Augusto Pinochet Ugarte
Country: Chile.
Kill tally: At least 3,197 killed following the 1973 military coup d'état.
Background: Chile is invaded and colonised by the Spanish in the first half of the 16th Century. The country achieves full independence in 1818 and slowly emerges as one of the most stable, reformist and representative democracies in the world. Following the Second World War, Chile's economy suffers a downturn. The country is further destabilised in September 1970 when Salvador Allende Gossens, a Marxist standing for the Popular Unity leftist coalition and promising to extend social reforms and introduce a socialist system, is elected president. Allende has a long-standing association with the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvenoi Bezopasnosti), the Soviet secret police force, and his election campaign has been heavily financed by the Soviets. More background.
Mini biography: Born on 25 November 1915 in the Pacific coastal port of Valparaiso, Chile. His father is a middle-class customs official whose family had immigrated from Brittany in northwest France in the early 18th Century. His mother is descended from immigrants from the Basque region of northern Spain. Pinochet is the oldest of six children.
1933 - He is accepted into the Chilean Escuela Militar (military school) for a four-year officers training course, graduating with the rank of sub-lieutenant in 1937 and receiving a commission in the infantry. By 1939 he has risen in rank to second lieutenant, becoming a full lieutenant in 1941.
1943 - Pinochet marries Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez, the daughter of a former member of Chile's parliament. The couple will have two sons, Augusto and Marco Antonio, and three daughters, Lucía, Verónica and Jacqueline.
1948 - While commanding a prison camp for communists Pinochet meets Salvador Allende for the first time when Allende, a doctor and Socialist senator, travels to the camp to visit the prisoners.
1949 - Pinochet continues his studies at the Academia de Guerra (War Academy). He is designated a general staff officer in 1951 and transferred to the Escuela Militar in a supervisory role. He also teaches classes at the War Academy. Between 1953 and 1972 he will author five books on geopolitics, geography and military history.
1953 - Now a major, Pinochet is transferred for two years field duty with the Rancagua regiment in Arica on the northern coastal border with Peru. Here he is involved in a military clampdown on the Communist Party of Chile, commanding a detention camp and disbanding local communist unions.
1955 - He returns to the War Academy in Santiago as a professor and begins to study law at the University of Chile, though his studies are suspended the following year when he is sent to Ecuador to help organise a military mission. During 1956 he also serves as a military attaché in Washington.
1959 - Pinochet returns to Chile from Ecuador late in the year and in 1960 is made commander of the Esmeralda regiment. In 1963 he is named as a subdirector of the War Academy. In 1966 he is made a colonel.
1968 - He is promoted to brigadier-general and named as commander-in-chief of the 6th division, headquartered in Iquique in the north of the country.
1970 - In September, following Salvador Allende's victory in the Chilean presidential vote, United States President Richard M. Nixon orders the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to do all it can to prevent Allende from being inaugurated.
Under the supervision of national security adviser Henry Kissinger the CIA will develop the so-called 'Track II' plan to oust Allende, allocating US$10 million while formally insulating the US embassy in Chile from any involvement.
The CIA attempts to bribe key Chilean legislators and funds a group of military officers plotting a coup, providing a further payment of US$35,000 following the assassination on 22 October of General Rene Schneider, the commander-in-chief of the army, who had refused to approve the coup plan.
One CIA document from October states, "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup. ... It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG (US Government) and American hand be well hidden."
Meanwhile, Soviet agents begin to move into Chile in force following Allende's victory. Soviet paramilitary instructors use Chile as a base for the training of insurgents from across Latin America.
1971 - Blaming the capitalist system for Chile's economic woes, Allende's Popular Unity (UP) coalition government moves quickly to socialise the economy, nationalising the country's US-controlled copper mines, other foreign-controlled businesses and industries, banks and large rural estates. The management of many factories is turned over to the workers and the state. Salaries and wages are lifted while prices are held down. The subsequent growth in demand sees employment levels rise.
The socialisation program is initially popular and successful but by 1972, as the economy goes into dramatic decline, opposition to Allende and the UP begins to escalate.
