The Pinochet Dictatorship & Its Consequences

1973–1990: The Darkest Years

The military dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990) is the most traumatic chapter in Chilean history and continues to have repercussions today. On September 11, 1973 — a date that holds a completely different significance in Chile than in the USA — the Chilean Air Force bombed the presidential palace La Moneda, where the democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende had barricaded himself. Allende died (whether by suicide or murder remains disputed), and Pinochet seized power.

What followed was a systematic regime of terror:

• Over 3,200 people were murdered or “disappeared" (Detenidos Desaparecidos)
• Over 40,000 people were tortured — in the Estadio Nacional de Chile (where soccer is played today), in Villa Grimaldi, and in secret torture centers across the country
• 200,000 Chileans fled into exile — many to Germany (the Chilean community in Berlin-Kreuzberg still exists today)
• The DINA (secret police) operated internationally: Former Chilean army commander General Carlos Prats was murdered in Buenos Aires in 1974, diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington D.C. in 1976
• The Colonia Dignidad — a sect founded by German ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer in southern Chile — served as a torture center for the DINA

At the same time, Pinochet implemented a radically neoliberal economic policy (designed by the “Chicago Boys", Chilean economists who studied at the University of Chicago): Privatization of health, education, pensions, water, and even roads. This economic order brought growth but also extreme inequality, which continues to have effects today.

The Return to Democracy

1988 saw Pinochet lose a self-imposed referendum (Plebiscito) on his continued rule — the film “No!" (2012) starring Gael García Bernal tells this story vividly. In 1990, Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin became the first democratic president after the dictatorship.

The reckoning is still not complete: The Rettig Commission and the Valech Commission documented the crimes, but many perpetrators were never punished. Pinochet himself died in 2006, never having been convicted — although the arrest warrant issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón in 1998 in London caused a stir.

Memorial Sites

• Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Santiago): The most important dictatorship museum in Chile. Harrowing, brilliantly curated, a must-visit. Free admission
• Villa Grimaldi (Santiago): Former DINA torture center, now a peace park and memorial. Free
• Estadio Nacional: In September 1973, thousands of political prisoners were rounded up and tortured here. A memorial plaque commemorates this
• Estadio Víctor Jara: Formerly Estadio Chile — where singer Víctor Jara was tortured and murdered. Now named after him