| “ | This is Santiago, the capital of Chile. In 1973 the national stadium was turned into a concentration camp as a military coup backed by the United States overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. The leader of the coup was a fascist. General Augusto Pinochet who rounded up Allende's supporters and brought them here. | „ |
| ~ Introduction to a documentary about Augusto Pinochet |
Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte (Valparaiso, Nov. 25, 1915 - Santiago, Chile, December 10, 2006) was a Chilean military dictator headed prevailing in that country between 1973 and 1990.
In 1973 he took over as commander in chief of Chile. On 11 September of that year, led a coup that overthrew Salvador Allende. Since then, Pinochet became the country's government, first under the office of president of the Military Junta (he held until 1981), to which was added the title of supreme head of the Nation on June 27, 1974, which gave the executive branch.
On 16 December the same year took over as President, to be ratified by the enactment of the 1980 Constitution. His government would end after the defeat in the National Plebiscite of 1988 and its replacement by Patricio Aylwin in 1990. Pinochet would remain as commander in chief until March 10, 1998, and the next day assume the post of senator for life, a fact that exercise for a couple of months.
Pinochet's dictatorship has been widely criticized both at home and in the rest of the world by various serious human rights violations committed in the period known as the military regime, so Pinochet faced various trials to date of its death.
However, his supporters consider him a "hero" would have saved the country from the establishment of a communist regime in the hands of Salvador Allende and supported by the Cuban dictatorship and the Soviet Union and a possible civil war.
Crimes
By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations, tax evasion and embezzlement during his 17-year rule and afterwards. Pinochet was accused of having corruptly amassed a wealth of US $28 million or more.
Death
Pinochet suffered a heart attack on December 3, 2006 and was given the last rites. He died a week later from complications following the heart attack on December 10, 2006 at the age of 91 without being convicted on any charges brought to him and by the time of his death about 300 criminal charges were still pressed against him.