Already strained relations with the US are further stretched by the government's recognition of Cuba, China, North Korea and North Vietnam and by its continued cultivation of ties with the Soviet Union. The US responds by withdrawing financial assistance and blocking loans, although aid to the Chilean military is doubled.
Covertly the CIA continues to work to destabilise the UP government, providing up to US$7 million in funding to opposition groups in order to "create pressures, exploit weaknesses, magnify obstacles" and hasten Allende's downfall.
In January Pinochet is appointed major-general and given command of the Santiago garrison. The following year he wins Allende's trust when he is able to bring some order to the capital during a general strike. "I will not tolerate agents of chaos no matter what their political ideology," Pinochet says at the time.
1972 - The government attempts to revive the economy by increasing spending. The result is hyperinflation, reaching an annual rate of more than 500%, and complete economic paralysis. Racked by internal division and external opposition the government is unable to act.
Pinochet is named chief-major-general of the army general staff.
1973 - Parliamentary elections held in March are inconclusive and fail to resolve the political deadlock, although the UP does increase its vote. Street demonstrations against the government become an almost daily event, with protests coming from both the left and the right. Workplace shutdowns and lockouts are also commonplace.
The CIA finances strikes by transport workers and shopkeepers, is implicated in the sabotage of public infrastructure and infiltrates all of the parties in the UP. Almost one third of the staff at the US embassy in Santiago are now on the CIA payroll.
On 23 August Allende promotes Pinochet to commander-in-chief of the army, mistakenly believing that Pinochet can still be trusted to remain neutral.
Meanwhile, members of the armed forces are finalising their plans for a coup. While it now appears that Pinochet was not involved in the planning and was not informed of it until three days before the event when the coup is launched he is firmly in charge.
On 11 September the military strike, first taking Santiago in a violent offensive during which Pinochet orders air strikes on the presidential palace and then securing the provinces.
Allende dies defending the presidential palace, probably by his own hand. Many of his aides are arrested then transported to a military base, where they are executed and buried. In the provinces the notorious 'Caravan of Death' targets political opponents, summarily executing at least 72.
The military form a four-man junta headed by Pinochet and composed of the commanders-in-chief of the army, navy, air force and police and embark on a campaign to remove the influence of the UP from all social institutions.
A state of siege is declared, martial law is introduced and parliament is closed. The media is censored, universities are purged, books are burned, Marxist political parties are outlawed and union activities are banned. Thousands are murdered or "disappeared". Thousands more are jailed or forced to leave the country. Torture is commonplace. Up to one million will flee into self-imposed exile.
It is reported that up to 250,000 people are detained in the first months following the coup. Stadiums, military bases and naval vessels have to be used as short-term prisons. At least five new prison camps are established for political prisoners.
The newly formed secret police (National Intelligence Directorate - DINA) create a reign of terror at home and organise the assassinations of opponents in exile abroad. Civilian courts are supplanted with military tribunals.
According to General Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, the head of DINA, Pinochet receives daily briefing about the activities of the secret police. The US Defence Intelligence Agency also reports in 1975 that Pinochet "issues instructions on DINA, is aware of its activities and in fact heads it." The US embassy corroborates the report, stating that "DINA reports directly to Pinochet and is ultimately controlled by him alone."
Nevertheless, the US quickly recognises the junta and reinstates financial aid.
1974 - General Carlos Prats, a former Chilean military commander-in-chief who refused to join the coup then sought asylum in Argentina, is assassinated on 30 September when a bomb blows up his car in the garage of his Buenos Aires apartment building. Prats fled Chile after the coup because of his ties with Allende. The bomb is thought to have been planted by DINA on the order of Pinochet. Prats' wife, Sofia Cuthbert, is also killed in the explosion.
Pinochet takes complete control of Chile on 11 December when he is named president. Over the next 15 years he will rule the country as an iron-fisted autocrat in the mode of his admired role-model, the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
1975 - On 25 November the intelligence services of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay launch 'Operation Condor', an information gathering and sharing alliance designed to eliminate Marxist terrorist activities in South America.
