The Pinochet Years

36.3.4: The Pinochet Years

Pinochet’s regime represented a violent swing to authoritarianism following Allende’s Marxist administration.

Learning Objective

Contrast the Pinochet regime with Allende’s before it

Key Terms

military junta
An oligarchic form of government that differs from a civilian dictatorship in a number of ways, including motivations for seizing power, the institutions through which rule is organized, and the ways in which leaders leave positions of power. Many military juntas have viewed themselves as saving the nation from corrupt or myopic civilian politicians. Military leaders often rule as a junta, selecting one as the head.
disappeared
A person who is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization. Following abduction, there is a refusal to acknowledge the person’s fate or whereabouts, essentially placing the victim outside the protection of the law.

Examples

  • Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte was President of Chile (1973- 1990) as well as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army (1973- 1998) and president of the Government Junta of Chile (1973-1981). His rule of Chile is considered a dictatorship.
  • According to the Rettig and Valech Commissions, the number of direct victims of human rights violations in Chile during the government junta accounts for at least 35,000 people: 28,000 tortured, 2,279 executed, and 1,248 missing. In addition, some 200,000 people suffered exile and an unknown number went through clandestine centers and illegal detention.
  • The government junta formally banned socialist, Marxist, and other leftist parties that comprised former President Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity coalition.
  • On September 13, 1973, the junta dissolved Congress and outlawed or suspended all political activities, including suspension of the 1925 constitution.
  • Given support from Pinochet, the United States., and international financial institutions, a group of Chilean economists referred to as the Chicago Boys advocated laissez-faire, free-market, neo-liberal, and fiscally conservative policies in stark contrast to the extensive nationalization and centrally-planned economic programs supported by Allende.
  • The economic policies espoused by the Chicago Boys and implemented by the junta initially caused several economic indicators to decline for Chile’s lower classes, while financial conglomerates were major beneficiaries.
  • The United States maintained significantly friendlier relations with Pinochet than it did with Allende.

Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte was the President of Chile between 1973 and 1990 as well as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army from 1973 to 1998. He was also the president of the Government Junta of Chile between 1973 and 1981. His rule of Chile is considered a dictatorship. Pinochet assumed power in Chile following a U.S.-backed coup d’etat on September 11, 1973, which overthrew the democratically elected Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende and ended civilian rule. In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet the Supreme Head of the Nation by joint decree.

Official portrait of Augusto Pinochet

Official portrait of Augusto Pinochet Circa 1974

Human Rights Violations

Human rights violations during the military government of Chile refer to human rights abuses, persecution of opponents, political repression, and state terrorism committed by the Chilean armed forces and the police, government agents, and civilians in the service of security agencies. According to the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation (Rettig Commission) and the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture (Valech Commission), the number of direct victims of human rights violations in Chile accounts for at least 35,000 people: 28,000 tortured, 2,279 executed, and 1,248 missing. In addition, some 200,000 people suffered exile and an unknown number went through clandestine centers and illegal detention. The systematic human rights violations committed by the military government of Chile under Pinochet included gruesome acts of physical and sexual abuse as well as psychological damage. From September 11, 1973, to March 11, 1990, Chilean armed forces, the police, and those aligned with the military junta were involved in institutionalizing fear and terror in Chile.

Political Suppression

Following its assumption of power in 1973, the government junta formally banned socialist, Marxist, and other leftist parties that comprised former President Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity coalition. On September 13, 1973, the junta dissolved Congress and outlawed or suspended all political activities, including suspension of the 1925 constitution. Eduardo Frei, Allende’s predecessor as president, initially supported the coup along with other Christian Democratic politicians. Later, however, they assumed opposition roles to the military rulers, though by that time many of them already lost much of their public influence. The Catholic Church, which first expressed its approval of military rule over Allende’s Marxist government, was now led by Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez, one of the most outspoken critics of the regime’s social and economic policies.

From 1974 to 1977, the DINA (National Intelligence Directorate) and other agencies such as the Joint Command were the main institutions that committed acts of repression. It was during this period that most forced disappearances took place. In DINA-established interrogation and detention camps, former members of Allende’s Marxist government and Leftist movements like Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionario were incarcerated and brutally tortured. A large proportion of the Chilean population was vulnerable to government surveillance.

