered mostly for carrying out a brutal campaign of human-rights abuses.
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Augusto Pinochet has assumed “full political responsibility” for the widespread human rights violations committed during his 1973-1990 rule in Chile. But the admission brings little comfort to victims of the rights abuses as the aging and ailing former dictator still has immunity from prosecution in several pending cases. Pinochet defended his actions – in particular, wresting power from democratically-elected President Salvador Allende – as necessary to prevent the country’s “worsening” political and economic crises during the 1970s.
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Augusto Pinochet attended a military college, and served with distinction in Chile's Army. He was rapidly promoted, and continued his studies at the Chilean war academy, Academia de Guerra, where he ... taught. In the early 1950s, Pinochet was involved in Chile's arrests and imprisonment of communists, suspected communists, and union leaders. For about two years, Pinochet commanded a concentration camp for commies. Times change, and in 1970, a Socialist, Salvador Allende, was elected President of Chile. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency secretly spent millions of dollars funding Chilean opposition groups, to "create pressures, exploit weaknesses [and] magnify obstacles" for Allende.
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Former Dictator Augusto Pinochet changed “one of the most vibrant democracies in the world” into a totalitarian regime. Judicial action against Pinochet begs the question: What about former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who allegedly helped bring Pinochet to power? AlterNet says that until Kissinger faces justice, “the rest of the world has a right to be incredulous when [US] leaders proclaim they want to spread democracy and human rights abroad.”
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Augusto Pinochet, the son of a customs official, was born in Chile on 26th November 1915. Educated by conservative Marist priests he was twice rejected by Chile's military college. He was eventually accepted and he graduated in 1937 as an infantry officer.
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Augusto Pinochet