General Augusto Pinochet
The Life and Times of the Man with the Dark Glasses
It is the atrocities that a ruler is best remembered for. Pinochet may have been kind to puppies and Maggie Thatcher, but he was also the face of a repressive junta.
Augosto Pinochet (November 25, 1915 - December 10, 2006) was born in central Chile in the important seaport of Valparaíso.
How do future or would-be dictators break into the field? In the case of Pinochet, he graduated from military school in 1937 as a second lieutenant, bounced around various regiments, achieved the rank of sub-lieutenant in 1939, returned to school in ’43 and taught at a military academy in 1951 under the title of officer chief of staff. Meanwhile, the never idle Pinochet also served as editor of the military in-house magazine Cien Águilas, or "One Hundred Eagles."
With the passing of the years came further promotions in rank, more teaching stints and a devotion to the study of law, military intelligence and geopolitics.
Pinochet’s date with fate came in August, 1973, when Chile’s president, Salvador Allende, appointed Pinochet army commander in chief. Photographs at the time always show Pinochet behind his dark glasses. If Allende could have seen through those glasses, he might have noticed plotting eyes alight with ambitious designs. Wasting little time, Pinochet and his military cohorts sprang a coup d’état surprise party on Allende in early September, 1973. It was later revealed that the CIA, in no small measure, contributed to the destabilizing of Allende's government by throwing millions of dollars toward that end.
The socialist-minded, Castro-cheek-kissing Allende died before he could be captured. Evidence later pointed to suicide. In fact, Allende’s unpalatable (to Pinochet) brand of socialism was Pinochet’s primary reason for overthrowing Allende --aside from the undeclared opportunity for Pinochet to corruptly line his pockets.
Not one to dwell on the death of an ideologically opposite predecessor, Pinochet meanwhile set about taking Chile down the road to an all-systems-go free-market economy, severing ties with Cuba, retiring or arresting influential Chileans and rounding up dissenters. Thousands were said to have been killed or tortured under Pinochet’s rule. By the end of Pinochet’s rule, when the smoke had cleared, perhaps 4,000 people had died or disappeared and another 30,000 or more tortured, some in other countries, nabbed by the long arm of Pinochet’s Operation Condor, ostensibly an anti-terrorist operation. The agents of Operation Condor’s duties ranged from a simple observing of suspected dissidents to their assassination.
Pinochet gave up power in March, 1990, ushering in a return to non-military rule under President Patricio Aylwin Azócar.
Under the provisions of the Chilean constitution, Pinochet received various plums. He retained the rank of commander-in-chief of the army until March, 1998, and was sworn in as a senator-for-life, which legally exempted him from being prosecuted by any past indiscretions; i.e., the small matter of thousands of murders and torture cases.
Pinochet’s later years consisted largely of house arrests --notably in 1998 while in the UK -- pesky lawsuits filed by aggrieved families of missing or killed people under Pinochet’s rule; old-man's strokes; legal battles to avoid being stripped of his immunity; and emotional appeals from Margaret Thatcher to anyone who would listen to just leave her misunderstood, good friend alone already.
Alas, no dictator or ex-dictator, no matter how much power he has had over the lives of others, can go on forever. Pinochet’s end came on December 10, 2006. Among Pinochet’s many talents was one that was often overlooked by the wider world: he was an excellent poker player, which might help explain how he lasted so long and, ultimately, avoided a jail term.
