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Augusto Pinochet 1915 - 2006
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Image above:
Augusto Pinochet
Diego Goldberg—Sygma/Corbis |
Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, born November
25, 1915, was the man who overthrew Chile's President
Salvador
Allende and ruled the country himself from 1974 until
1990.
President Allende had appointed Augusto
Pinochet army commander in chief only 18 days before the coup, which
took place on September 11, 1973, and became the socialist
president's last day.
Allende, by the way was twice exhumed,
in 1990 and 2011. Cause of death: suicide.
Back to Pinochet.
Thanks to an old bodyguard trick, Pinochet
survived a solid assassination attempt on September 8, 1986.
Pinochet was riding in the fourth car in
a five-car motorcade in Santiago, Chile, instead of riding in the
second car, which is normally the position of the VIP's car.
Sure enough, at the next ambush a rocket
blew up the second car, killing all bodyguards inside. Pinochet
survived unharmed.
Check out
Assassinations in History.
In 1998, Pinochet made the mistake of
leaving his country to visit the United Kingdom.
Spain demanded extradition because several Spanish citizens, who had previous
encounters with the man, complained that his torture chambers weren't altogether
up to international human rights standards.
On October 16, 1998, the UK responded
by arresting Pinochet, then age 82 and still a Chilean senator with
a diplomatic passport, at the London Bridge hospital, where he
recovered from back surgery.
Little by little various other
countries came forward with accusations against Chile's dictator.
What did the British do?
Finding themselves between several
chairs, they decided via court rule
that Augusto Pinochet was not in a well enough physical condition for a trial
and sent him back home. The year? 2000.
The people of Chile brought Pinochet
to court. Due to skilled weaseling, Pinochet dodged many legal
bullets until his death on December 10, 2006, at a Santiago military
hospital. A week prior he had had a heart attack.
Here is a map of Chile
Chile 1974
And here is more on
Human Rights in History.
More History
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