Pinochet Rise to Power essay

Analyze the methods used by Pinochet to obtain power and to what extent did Pinochet follow the aims of his declared ideology? Olivier Fontenelle Interlake High School, Bellevue, Washington 6/24/2009 Word Count: 1973 Olivier Fontenelle 6/24/09 AP/IB US History Mr. Oliveira Pinochet: Socialist Hunter Dictators have always been extremely interesting people because of their fearlessness, ruthlessness and because human nature is naturally attracted to violence. Dictators rise on all continents and have existed since the beginning of civilization, which is why it is so important to study them. They usually have much graver impacts than average rulers. Augusto Pinochet rose to power in Chile due to the lack of support for previous President Allende, even inside his own government which made easy for Pinochet to take over. Once in power, he followed his ideology diligently, tearing apart the social system created by his predecessor and installing a reign of terror on his country. The political and economic history of Chile is not only interesting in itself, but it is fundamental to the way that Pinochet took control of the government of Chile. On September 4th 1970, Salvador Allende was elected president of Chile with a tight majority of the popular vote at 36.2%. Under Allende, Chile quickly turned to a socialist form of government called La vía chilena al socialismo ("the Chilean Path to Socialism"). This included the nationalization of many industries, mainly mining, copper and banking. Land reform was also accelerated as much of the land that previously belonged to rich landowners was nationalized or distributed to its workers. A health care system was created, a revision of the educational system was enforced, a redistribution of income was passed, and wages rose as the government started controlling prices. However, 1971-1973 were catastrophic for the Chilean economy. Due to a drop in the price of copper, Chile’s main export, economic chaos ensued. inflation grew to 508% and the GDP fell by 5.6%. Allende tried to stop the economy to completely collapse, but in vain, chaos ensued. Due to this economic slump and to Allende’s response to the problems, many Chilean groups started to oppose him, such as landowners, businessmen, the US government and the Church. The US had a large impact on Chile’s economy, and President Nixon admitted to purposefully trying to worsen the economy to create a coup d’état. On June 29th 1973, a group of right-wing extremists in the army led by Colonel Souper tried to take over the government. The putsch was foiled by General Prats and General Pinochet who stopped Souper, without any casualties. Though this “Tanquetazo” as it was called failed, it is often referred to as the turning point in the deterioration of Chile’s society. Starting in August of 1973, the Chilean Supreme court and the Chamber of deputies (which included the National Party and Christian Democrats opposition parties) declared many of Allende’s actions unconstitutional, and accused Allende of not following Congress’ wishes. These people then demanded the military to “enforce constitutional order”. On August 24th, Allende appointed General Prats as Minister of Defense and placed Pinochet as the Army Commander in Chief in his place. This is a turning point for Pinochet because of Congress’ next actions. On August 22nd, the Chamber of Deputies created the document that would generate Chile’s coup d’état: The Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile’s Democracy, in which the Chilean Congress demanded of the army that they “put an immediate end to breaches of the Constitution . . . with the goal of redirecting government activity toward the path of Law and ensuring the Constitutional order of our Nation.” The document also attacked Allende for a number of crimes such as not following the demands of congress and other governmental agencies, controlling the media, illegally controlling emigration and lastly the illegal nationalization of farms. The Chamber of Deputies contacted Pinochet (the Army Commander in Chief) and on September 11th 1973, Pinochet started the coup. The navy took control of Valparaiso and cut off telephone and radio lines which forbade Allende from contacting anybody, including the generals in charge of the attack. By 9:00 AM, the army controlled all of Chile except for the Presidential Palace. Pinochet asked Allende to resign, but he refused. He then gave a farewell speech to the people of Chile, notifying people of the coup and of his unwillingness to surrender. Pinochet ordered an attack on the presidential palace, where the army slaughtered all of the occupants, including Allende. Pinochet’s takeover was relatively easy compared to many other coup d’états for many reasons. The first is that the coup was organized and sponsored by Congress itself, which overwhelmingly wanted to take down Allende’s government for years (Congress passed the fateful “Declaration of the breakdown of Chile’s Democracy” 81 to 47 votes). The United States had always wanted to take down Allende as well, proved by their failed covert operation Project FUBELT, designed to either stop Allende from taking power or unseat him. This operation spent at least $10 million. Most people of Chile were not behind Allende either (he only won the presidency with 36.2%), especially the middle and upper classes who opposed Allende’s socialist programs and the collapse of the Chilean economy during his term, which only brought him more opponents from the right-wing parties. Finally, Allende’s decision to make Pinochet the Army Commander in Chief gave him full control of the armed forces and at the same time made him the most important general in the coup d’état. Since he had control of the entire army, there were no forces to oppose him and his takeover and murder of Allende was extremely easy. Since Pinochet came to power due to the government and many Chileans’ hatred of Allende and his socialist programs and help from the Americans, Pinochet believed that it was his duty to undo Allende’s socialist programs. As a result, much of his ideology based itself on his hatred for socialism and Marxism, which had a huge impact on the welfare system Allende had set up, the labor unions, and the new political system. Pinochet declared that his goal was “to transform Chilean political institutions and to restructure both Chile’s society and economy” and blamed Chile’s problems on the politicians who were under the influence or Marxism and the USSR. According to him, only by taking away Chilean democracy as they knew it, purging the politicians and by destroying Marxism could Chile avoid complete disaster. Economically, he advocated the “Miracle of Chile”: lower taxes, selling state-run businesses