ABSTRACT
General Augusto Pinochet is undoubtedly among the most well-known and most discredited Latin American dictators of the twentieth century. He ruled Chile for 17 years in an extremely repressive way. Ironically, Pinochet was appointed as chief of the Army by the socialist President Salvador Allende, only 19 days before the military coup on September 11, 1973. Pinochet was not even among the organizers of the complot. Initially, the military government was intended to be short-lived. However, Pinochet soon managed to impose his will within the ruling Junta as representative of the army and chief of the armed forces. The Pinochet regime proved to be exceptional in terms of its longevity, stability, and capacity and made fundamental changes to local socioeconomic conditions, which have endured to a large extent. Pinochet became a victim of his own attempt to institutionalize his personal rule following the adoption of the 1980 constitution, which enabled the opposition forces to win the 1988 referendum and the 1989 general elections. Pinochet managed to survive politically beyond the end of his dictatorship in 1990, continuing to play a political role in Chile until his death in 2006. His 1998 arrest in London and subsequent corruption revelations had weakened him significantly, however.
