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Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006) was the President of Chile from 1973 to 1990. He gained power through a 1973 military coup, backed by the United States, against Socialist President Salvador Allende. With the support of the junta, a military leadership committee, Pinochet began a reign of terror against leftists and other oppositions, sending more than 200,000 Chileans into exile and tens of thousands more into detention and torture camps.
Pinochet’s rule was marked by its extreme violence, supported both by foreign allies and immigrating foreigners. The United States was instrumental in bringing him to power, and continued to support him in private through Operation Condor, a campaign of right-wing military repression in multiple South American dictatorships. Pinochet’s torturers favored sexual violence, as it was thought to leave less evidence than other methods of torture, and would thus keep the human rights abuses of his rule under wraps. Culturally, Pinochet advocated for conservative ideals, and used the power of silence to “cleanse” universities and other dissenting institutions as well as to cover up his own atrocities.
Pinochet’s power died slowly. He was voted out of office in 1988, followed by an arrest in 1998, and died in 2006 before his accusers could ever seek justice.
