1. Augusto Pinochet – Chile by Mike Finchio
International power:
• Strong military power backed by another strong
military and economic power
Rise to Power:
• From a young age he worked his way up through
the military eventually earning himself the rank of
Commander in Chief of the Army on August 1973.
• The following month he would use military force to
bomb the presidential palace of Socialist Salvador
Allende. Allende would “commit suicide” in the
palace.
Impact While in Power:
• Controversy lingered over the alleged suicide
among Allende’s supporters
• A military junta would be established immediately
and round up thousands of people in the Chilean
National Stadium. Many of which were killed.
• The military junta consisted of General Pinochet of
the Army, Admiral Jose Toribio Merino of the Navy,
General Gustavo Leigh of the Air Force, and
General Cesar Mendoza of the Carabineros
(National Police).
• The military junta suspended the Constitution and
Congress, imposed strict censorship and curfews,
but most importantly banned all political parties
and halted their actions.
• Pinochet would soon take over sole executive
powers of the president in 1794 and form the
Caravan of Death, a Chilean army death squad
formed to take out his orders.
• The result would be an estimated 3,000 dead,
30,000 tortured and 1,300 exiled suspected
political opponents. Total deaths are unknown.
• Pinochet claimed, he wanted to “save the
country from communism.”
International Influence
• The exiles would be chased all over the world by
intelligence agencies.
• They chased the former Army Commander, under
Allende’s government into Argentina then assassinated
him.
• Victims such as Brandon Leighton would flee to Rome
and encounter assassination attempts.
• Eventual secret documents would be leaked from the
U.S. of Operation Condor.
• Operation Condor was an anti-communism campaign
between the Central Intelligence Agency of the United
States and DINA, the intelligence agency of Chile along
with other South American countries.
Impact on the modern world
• Pinochet’s ruthlessness would incite fear into the hearts of
opposing political parties for decades to come.
• Towards the end of his life he would be indicted for
many Human Rights violations but would die before
being convicted.
• Many victims would lead human rights movements in
response the mass killings.
• Pictures like this one are of a sample of many graves of
victims anonymously buried in mass graves.
Further Reading:
• Verdugo, Patricia. Chile, Pinochet, and
the Caravan of Death. New York:
University of Miami, 2001.
• White, Jamison G. "Nowhere to Run,
Nowhere to Hide: Augusto
Pinochet, Universal Jurisdiction, the
ICC, and a Wake-Up Call for Former
Heads of State." Case Western Reserve
Law Review 50, no. 1 (Fall99 1999):
127.

2. Bibliography
Cooper, Marc. "Chile and the End of Pinochet." Nation 272, no. 8 (February 26, 2001):
11-18.
Devine, Jack. "What Really Happened in Chile." Foreign Affairs 93, no. 4 (July 2014): 26-
35.
Old alone." Economist 373, no. 8406 (December 18, 2004): 48-49.
Reuss, Alejandro. "Impunity Challenged in Chile.." NACLA Report On The Americas 33,
no. 3 (November 1999): 1.
Verdugo, Patricia. Chile, Pinochet, and the Caravan of Death. New York: University of
Miami, 2001.
Walker, Vanessa. "At the End of Influence: The Letelier Assassination, Human Rights, and
Rethinking Intervention in US-Latin American Relations." Journal Of
Contemporary History 46, no. 1 (January 2011): 109-135.
White, Jamison G. "Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide: Augusto Pinochet, Universal
Jurisdiction, the ICC, and a Wake-Up Call for Former Heads of State." Case
Western Reserve Law Review 50, no. 1 (Fall99 1999): 127.