According to a US Federal Bureau of Investigation officer working in Argentina at the time, "Chile is the centre for 'Operation Condor'." The officer also reports that, "A ... most secret phase of 'Operation Condor' involves the formation of special teams from member countries who are to travel anywhere in the world to non-member countries to carry out sanctions up to assassination against terrorists or supporters of terrorist organisations from 'Operation Condor' member countries."
Also in November Pinochet travels to Spain to attend the funeral of Francisco Franco.
Meanwhile, the CIA establishes contact with Manuel Contreras, the head of the Chilean secret police. Contreras is a key player in Operation Condor. In August he travels to Washington and meets with CIA Deputy Director, General Vernon Walters. He will also receive a one-off payment from the CIA.
Back in Chile the junta turns its attention to the economy, introducing free-market policies, slashing welfare and reducing the size of the government. Trade barriers are removed, a central bank is established, wages are cut, income taxes are lowered and the social security system is privatised. Inflation is curbed and property returned to its original owners. All companies nationalised by the Allende government are returned to private ownership. Growth accelerates but unemployment stays high.
Though the country falls into recession in 1975 growth accelerates in 1976 and remains high into the 1980s. Unemployment, however, also stays high.
In Washington a US Senate investigation finds that the Nixon administration backed the 1973 coup.
1976 - During the year the body of the communist activist Marta Ugarte is found washed up on a beach in Chile. It is later revealed that Ugarte's body, along with those of up to 500 other Chileans executed following the coup, was weighted with a piece of railroad track then dumped from a helicopter into the Pacific Ocean as part of an organised program to hide evidence of human rights violations.
On 21 September Orlando Letelier, a former ambassador to the US and defence minister under Allende, is assassinated in Washington by Cuban exiles operating on the orders of Pinochet's secret police. Letelier has been targeted as part of the Operation Condor alliance.
1977 - The inauguration of Jimmy Carter as US president combined with the assassination of Letelier leads to a cooling of relations between Chile and the US. Relations between the two countries will continue to decline through the administrations Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
Pinochet announces that there will be no early return to democracy. The junta alone will determine when civilian government will be reinstated. As head of state and commander-in-chief of the military he exerts absolute control over the country and ensures that his cronies control all key posts.
Military officers are appointed as mayors of towns and cities throughout the country. Former military personnel also take control of universities, purging faculties of all suspected of left-wing sympathies.
The state of siege is lifted and replaced with a state of emergency. The National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) is abolished and replaced by the National Information Centre.
The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Commission condemns the Pinochet regime for its practice of torturing detainees.
1978 - Pinochet allows a referendum on the legitimacy of his regime then claims that more than 75% of the voters have endorsed his rule. When the commander of the Chilean air force, Gustavo Leigh Guzmán, begins to question the legitimacy of the junta and call for an early return to civilian rule Pinochet has him forcibly dismissed. Pinochet's position is now unassailable. An amnesty law is passed to protect military officers accused of human rights abuses committed since the 1973 coup.
Meanwhile, the military extends its program to hide the evidence of human rights violations committed during the coup, exhuming the remains of the "disappeared" and disposing of them elsewhere. As with the bodies of the executed many of the remains are dumped from helicopters into the Pacific Ocean. Many others are burnt. The order for the clean-up comes directly from Pinochet, who threatens to "retire" any commander if bodies continue to be found in his jurisdiction.
1980 - Pinochet introduces a new constitution allowing him to remain as president until 1989. The new constitution also entrenches the military's domination of the government and allows Pinochet to restrict freedom of association and speech and to arrest or exile any citizen, with no rights of appeal except to Pinochet himself.
The political activities of unions and community organisations are restricted and politicians are barred from advocacy roles for such groups. Local governments are abolished and Pinochet is given the power to dissolve the House of Representatives. The constitution cannot be amended without approval from Pinochet. A plebiscite is scheduled for 1988-89 to determine if he will have an additional eight years in office. When the constitution is ratified by a reportedly fraudulent plebiscite the Communist Party of Chile calls for armed insurrection.
