The most ruthless leader of all time
“I wonder what they have done with poor Pinochet”
-Salvador Allende, Former President of Chile.
The Donkey
Born on November 25, 1915, in Chile’s excellent port of Valparaiso, Augusto came from a middle-class background, very religious and his father Augusto Snr., was a local customs official.
As he had a loud laugh he was named donkey in his school, and he was good at was art. After all this, he decided to be a soldier but his father wanted him to be a doctor, he was a terrible student and son. Hence, he had an ace up his sleeve, but the military rejected his application twice. But finally, in 1933 they accepted him to the war academy in Santiago. The remarkable thing about Pinochet’s time there is how unremarkable it was.
The War Academy
In 1948 the Chilean government was keeping communists in internment camps, here Pinochet had his first run-in with the doctor. He is Doctor Salvador Allende, an upstart socialist senator who decided to make a personal inspection of the internment camps to see if the communists were being treated well. When Allende arrived at Pinochet’s camp, Pinochet threatened to shoot the senator.
The Doctor (Salvador Allende)
The story is interesting when it comes to the doctor. He was born in the same place and his life is similar to Pinochet’s. He was also an anarchist and came from a middle-class family, very religious. Like Pinochet, Allende’s father wanted him to become a doctor. Pinochet into the army and here Allende came from a different direction. In 1933 Allende co-founded Chile’s first socialist party and in 1945 he became one of its first elected senators. So Allende’s first run as senator and Pinochet’s camp are the same and here Pinochet threatened to shoot Allende, not that the doctor dwelled much on the encounter as he was busy running for President.
In Chile’s 1952 elections Allende was dead last and also he was temporarily booted out of his own party for his bad campaign. But as they can’t keep a good socialist down and in 1958 Allende ran again, this time he almost won. The result was very close, 33,000 votes more than Allende.
In 1959 President Fiedel Castro overthrew Cuba’s government and installed a communist dictatorship but as Allende was from a Catholic family the whole of Latin America was in a grid trying to win elections as a socialist, but unfortunately, Allende’s third presidential run in 1964 was also a failure, this should’ve been the end of it but though after the third failure he stood in elections and finally won in 1970.
Americans are not okay with Allende’s presidency as he was a Marxist, they requested the CIA to stop him but instead, they handed over Chile’s white house keys to Allende.
Overall disputes, On November 5, 1970, Doctor Salvador Allende was sworn in as Chile’s president; the first democratically elected Marxist head of state in Latin American history.
The Battle of Chile
A full 22 years since we last saw Pinochet, guarding an internment camp and threatening to shoot senators. What’s Pinochet been up to all these years? Absolutely nothing, we can’t stress enough how the most intriguing part of Pinochet’s life is how utterly destined for obscurity he seemed to be. In 1970, he was a 55-year-old career army man whose contribution to world history had been once threatening to shoot the future president of Chile.
In 1971 he was charged in charge of the Santiago army garrison and here comes the CIA. The USA was not happy with Allende’s elections so they decided to make chile’s economy scream but Allende was up to countries constitution and no beyond then he invited military men into his cabinet among them was Carlos Prats, he is the leading constitutionalist in the Chilean army and he wasn’t happy with Allende, In 1973 without Prats’ permission, a bunch of disaffected officers tried to stage one. Known as the Tanquetazo they attacked the president’s residence but they failed and here is Pinochet’s great entry. When Pinochet got wind, he made sure his garrison came out on Allende’s side.
When Prats resigned a month later he made sure Pinochet replaced him, It was a decision that would soon destroy him. And so it was that, on August 22, 1973, Augusto Pinochet became head of the Chilean armed forces.
The Great Betrayal
Pinochet with Americans attacked his own city but Allende had no way of knowing that the man he thought was loyal, directing the bombs around him, after knowing the situation, Allende shot himself through the head and died at 65.
Many were killed dragged and shot through the head and at the same time announcements were going out that Chile was now under the control of General Pinochet. By knowing the news Prats slipped out of Santiago for exile in Argentina but Pinochet killed him and the reports were a car bomb killed Prats and his wife. Pinochet banned all the political parties and all leftist media shut down, 80,000 people were arrested and 2,00,000 people were forced into exile. The long tradition of democratic rule in Chile was now at an end, For the next 16 years, Pinochet would rule his nation as its undisputed king.
Grand Guignol of horror
One of Pinochet’s first acts was to order a mop-up operation against leftists who remained in Chile known as the caravan of Death. He killed his opposers and fly their bodies to be dropped in the mountains and pacific ocean, the terrible was some leftists are executed by being blown up with dynamite, and prisoners were suffocated to the point of death and then released.
Teenage daughters were kidnapped and used as practice for soldiers to learn the ropes of electroshock torture. At the most deranged end of all, female prisoners were forced to have intercourse with animals while their guards watched and laughed. Pinochet has not yet done with Chile.
Operation Condor
In 1975 his secret police the DINA made contact with the dictatorship of Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, later Argentina together came up with operation CONDOR. Their goal was to assassinate every single leftist on the continent and 60,000 people were killed by Condor, which meant being dropped into deep lakes or rivers, or shot and buried in remote mass graves no one would ever find. Even the American capital seemingly wasn’t safe from Pinochet’s reach. Yet, this terror only strengthened Pinochet’s grip on power. In 1980 he rammed through a new constitution giving himself 8-year terms as president.
The Miracle of Chile
The people of Chile supported Pinochet after his 8-year terms as president as during Allende’s years in office, things had only gotten worse — although it’s debatable whether that was due to leftwing policies, or due to the CIA constantly trying to instigate a coup. When Pinochet took over, he decided to try a new route, one mapped out by the Chicago Boys.
They were tasked with transforming the economy. Everything that wasn’t bolted down was privatized, everything opened up to the market, and the businesses were given unfettered access to all parts of Chilean life. The result was a wild rollercoaster ride that saw both the highest inflation rate in Chile’s history and one of the worst one-year recessions on record.
After all, Pinochet thought he was a hero, and Chile’s electorate was about to prove they still saw him as a donkey. In the 1988 elections anti-Pinochet side had won by 12 points but Pinochet called his generals and declared he would never stand down that the vote was a fix, that it was all a mistake. But the generals knew something Pinochet didn’t. They knew that the USA was already piling on the pressure, that Pinochet would have to honour the result or face international consequences. Isolated, the dictator had no choice but to publicly announce he would step down in two years. On March 11, 1990, democracy finally returned to Chile. Pinochet didn’t just return to civilian life but He remained head of the armed forces and was later gifted not just the post “senator for life”, but immunity from prosecution.
Justice at Last?
On October 17, 1998, Augusto Pinochet was visiting London for minor surgery on his back. Ever since he’d stepped down as Chile’s leader, 8 long years ago, the former dictator had grown fond of the British capital. Well, the British were about to give him a rude awakening, That day, as the 83-year-old Pinochet lay in hospital, he was arrested by officers from London’s Met Police. The arrest was like a lightning bolt to the international community, but the monster had escaped unscathed. One year later, in 2005, Pinochet was placed under house arrest, it was days after his 90th birthday. Over the next year, more and more allegations came to light, and evidence of colossal levels of embezzlement was presented.
In 2006, Pinochet was formally charged with kidnapping, torture and murder. Sadly, the stubborn donkey once again escaped justice. On December 10, 2006, Pinochet died of a heart attack at his home in Santiago.
Chile may still be haunted by the shadow of Augusto Pinochet, but at least history is now able to judge him for the monster he was. He may have escaped justice in his lifetime, but Pinochet’s crime will go down in history.
