Government Junta of Chile (1973)

Installation of the regime

Main article: 1973 Chilean coup d'état

On 11 September 1973, the day of the coup, the military officers issued an Act of Constitution. The act established a junta government that immediately suspended the constitution, suspended Congress, imposed strict censorship and curfew, proscribed the leftist parties that had constituted Salvador Allende's Popular Unity coalition, and halted all political activity, effectively establishing a dictatorship. The judicial branch continued to operate under the Junta, and nominally had jurisdiction over its repressive activities, but rarely interfered.

The new junta was made up of General Augusto Pinochet representing the Army, General Gustavo Leigh representing the Air Force, Admiral José Toribio Merino representing the Navy, and General César Mendoza representing the Carabineros (police).

The Nixon administration, which had worked to create the conditions for the coup, promptly recognized the junta government and supported it in consolidating power.

History and leadership

Once the Junta was in power, General Pinochet soon consolidated his control. Since he was the commander-in-chief of the oldest branch of the military forces (the Army), he was made the head of the military junta. This position was originally to be rotated among the four branches, but was later made permanent. He began by retaining sole chairmanship of the junta as "Supreme Chief of the Nation" from 27 June 1974 until 17 December 1974, when he was proclaimed President. Gustavo Leigh, commander of the Air Force, opposed the consolidation of the legislative and executive branches, but agreed to Pinochet's presidency under pressure from Merino and Mendoza, who warned that the junta would split otherwise if he did not sign on.

General Leigh, head of the Air Force, became increasingly opposed to Pinochet's policies and the permanent state of military government. Pinochet eventually tired of Leigh's opposition and dismissed him from the regime in 1978, declaring him unfit for office and forcing him into retirement on 24 July 1978, in a very tense moment that almost caused a military insurrection. Air Force General Fernando Matthei replaced Leigh as junta member.

General Pinochet took over as President following a referendum that approved a new constitution. On 11 March 1981, he resigned his position in the Junta, and was replaced by the most senior General officer from the Army, who was nominated by himself. After that date, the Junta remained only as a legislative body under the presidency of Admiral Merino, until the return to democracy in 1990.

In 1985, three communists were found murdered, with their throats slit, by the side of a road. The guilty party turned out to be the Carabineros' secret service, and the Caso Degollados ("case of the slit throats") caused General César Mendoza's resignation on 2 August 1985. Mendoza was replaced by General Rodolfo Stange. Stange, who had risen through the ranks of the Carabineros to become General Subdirector of the police force in 1982, was appointed to General Director and served ex officio as a member of the military junta. Stange continued serving as general director after Pinochet's dictatorship ended in 1990.

Political repression and human rights abuses

*He shut down parliament, suffocated political life, banned trade unions, and made Chile his sultanate. His government disappeared 3,000 opponents, arrested 30,000 (torturing thousands of them) ... Pinochet's name will forever be linked to the *[Enforced disappearances in Chile

Desaparecidos]]'', the [[Caravan of Death]], and the institutionalized torture that took place in the [[Villa Grimaldi]] complex.''

Immediately after the [coup the junta moved to crush their left-wing opposition.

Many of the exiled were received abroad, in particular in Argentina, East Germany and Sweden, as political refugees; however, they were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the frame of Operation Condor which linked South-American dictatorships together against political opponents. Intelligence agencies including the United States CIA worked to assassinate many of those in exile around the world, including former Chilean ambassador to the United States Orlando Letelier and, allegedly, former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva (1964–70).

Leaders

Notes

References

1. [https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1212/p06s01-woam.html "Controversial legacy of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet ...Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew Chile's democratically elected Communist government in a 1973 coup ..."] {{webarchive. link. (16 May 2008 , ''The Christian Science Monitor'', 11 December 2006)
2. [https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,907929-1,00.html "CHILE: The Bloody End of a Marxist Dream"], ''Time Magazine'', Quote: "....Allende's downfall had implications that reached far beyond the borders of Chile. His had been the first democratically elected Marxist government in Latin America..."
3. Arriagada Herrara, Genaro. (1988). "Pinochet: The Politics of Power". Allen & Unwin.
4. Stern, Steve J.. (8 September 2004). "Remembering Pinochet's Chile". Duke University Press.
5. Winn, Peter. (2010). ["A Century of Revolution"]({{Google books). Duke University Press.
6. [[Peter Kornbluh]] (11 September 2013). ''[[The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability]]''. [[The New Press]]. {{ISBN. 1595589120
7. Lubna Z. Qureshi. ''Nixon, Kissinger, and Allende: U.S. Involvement in the 1973 Coup in Chile.'' Lexington Books, 2009. {{ISBN. 0739126563
8. Peter Kornbluh. (19 September 2000). "CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression: Report to Congress Reveals U.S. Accountability in Chile". National Security Archive.
9. Ensalaco, Mark. 2000. Chile Under Pinochet : Recovering the Truth. Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
10. Barros, Robert. La Junta militar: Pinochet y la Constitución de 1980. Sudamericana, 2005.
11. Carmen Gardeweg: ''El general Leigh: pensamiento y sentimiento 48 horas después de ser destituido en 1978''. La Segunda, 30 de septiembre de 1999, página 8.
12. [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADED93AF54A141&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM 25 Chilean Soldiers Arrested in Burning of US Resident]
13. (2006-03-29). "Bachelet sobre caso degollados: "Fue uno de los momentos más tristes de mi vida"".
14. link. (15 June 2007 ''[[National Review]]'' Symposium, 11 December 2006)
15. "THE SERIES OF REPARATIONS PROGRAMS IN CHILE".