Augusto Pinochet, who died on December 10 after suffering a heart attack, came to symbolise Latin American military repression and was linked to thousands of cases of torture, abduction and death. He ruled Chile with an iron fist from 1973-1990.
Pinochet (91) died without ever standing trial on any charge, after his lawyers successfully argued that ”mild dementia” prevented him from defending himself.
Frail and infirm at the end, Pinochet during the prime of his life cut an awe-inspiring figure in dark glasses and an imposing, Prussian-style military tunic and cape.
”Not a leaf moves without my knowledge,” he once said, as thousands of Chileans were tortured, executed and forced into exile following the 1973 coup against elected Socialist president Salvador Allende.
The Pinochet era deeply divides Chile even today. Some Chileans hail him for replacing socialism with free-market policies, despite his international renown for military abuses.
Others blame him for the tragedies of about 3 000 people who were executed or disappeared from custody, according to an official count.
He faced more than 250 charges for alleged rights abuses, including masterminding the infamous ”caravan of death” that killed 75 regime opponents after he seized power.
Born in the port city of Valparaiso on November 25 1915, Pinochet never finished his school studies. He was expelled at 15 for misconduct but joined the Military School in 1933, rising slowly through the ranks.
In 1947, Pinochet, then a captain, ran a camp for detainees from the banned communist party.
In one of the ironies of history, Allende himself appointed Pinochet to head the military just one month before the coup.
Four generals took charge and Pinochet grabbed the first turn as leader of what was to be a rotating junta, saying: ”I am a man without ambitions.” A year later he decreed one-man rule.
Pinochet throttled labour unions and dissolved Congress. Soon outcry over repeated human rights violations turned him into an international pariah.
A Nobel Prize winner from Chicago University, the late Milton Friedman, visited Pinochet in Santiago and persuaded him to impose a free-market recipe offered by a group of Chilean economists trained at Chicago.
Immediately, draconian policies to slash inflation and privatise state companies left millions of Chileans jobless. After a brief boom, the free-market economy crashed in 1981/82.
Pinochet was for the first time vulnerable, as students, businessmen and union leaders were emboldened to protest. On September 7 1986, Pinochet escaped a guerrilla ambush that killed five bodyguards. The failed assassination led to a new crackdown. Many died when troops fired on street protesters and police made random mass arrests in Santiago’s slums.
In 1988, Pinochet lost a plebiscite on another eight years in office. In 1990, he handed power to Patricio Aylwin, the first democratically elected president since Allende.
Pinochet’s 1980 Constitution made him head of the armed forces until 1998 and senator for life.
On his 91st birthday a week ago, Pinochet said he held ”no grudge against anyone”, despite all the ”persecutions and injustices” against him. — Sapa-AFP