Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general, politician and dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990. He seized power in a U.S. -backed coup d’état that toppled Allende’s democratically elected Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule. Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of from 1,200 to 3,200 people, the internment of as many as 80,000 people, and the torture of tens of thousands.
About Augusto Pinochet in brief
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general, politician and dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990. He seized power in a U.S. -backed coup d’état that toppled Allende’s democratically elected Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule. After his rise to power, Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of from 1,200 to 3,200 people, the internment of as many as 80,000 people, and the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was 3,095. Pinochet’s 17-year rule was given a legal framework through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission. After stepping down in 1990, he continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life. He was later prosecuted for embezzlement, tax fraud, and for possible commissions levied on arms deals. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest. By the time of his death in 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his rule and tax evasion and em bezzlement during and after his rule.
His fortune grew considerably during his years in power through dozens of bank accounts secretly held abroad and a fortune in real estate. His policies produced high economic growth, but critics state that economic inequality dramatically increased and attribute the devastating effects of the 1982 monetary crisis on the Chilean economy to these policies. For most of the 1990s, Chile was the best-performing economy in Latin America, though the legacy of Pinochet’s reforms continues to be in dispute. He is the son and namesake of Augusto Pinochet Vera, a descendant of an 18th-century French immigrant from Chile since the 17th century and was of partial Basque descent. He had been in the family since the early 20th century, and was married to Avelina Ugarte Martínez, a woman whose mother had been of 17th- century Chilean descent. In 1937, he moved to Concepción, where he was assigned to the \”Chabuco Regiment, in the infantry. Two years later, in 1939, he became the rank of Sub-lieutenant in the French Fathers’ School of Valparaíso. He died in a plane crash in Chile in December 2006, aged 87. He leaves behind a wife and three children. He also leaves a son and a daughter. He served as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile between 1973 and 1981, before being automatically self-declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 becoming de facto dictator of Chile.
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