BOC Week 2: Augusto Pinochet

Pinochet

 On September 11, 1973, less than 20 days after he was made commander-in-chief of the army, Pinochet ordered his troops to take Santiago and ordered an air strike on the presidential palace. Allende died defending the palace, and Pinochet was made part of a four-man ruling junta led by the commanders of the army, air force, police and navy. Later he would seize absolute power for himself. (http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/20thcenturylatinamerica/p/pinochetbio.htm) On August 23 1973 Pinochet became commander-in-chief by his good friend the president of Chile, Salvador Allende. The president of Chile meet Pinochet at a concentration camp and then they became good friends but the president did not know what he was getting into. He was wrong to trust Pinochet, he would have never guess that his commander-in-chief would go against him. He wouldn’t realize until he was shot dead defending the palace. Pinochet ruled for 8 more years. Chile suffered with a series of kidnappings, disappearances, and assassinations. Soon after those horrible 8 years on October 1988 the people got to vote for whether they wanted a new president or no. The election is really easy for them to vote there were simply two answers “Yes or No?”  The results ended up being 55 percent NO and 43 percent YES which had meant the suffering was over. Not quite Pinochet stayed in office until free elections got a new president. After stepping down, he became a senator-for-life, a post granted to former presidents under the 1981 constitution. Later in 1998, while visiting London, he was detained by British authorities after Spain requested his extradition in connection with the torture of Spanish citizens in Chile during his rule. The unprecedented case stirred worldwide controversy and galvanized human-rights organizations in Chile. (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/461158/Augusto-Pinochet )The charges were dismissed in 2002, on the grounds that Pinochet, by then in his late 70’s, was unfit to stand trial. Further charges were brought in 2006(http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/20thcenturylatinamerica/p/pinochetbio.htm). Pinochet had died before they were able to have trail. You can say that Augusto Pinochet got lucky for not having to face all of the consequences for his actions.