1982 - The economy flounders then goes into recession, sparking protests against the regime and leaving more than a third of the workforce unemployed. Demonstrations become more widespread during the 1980s as political parties begin to resurface. In 1982 the prominent trade unionist Tucapel Jimenez is assassinated by the military.
1984 - Pinochet declares a state of siege in November and cracks down on the demonstrators.
"I am a man fighting for a just cause; the fight between Christianity and spiritualism on the one hand and Marxism and materialism on the other," he says during the year. "I get my strength from God."
1985 - Chile's various political parties put aside their differences and unit against Pinochet's regime, signing the 'National Accord for Transition to Full Democracy'. The accord calls for a transition to civilian rule, the legalisation of all political activity, an end to restrictions on civil liberties and free, direct presidential elections. Pinochet rejects the document and uses a "divide and rule" strategy to undermine the accord.
1986 - On 7 September an armed wing of the Communist Party stages an unsuccessful attempt on Pinochet's life. Five bodyguards are killed but Pinochet is unharmed. The assassination attempt is the final nail in the coffin of the accord and unleashes a new round of military terror against the left.
1987 - With the plebiscite to determine if Pinochet will remain in office looming, opposition leaders form a loose coalition to support and promote a "no" vote. As the date approaches cooperation between the opposition parties increases to the point where they are viewed as a credible alternative to continued military rule.
1988 - The plebiscite is held on 5 October. The next day Pinochet announces his defeat. Nearly 55% of the electorate have voted to end his regime. Pinochet's dictatorship has effectively come to an end. Democracy has been restored democratically, although the political climate remains volatile as the opposition and military begin to negotiate the transition process.
1989 - Constitutional reforms overwhelming ratified by a plebiscite on 30 July remove some of the more draconian provisions in the 1980 document. Unions and community organisations are freed to actively participate in the political process, exile is prohibited and restrictions on the process for amending the constitution are loosened. The power of the president and the executive is reduced. However, the military retain significant control of the parliament.
Elections for president and parliament are held on 14 December. They are the first elections in 19 years. Patricio Aylwin, the leader of the Christian Democrats, wins the presidency with 55% of the vote. The Coalition of Parties for Democracy, comprising 14 opposition groups, wins a majority of seats in the parliamentary vote, although not enough to offset designated senators to be appointed by Pinochet, who is to remain as commander-in-chief of the army until 1998.
The new government establishes the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation to inquire into human rights abuses committed during Pinochet's rule. Its report finds the security forces were responsible for 2,115 deaths, including those of 957 detainees who disappeared. The secret police, accused of responsibility for 392 of the disappearances, is disbanded.
Pinochet dismisses the report's findings, saying that those who disappeared "were nothing but bandits."
He also warns that attempts to bring military personnel to trial for the abuses of his regime will not be tolerated. "The day they touch one of my men, the rule of law ends," he declares in 1991.
1992 - The National Corporation for Reconciliation and Reparation is formed to continue the work of the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation. In 1996 the corporation finds the Pinochet regime responsible for the death or disappearance of 3,197 people between September 1973 and March 1990. Of these 1,102 are classified as "disappearances" and 2,095 as deaths.
1993 - About 600 military officers are named as having committed human rights abuses during the Pinochet regime.
Meanwhile, Pinochet is fitted with a heart pacemaker. Along with an ongoing heart complaint he suffers from diabetes and arthritis.
1995 - The former chief of the Chilean secret police, Manuel Contreras, and his deputy are convicted and imprisoned for their role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier, ambassador to the US under Allende, in Washington in 1976. Contreras receives a seven year sentence. In 1997 he claims that Pinochet had ordered the killing of Letelier. In November 2004 he tells 'The New York Times' that Pinochet had known about and approved of all his actions.
1996 - A Spanish judge rules that his court has jurisdiction in a case of international terrorism, genocide and crimes against humanity brought against Pinochet by the families of some of the victims of his regime. The charges allege that agents of the regime working under the Operation Condor alliance killed or attempted to kill individuals in the US, Argentina, Italy and other countries and cite the findings of the Chilean National Corporation for Reconciliation and Reparation.