and encouraging foreign investment. Immediately following the coup, on September 13th, the military Junta consisting of the major generals involved in the coup dissolved Congress and outlawed all political parties which were part of the Popular Unity coalition (the socialist parties). This is Pinochet’s first act against the socialists. All political activity was suspended “for the time being”. The other three generals then chose Pinochet as the permanent leader of the junta. For several months after the coup, Pinochet started an aggressive military purge against all socialists and Marxists. Between September 11th and November 7th, Pinochet held captive as many as 40,000 political opponents in the National Stadium of Chile, torturing and murdering many of them. He is also infamous for his “Caravan of Death” in which 70 political opponents were killed in October of 1973. In about three years, 130,000 people were arrested on accounts of being socialists, and the number of victims (dead or “disappeared”) extended to the thousands. Historians estimate that 3,000 to 5,000 people were killed during Pinochet’s rule between 1973 and 1988. In November 1973, Pinochet created the iniquitous DINA, or the Chilean secret police charged with the arrest, torture and even murder of thousands of Marxist, socialist or political opponents of the regime. DINA allowed detaining anybody as long as the declared national state of emergency continued. In 1975 Pinochet alongside other dictatorships in South America decided to create a huge continental purge of socialists, Marxists and Communists called Operation Condor. Chile and DINA played a major role in this operation that involved countries like Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and even Peru. The death toll is speculated to be around 60,000. Some other immediate actions taken by the Junta include: Outlawing Chile’s major labor confederation, the “Central Unica de Trabajadores” and its affiliates, as well as dissolved the two largest rural labor federations. Reduction in public services and public employment. Elimination of price control on a variety of products. Ending the subsidies for public enterprise Outlawing all socialist political parties or groups On September 11th, 1980, Pinochet and the military government created a new constitution which abolished all political parties which “advocated violence”, “undermined the family”, or were considered “contrary to morality, public order and national security.” These vague terms mean that Pinochet could outlaw any political party based on this broad definition. The main focus of the new constitution was national security and every citizen was forced to “honor the fatherland, defend its sovereignty, and contribute to the preservation of national security and the essential values of Chilean tradition.” The role of the army is not clearly defined in this constitution although it is asked to defend the “institutional order of the republic”, indicating that the armed forced would become a major player in politics. As soon as the military took over the government in 1973, the junta lost no time attacking the major labor organizations which the government believed was under the influence of Marxism – the source of the crisis in the first place. In the first months, the military: Prevented the unions to create petitions Annulled the right to strike and bargain collectively Nullified the right of existence of the CUT Allowed the layoff of workers involved in the “interruption or paralysis of work” Suspended mediation boards and assigned military leaders to hear labor disputes. Abolished election of union leaders Outlawed unions to meet without first telling the police and receiving approval from them to do so. The government thus systematically crushed unions and eliminated the leadership. It also infiltrated the unions with DINA which demoralized many workers who saw their rights revoked as wages dropped dramatically. Pinochet also removed many tariffs that protected the Chilean economy and thus created more unemployment, adding to the workers’ woes. Pinochet eliminated all of the leaders of labor unions and replaced them with military leaders which followed his ideology of eliminating welfare. To solve Chile’s economic problems, Pinochet employed the “Chicago Boys”, 25 year-old Chicago University economists who founded the Chile’ economic policy. Between 1973 and 1989, the junta cut deeply into wages and social security. Wages decreased by 8% during that time and family allowances were only 28% in1989 of what they were in 1970 under Allende. Health care, education and housing funding dropped by an average of 20%. The previous landholders recovered most of the land that they had lost when Allende came to power and nationalized the industry. The rest of the money was spent on military funding which increased by 120% between 1974 and 1979. Overall, Augusto Pinochet took power in Chile relatively easily due to the opposition to Allende’s program even inside his government, and being named Army Commander in Chief which let this dictator take power extremely easily. Pinochet’s ideology consisted of the elimination of all socialists in his country through the DINA and Operation Condor, the restructuration of the economy with the Chicago Boys and finally the elimination of all party opposition by creating the new 1980 Constitution. Pinochet followed his ideology closely and managed to achieve many of his goals, especially economic. Dictators must continue to be studied because they have always existed and there will be more of them in the future, but it is only by analyzing these fearless people that we can stop them from obtaining power and murdering thousands of innocents like Pinochet. Only by understanding the history of autocratic governments in certain countries can we truly understand them in the present day. Works Cited Codevilla, Angelo. "Is Pinochet the model?." Foreign Affairs 721993 Web.24 Jun 2009. . Collins, Stephen. "Now open - Pinochet's torture chambers ." Telegraph 16/12/2000 1. Web.24 Jun 2009. . "Chile," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2009 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2009 Microsoft Corporation. Kolodziej , Edward. "Foreign Policy & the Politics of Interdependence: The Nixon Presidency ." Polity 91976 Web.24 Jun 2009. . Kornbluh, Peter. "New Information on the Murders ." National Security Archive . Web.24 Jun 2009. . Loveman, Brian. "Military Dictatorship and Political Opposition in Chile." Journal of Interamerican studies and World Affairs 281986 1-38. Web.24 Jun 2009. . Miranda, Leonardo. "2006: el ocaso de los “cóndores mayores”." La National 13/12/2006 1. Web.24 Jun 2009. . "Operation Condor." 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