The man who ruled over the chilean state with an iron first from 1973 - 1990. He was both criticized and praised for his policies (mostly hated by people, especially the chileans). Politics aside, his economic policies in my opinion weren't that bad. The Chilean junta having ZERO knowledge of economics asked the Chicago Boys who were a group of Chilean economists prominent around the 1970s and 1980s, the majority of whom were educated at the Department of Economics of the UOC under Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger. Most of them were put into government ranks in the chilean cabinet transforming chile from a developing hermit state into Latin America's best performing economy and one of the world's most business-friendly nations.
Anti-socialists and Anti-communists have always glorified Augusto Pinochet for repelling Marxism from Chile by implementing extrimist right wing and free market policies. This has led to confusion as Augusto Pinochet is usually considered a corrupt and tyrannical dictator.
So then who was Augusto Pinochet?
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean Army General, politician and military dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being self-declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and becoming the de facto dictator of Chile and after from 1981 to 1990 as de jure President after a new Constitution, which confirmed him in the office, was approved by a referendum in 1980.
How did Pinochet come to power in the first place?
On 11 September 1973, Pinochet seized power in Chile in a coup d'état, with the support of the U.S that toppled Allende's democratically elected Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule. In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation by joint decree, although without the support of one of the coup's instigators, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh.
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.
After stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with his 1980 Constitution. However, Pinochet was arrested under an international arrest warrant on a visit to London on 10 October 1998 in connection with numerous human rights violations. Following a legal battle, he was released on grounds of ill-health and returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. 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 on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his 17-year rule, as well as tax evasion and embezzlement during and after his rule. He was also accused of having corruptly amassed at least US$28 million.
Economy under Pinochet:
Under the influence of the free market-oriented "Chicago Boys", Pinochet's military
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In our timeline Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet famously allowed his country to become an experimentation ground for neoliberal and Chicago School economics, thus ideologically making him a kind of authoritarian capitalist. Some people have accused his regime of fascism, but whilst his regime was certainly repressive these claims are generally discarded by academics. Regardless he did certainly have some fascist tendencies. So, what if he was as undisputably fascist as Mussolini or Hitler?
Murió en impunidad no solo por ser cómplice -incluso cabeza de la dictadura, según algunos-, sino que tampoco fue juzgada por malversación de fondos ni fraude al fisco.