1998 - Pinochet steps down as commander-in-chief of the army on 10 March but becomes a senator for life. He remains immune from prosecution for his role in the human rights abuses of his regime and is given the honorary title of commander-in-chief emeritus of the Chilean Army.
In September Pinochet travels to Britain to undergo surgery for a back complaint, believing his immunity from prosecution stretches worldwide. However, on 16 October the British police act on a warrant issued from Spain and arrest him in his hospital bed. The warrant requests Pinochet's extradition to Spain to face charges relating to the abduction of the leader of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left from Argentina in April 1976. The abduction had been coordinated between the military regimes of Argentina and Chile under the Operation Condor alliance.
A famous and lengthy court case follows during which Pinochet is held under house arrest at the Wentworth estate in Surrey. The British High Court initially rules in Pinochet's favour but on 25 November the House of Lords upholds the extradition request, a decision that is ratified the following month by British Home Secretary Jack Straw. Pinochet's legal team appeal.
1999 - In March the High Court rejects the appeal. The home secretary again ratifies the extradition request. Pinochet's team launches a further appeal but in October this is also rejected.
2000 - On 11 January the home secretary reverses the decision to extradite Pinochet after a panel of doctors finds Pinochet medically unfit to stand trial. Pinochet is released on 2 March and allowed to return to Chile. He has spent 503 days under house arrest. But he is not yet free of the law.
On 8 August the Chilean Supreme Court rules to lift Pinochet's immunity from prosecution so he can be charged with 18 of the kidnappings and 57 of the executions carried out during the Caravan of Death that followed the 1973 coup. The efforts to prove that he is medically unfit for trial are renewed.
Meanwhile, a monument to Salvador Allende is unveiled on the plaza in front of the presidential palace in Santiago, where he died. In 2003 a plaque dedicated to him is installed inside the palace at the spot where he fell.
In the US the administration of President Bill Clinton opens an investigation into the assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington in 1976, sending a team from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Chile to interview witnesses. The investigation recommends that the US indict Pinochet in relation to the killing. The recommendation will never be followed through.
2001 - In January Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia questions Pinochet on the circumstances surrounding the Caravan of Death. It is the first time the former dictator has been legally called to account for the human rights abuses of his regime.
As a result Pinochet is charged and placed under house arrest in his Santiago mansion on 30 January. He is released on bail on 11 April. On 9 July Chile's Appeals Court rules that Pinochet is mentally unfit for trial due to dementia.
On 10 September the family of General Rene Schneider, the former commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army who was assassinated in 1970 after refusing to endorse a military coup against the Allende government, announce that it intends to sue the US Government and Henry Kissinger, the US national security adviser at the time of Schneider's death, for allegedly plotting the assassination. Kissinger denies any involvement.
Schneider's death is also related to the abduction and murder of US journalist Charles Horman shortly after the 1973 coup. Horman, whose story was later dramatised in the film 'Missing', had been investigating the death.
2002 - In June Judge Guzmán announces that extradition proceedings may be launched against Henry Kissinger in an attempt to force him to travel to Chile and appear before a judicial investigation into CIA involvement in the coup. The investigation is seeking to determine whether US officials passed the names of suspected left-wing Americans to Chilean military authorities - the existence of such a list having been verified by declassified documents.
Kissinger is wanted for questioning about circumstances surrounding the death of Charles Horman.
On 1 July Chile's Supreme Court reaffirms that Pinochet cannot be put of trial because of his ill-health. Judge Guzmán is ordered to halt his Caravan of Death case against the former dictator. Three days later Pinochet resigns as senator for life, formally ending his political career. According to his son, Pinochet made his decision "as a contribution to social peace in Chile". Pinochet had not attended the Senate since 1998.
Pinochet's letter of resignation states that his health prevents him from properly carrying out his duties as a senator. His withdrawal from public life has been made with a "clean conscience". Though "there still remain too many passions" to expect "a verdict that is objective, serene and, above all, fair", history would honour his "soldierly sacrifice".
