Pinochet, Augusto

Pinochet (Ugarte), Augusto

Augusto Pinochet, 1985.

(credit: Robert Nickelsberg—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

(born Nov. 25, 1915, Valparaiso, Chile—died Dec. 10, 2006, Santiago) Head of Chile's military government (1974–90). A career military officer, he planned and led the coup d'état in which Pres. Salvador Allende died. He immediately moved to crush liberal opposition and in the next three years arrested about 130,000 Chileans and foreigners, many of whom were tortured and some of whom were killed. He led a rapid transition to a free-market economy, which slowed inflation but led to acute hardship for the lower classes. A new constitution in 1981 granted him eight more years as president. Rejected in a plebiscite in 1988, he stepped down after free elections installed Patricio Aylwin in 1990. In 1998 he was arrested in England at the request of Spain and held for trial for crimes against Spanish citizens in Chile during his tenure; he was released 16 months later. He was then indicted in Chile for the murder of dissidents but was declared mentally unfit for trial. In 2005, however, Pinochet was stripped of immunity and ordered to stand trial on charges related to human-rights abuses and tax evasion.