Overview
On September 11, 1973, Chile's military, led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, overthrew the elected socialist president Salvador Allende, ending a 46-year history of democratic rule. [U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian] Pinochet ruled for more than 16 years, until voters rejected him in a plebiscite on October 5, 1988. [Encyclopaedia Britannica] Free elections then brought Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin to the presidency on March 11, 1990. [Encyclopaedia Britannica]
Crisis and pretext
Allende won just over a third of the popular vote in 1970, and on October 24 Chile's Congress confirmed him as president by a large margin. [U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian] Falling copper prices badly hurt Chile's balance of payments, and economic problems led to a series of demonstrations and strikes from 1971 to 1973. [U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian] In June 1973 Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Souper led a failed coup attempt. [U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian]
The coup and the junta
Allende died at the presidential palace in the final hours of the coup. A forensic autopsy announced in 2011 concluded that he killed himself. [Al Jazeera, July 20, 2011] A junta of three generals and an admiral took power, with Pinochet as its president. [Encyclopaedia Britannica] In June 1974 Pinochet took sole power as president. [Encyclopaedia Britannica]
Seizing the institutions
Pinochet dismantled Congress and outlawed many leftist political parties. [U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian] The junta dissolved Congress in September 1973 and suspended all political party activity on September 27, 1973. [University of Central Arkansas, Dynamic Analysis of Dispute Management Project] The Communists, Socialists and Radicals were banned, and in 1977 the traditional parties were dissolved. [Encyclopaedia Britannica]
Repression: the Caravan of Death and DINA
In its first three years the regime arrested about 130,000 people, many of whom were tortured. [Encyclopaedia Britannica] In October 1973 an army unit known as the “Caravan of Death” killed as many as 75 political prisoners in provincial towns. In 2008 Chile's Supreme Court sentenced its commander, Gen. Sergio Arellano Stark, to six years in prison. [JURIST, October 2008] The National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) acted as a secret police from the start. It was replaced in 1977 by the National Information Center (CNI). [Federation of American Scientists] In September 1976 DINA agents assassinated Orlando Letelier, Chile's former ambassador to the United States, in Washington, D.C. [Federation of American Scientists]
The legal façade
A new constitution was approved with 67 percent of the vote in a referendum on September 11, 1980, a vote Britannica describes as “tightly controlled.” [Encyclopaedia Britannica] The constitution gave Pinochet an eight-year term and provided for a national referendum on whether he would serve another eight years. [Encyclopaedia Britannica] A 1978 amnesty decreed by the military government covered abuses committed between September 1973 and March 1978. [Human Rights Watch, World Report 1992]
The documented U.S. role
The United States used covert funds in Chile to try to prevent Allende's 1970 election, and officials considered a covert plan known as Track II to organize a military coup. [U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian] The CIA's 2000 report to Congress said the agency did not instigate the 1973 coup. It also said the agency knew of the plotting, had intelligence relationships with some plotters, and supported the junta after Allende fell. [CIA, “CIA Activities in Chile” (2000), hosted by FAS] The report disclosed that DINA chief Manuel Contreras was a paid CIA asset in 1975. [National Security Archive] A 1975 Senate committee found little evidence linking the U.S. government to the coup itself, and the Office of the Historian notes that the debate continues. [U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian]
How it ended
In the October 1988 plebiscite, 55 percent voted “no” and 43 percent voted “yes.” [Encyclopaedia Britannica] Pinochet remained army commander until 1998 and then became a senator for life. Later in 1998 British authorities detained him in London on a Spanish extradition request. [Encyclopaedia Britannica] The Rettig truth commission, reporting on March 4, 1991, documented 2,279 cases of political execution and disappearance. [Human Rights Watch, World Report 1992] By 2011 later commissions had officially recognized 40,018 people killed, tortured or imprisoned for political reasons, including 3,065 killed or disappeared. [MercoPress, August 19, 2011] Pinochet died on December 10, 2006, without having been tried for the human rights abuses. [Encyclopaedia Britannica]
Timeline
Chile's Congress confirms Salvador Allende as president. Source: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
A failed coup attempt is led by Lt. Col. Roberto Souper. Source: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
The military overthrows Allende, who dies during the assault on the presidential palace. A four-member junta headed by Pinochet takes power. Source: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian
Having dissolved Congress earlier in the month, the junta suspends all political party activity. Source: University of Central Arkansas, Dynamic Analysis of Dispute Management Project
The “Caravan of Death” kills as many as 75 political prisoners. Source: JURIST
Chilean agents assassinate Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. Source: University of Central Arkansas, Dynamic Analysis of Dispute Management Project
A new constitution is approved in a referendum. Source: University of Central Arkansas, Dynamic Analysis of Dispute Management Project
Voters reject Pinochet in a plebiscite, 55 percent to 43 percent. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Elected president Patricio Aylwin takes office. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Rettig truth commission report is released. Source: Human Rights Watch, World Report 1992
Lessons for the playbook
The 1980 constitution scheduled the referendum that ended the dictatorship: it required a national vote on another eight-year term, and Pinochet lost it. [Encyclopaedia Britannica] Losing that vote did not leave Pinochet unprotected. He stayed army commander until 1998, became a senator for life, and died without facing trial. [Encyclopaedia Britannica] Truth commissions and declassified records turned contested accounts into an official record. By 2011 Chile's official count of political victims had reached 40,018. [MercoPress]
Analytical lens
Concepts on this wiki that help explain this case: Self-coup, Regime types. For how a coup differs from gradual executive aggrandizement, compare this case with the trajectories in the main guide's Democracy in Numbers section.