2003 - On 25 February the former chief of the Chilean secret police, Manuel Contreras, and his deputy are again arrested for their role in an assassination organised during Pinochet's reign. The two are charged with plotting the 1974 assassination of General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires. Contreras will be sentenced to two life terms for the murders.
In July a group of former high-ranking members of the Pinochet regime issue a statement apologising for human rights violations that occurred following the 1973 coup. "We lament the pain these events have produced," the statement says. "Apart from understanding the origin of the military government and valuing its work, we recognise the problems in the area of human rights, which must never be repeated."
Signatories include a former interior minister, Pinochet's former second-in-command and a former defence minister.
Meanwhile, in a rare interview broadcast by the Miami-based Spanish language television station WDLP-22 on 24 November, Pinochet says he has no regrets about his time in power and refuses to apologise for the abuses of his regime.
"I never aspired to be a dictator because ... I considered that to be a dictator would end badly," Pinochet says. "I always acted in a democratic way. ... Who shall I ask to be pardoned by? They say I should ask for forgiveness, what shall I ask to be forgiven for? ... I feel like an angel. I have no resentment."
Pinochet says he is writing an autobiography titled 'Caminos Recorridos' (The Roads I Have Travelled) and reveals that he has drafted a letter to be released after his death which will describe "the truth" of what happened.
"I am a man who does not carry any hate in his heart," Pinochet says. "I don't want future generations to think badly of me. I want them to know what really happened."
Following the broadcast, Chilean lawyers announce that they will resume their efforts to have Pinochet prosecuted for human rights abuses, saying that the interview indicated that the former dictator is medically fit to stand trial.
2004 - By the middle of the year 311 former military personnel, including 21 army generals, have been convicted or are facing charges for human rights violations committed during the Pinochet era. For many cases the judiciary is able to get around the amnesty law introduced by Pinochet in 1978 by ruling that it does not apply to continuing crimes such as unsolved disappearances.
On 14 July the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations releases a report into the Washington-based Riggs Bank that finds that from 1994 to 2002 the bank helped Pinochet hide US$4-8 million in multiple accounts and two offshore shell companies.
According to the report, Riggs "served as a long-standing personal banker for Mr Pinochet and deliberately assisted him in the concealment and movement of his funds while he was under investigation (in Britain) and the subject of a worldwide court order freezing his assets."
The report also cites a Riggs client profile estimating Pinochet's entire fortune at between US$50 million and US$100 million.
Five days later, on 19 July, US President George W. Bush announces that the US Government will fully investigate the bank's dealings. In Chile the State Defence Council begins an investigation into the evidence in the Riggs report and the origins of Pinochet's fortune. Chilean lawyers, meanwhile, file criminal charges against Pinochet for fraud, bribery, money laundering and other financial crimes. A judicial investigation is also opened into whether Pinochet has been involved in tax fraud and the misappropriation of funds.
At the same time, other investigations are being conducted into the business dealings of 38 of Pinochet's relatives, including his wife, his five children and various grandchildren, siblings and cousins.
On 26 August the Supreme Court rules that Pinochet's immunity from prosecution should be lifted for the case involving the disappearance of 19 leftists in the mid-1970s during Operation Condor. The decision opens the possibility that Pinochet may finally go to trial for the human rights abuses of his regime.
On 15 September Pinochet is admitted to hospital with "an acute respiratory condition and for evaluation of his diabetes".
On 25 September Judge Guzmán questions Pinochet about his role in the Operation Condor disappearances. It is only the second time Pinochet has been legally called to account for the human rights abuses of his regime.
According to media reports following the questioning, Pinochet tells the judge that he has no knowledge of the disappearances and claims that mid-level military officers coordinated Operation Condor.
Further medical tests to determine weather Pinochet is fit to stand trial are inconsistent, with court-appointed doctors chosen by Judge Guzmán and Pinochet's defence finding that the former dictator does suffer from moderate dementia while a doctor chosen by the lawyers for the victims finds he is competent and could stand trial.