Disappearances

The Politically Executed

The Politically Executed: Funeral urns of political activists executed under the Chilean military regime (1973-1990) in a cemetery in Santiago. 

“Disappearing subversives” was a central instrument of state terror administered by the Chilean military regime. According to the Rettig Report, 1,248 people were “disappeared” by the Pinochet regime. This number remains a source of contention, however, as hundreds of bodies have yet to be discovered. Many who disappeared were neither given the chance to escape nor to become asylum seekers elsewhere, and their bodies were deliberately hidden in undisclosed locations. Many people were last seen in detention or torture centers run by intelligence agencies of the military regime.

Following General Pinochet’s arrest in 1998, Chile made a renewed effort to uncover the atrocities of the past. For the first time in several decades, human rights lawyers and members of the armed forces investigated where the bodies of the disappeared were buried. On January 7, 2000, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos made a 15-minute nationwide address, revealing that the armed forces had uncovered information on the fate of approximately 180 people who had disappeared. According to Lagos, the bodies of at least 150 of these people were thrown into lakes, rivers, and the Pacific Ocean. The whereabouts of hundreds of more bodies remain unknown.

Economy and Free Market Reforms

After the military took over the government in 1973, a period of dramatic economic changes began. The Chilean economy was still faltering in the months following the coup. As the military junta itself was not particularly skilled in remedying the persistent economic difficulties, it appointed a group of Chilean economists who were educated at the University of Chicago. Given financial and ideological support from Pinochet, the United States, and international financial institutions, the Chicago Boys advocated laissez-faire, free-market, neo-liberal, and fiscally conservative policies in stark contrast to the extensive nationalization and centrally-planned economic programs supported by Allende. Chile was drastically transformed from an economy isolated from the rest of the world with strong government intervention into a liberalized, world-integrated economy where market forces were left free to guide most of the economy’s decisions.

From an economic point of view, the era can be divided into two periods. The first, from 1973 to 1982, corresponds to the period when most of the reforms were implemented. The period ended with the international debt crisis and the collapse of the Chilean economy. Unemployment was extremely high, above 20 percent, and a large proportion of the banking sector had become bankrupt. The following period was characterized by new reforms and economic recovery. Some economists argue that the recovery was due to a turnaround of Pinochet’s free market policy; during this time he nationalized many of the industries that were nationalized under Allende and fired the Chicago Boys from their government posts.

Social Consequences

The economic policies espoused by the Chicago Boys and implemented by the junta initially caused several economic indicators to decline for Chile’s lower classes. Between 1970 and 1989, there were large cuts to incomes and social services. Wages decreased by eight percent. Family allowances in 1989 were 28% of what they had been in 1970 and budgets for education, health, and housing dropped more than 20% on average. Massive increases in military spending and cuts in funding to public services coincided with falling wages and steady rises in unemployment. The junta relied on the middle class, huge foreign corporations, and foreign loans to maintain itself.

Financial conglomerates became major beneficiaries of the liberalized economy. Large foreign banks reinstated the credit cycle, and international lending organizations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Inter-American Development Bank also lent vast sums to Pinochet’s regime. Additionally, many foreign multinational corporations such as International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), Dow Chemical, and Firestone, which was previously expropriated by Allende, returned to Chile.

Relationship with the United States

Overall, the United States maintained significantly friendlier relations with Pinochet than it did with Allende. A document released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2000 titled “CIA Activities in Chile” revealed that the CIA actively supported the military junta after the overthrow of Allende and made many of Pinochet’s officers paid contacts of the CIA or U.S. military despite records detailing human rights abuses. The United States provided substantial support to the military regime between 1973 and 1979, although it criticized Chile in public. In 1976, the United States went beyond verbal condemnation of the regime and placed an embargo on arms sales to Chile that remained in effect until the restoration of democracy in 1989. Presumably, as international concerns grew surrounding Chilean repression, the United States did not want to be seen as an accomplice to the junta. Other prominent U.S. allies like the UK , France, and West Germany, however, did not block arms sales to Pinochet and benefited from the lack of American competition.

Attributions