Portal:Chile/Selected biography/1

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (November 25, 1915 – December 10, 2006) was de facto President of Chile from 1974 to 1990, and was the President of the Government Junta from 1973 to 1981. His dictatorial regime instituted a campaign against leftist political parties, including murder, torture, kidnapping and the repression of civil liberties. At the same time he implemented classical neoliberal economic policies including privatization and rollback of state welfare institutions.

On September 11, 1973, Pinochet, recently appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army, was part of, along with the Navy, Air Force and National Police, a coup d'état against Socialist President Salvador Allende and established a military government. Pinochet implemented a series of military operations in which (according to the 1993 Rettig Report) approximately 3,000 people were killed, while (according to the 2004 Valech Report) 27,000 were incarcerated without trials and subjected to torture. Thousands more fled into exile, in particular to Argentina, as political refugees; however, they were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the frame of Operation Condor which linked South American dictatorships together against political opponents.

In 1974, the junta appointed Pinochet president by a joint decree, later confirmed by a plebiscite in 1980. He remained in power until 1990, after his attempt to continue to rule was defeated in the 1988 plebiscite. After stepping down, he remained a life-senator, in accord with the 1980 Constitution. He was also Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until March 10, 1998.

At the time of his death in December 2006, around 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for human rights abuses (torture, forced disappearance, assassination, etc.), tax evasion and embezzlement under his rule and afterwards &mdash; in 2006, Pinochet's total wealth was estimated at $28 million or more. Pinochet remains a controversial figure in many parts of the world, dividing people who condemn him for his human rights abuses from those who credit him with bringing order and economic stability to Chile.