Meanwhile, on 5 November, the Chilean Army publicly accepts "institutional" blame for the abuses of the Pinochet regime. "The Army of Chile has taken the difficult but irreversible decision to assume the responsibility for all punishable and morally unacceptable acts in the past that fall on it as an institution," the current army commander, General Juan Emilio Cheyre Espinosa, writes in 'La Tercera' newspaper. "Never and for no one can there be any ethical justification for human rights violations," he writes.
On 24 November it is reported that the judge investigating Pinochet's dealings with the Riggs Bank and the origins of his fortune has ordered his assets to be frozen in order to guarantee that fines will be paid if the former dictator is found guilty of tax fraud or money laundering. The freeze is later partially lifted to allow Pinochet to pay back taxes.
On 28 November President Lagos releases the report of the National Commission on Political Prisoners and Torture established by him in November 2003. The three-volume report estimates that 28,000 people were abused at 1,131 detention centres around the country during Pinochet's rule. It concludes that "torture was a policy of the state, meant to repress and terrorise the population."
Lagos announces that surviving victims of torture will be eligible for a government pension of about US$190 a month, as well as health and education benefits.
On 2 December Pinochet looses his immunity from prosecution for yet another case brought against him, with the Santiago Court of Appeal ruling that he can stand trial for his alleged role in the assassination of General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires in 1974.
Less than two weeks later, on 13 December, Judge Guzmán declares that Pinochet is fit to stand trial and charges him with nine counts of kidnapping and one of murder arising out of the Operation Condor case. Pinochet is to be placed under house arrest.
According to Judge Guzmán, while Pinochet "is very physically deteriorated ... he has coherence in his psychological capacity and he understands question (and) gives appropriate answers."
Pinochet's lawyers promptly file an injunction with the Santiago Appeals Court, effectively blocking the house arrest until the court ruling. The lawyers argue that Pinochet's dementia is getting worse.
On Saturday 18 December Pinochet suffers what is described as a "minor stroke" and is admitted to the Santiago Army Hospital.
Two days later, on 20 December, the three-member Santiago Appeals Court unanimously rejects Pinochet's appeal against the Operation Condor indictments and his house arrest. Pinochet's legal team now takes the appeal to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, on 22 December, as the Supreme Court deliberates the case, Pinochet is released from hospital "to continue his treatment and rehabilitation" at his Santiago home.
2005 - On 4 January the Supreme Court upholds the charges against Pinochet, clearing the way for his trial. The following day Pinochet is placed under house arrest at his coastal estate at Los Boldos, 110 km west of Santiago. Bail is granted on 12 January.
At the same time, Judge Guzmán opens an investigation into the role of 10 former members of the DINA secret police, including Manuel Contreras, in the disappearance of eight people detained by the Pinochet regime between August 1974 and February 1975.
Later in January Contreras is jailed for 12 years in a separate case concerning the kidnapping and disappearance Miguel Angel Sandoval Rodríguez. It is the first time a Chilean official has been imprisoned on a disappearance charge. Contreras will serve his sentence in a new prison specially built to house military officials. In November Contreras is sentenced to three years for the 1976 killing of the teacher Julia Retamal.
Contreras will later receive a separate 15 year sentence for his role in the 1974 disappearance of Marcelo Salinas.
On 20 January the Supreme Court gives Judge Sergio Munoz permission to search for secret international bank accounts held by Pinochet. According to Judge Munoz, the former dictator's fortune could amount to US$15 million. Judge Munoz later raises the estimate to US$27 million.
Five days later, on 25 January, the Supreme Court places a six-month deadline for formal charges to be filed in the 356 human rights cases against Pinochet still being investigated. If charges are not brought the cases are to be closed, the court says.
On 15 February it is reported that Chile's International Tax Service is extending its investigation into Pinochet's tax record back to 1980. It is thought that Pinochet may have evaded as much as US$17 million in taxes over the years.
On 16 March a new report by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations reveals that over the span of a quarter of a century Pinochet hid at least US$15 million in more than 125 secret bank accounts around the world.
As well as the Riggs bank previously investigated by the subcommittee, accounts were opened at Citigroup, Coutts & Co., Bank of America, Banco de Chile and Espirito Santo Bank of Miami. Other banks were also involved. The accounts were used to move funds from holding companies to personal accounts and to transfer cash to Chile.
It is later reported that the Chilean Government's State Defence Council believes that some of the money came from kick-backs from European weapons manufacturers. The report is confirmed on 15 September when 'The Guardian' reveals that Britain's biggest arms company, BAE Systems, had made secret payments to Pinochet totalling over US$2 million.
In a communiqué issued during the year Pinochet explains the foreign accounts by saying that "for reasons of prudence, because I knew I would be the target of persecution and political harassment, I delivered to professional international institutions the savings of my entire life. If some tax difference occurred, my advisers have paid every thing that was owed."
On 18 March 2006, Reuters newsagency reports that a US lawyer hired to track down Pinochet's hidden assets had identified more than US$100 million in bank accounts linked to the former dictator. "I'm not confident at all that we have found all the funds," the lawyer says.
On 24 March 2005, Pinochet's immunity from prosecution for his alleged role in the assassination of General Carlos Prats and his wife is reinstated by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Judge Sergio Munoz accuses Pinochet of corruption, falsifying documents, tax fraud and money laundering and asks the Appeals Court to remove his immunity from prosecution so the charges can be brought to trial. Chile's tax agency also promises to pursue tax fraud charges against Pinochet, even if he pays his back taxes. (Pinochet does pay about US$2 million in back taxes during the year.)
On 13 May Manuel Contreras provides the Supreme Court with a 32-page document detailing the fate of almost 600 people who disappeared during Pinochet's regime. In a letter accompanying the document Contreras alleges that Pinochet personally ordered human rights violations, including the assassinations of Carlos Prats in 1974 and Orlando Letelier in 1976.
Pinochet is once again admitted to the Santiago Military Hospital on 19 May after suffering a mild stroke. His condition is reported to be not serious and he is released after five hours.
On 7 June the Appeals Court removes Pinochet's immunity from prosecution for tax evasion charges relating to the former dictator's secret foreign bank accounts. Pinochet is accused of not paying US$9.2 million in taxes from 1984 to 2004. If convicted he could face up to five years in jail.
However, on the same day an Appeals Court panel rules that Pinochet is mentally unfit to stand trial for the nine counts of kidnapping and one of murder arising out of the Operation Condor case. The panel argues that Pinochet is too senile to defend himself effectively.
The decision to remove Pinochet's immunity from prosecution for tax evasion is also taken to the Supreme Court for an appeal ruling. The Supreme Court upholds the decision. It is expected that this ruling will also be appealed.
On 21 June Pinochet returns to hospital after loosing consciousness for 30 minutes. He is released the following day.
On 6 July Pinochet looses his immunity from prosecution for another case brought against him, with the Appeals Court ruling that he should face charges relating to the misrepresentation and cover-up of the deaths of between 20 and 119 rebels from the Revolutionary Leftist Movement in 1975. The execution of the leftists and subsequent cover-up was known at the time as 'Operation Colombo'.
The final constitutional vestiges of the Pinochet regime are removed on 13 July when the Chilean Senate passes reforms that cut the presidential term from six years to four and remove parliamentary privileges granted to the military.
Under the reforms 10 appointed Senate seats are abolished, leaving the Senate as a wholly elected institution. The president's power to remove the commanders of the armed forces is restored and military influence over the legal system is eliminated.
Meanwhile, the search for secret funds held by Pinochet is widened on 26 July when Judge Sergio Munoz orders the investigation of further bank accounts in Colombia, Panama, Cayman Islands, Germany, the US, Bahamas, Britain and Spain.
On 10 August Pinochet's wife, Lucía Hiriart de Pinochet, and younger son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, are arrested and charged as accomplices in the tax evasion case being pursued by Judge Munoz.
Hiriart is held at the Santiago Military Hospital for one day then released on bail. Marco Antonio is held at a special prison for white-collar criminals. He is not granted bail until the end of August.
The arrest of his wife and son follows the formal charging of Pinochet's secretary, Monica Ananias, and a former aide, Oscar Aitken, in relation to the case.
On 17 November 'The Guardian' publishes extracts from a record of interview between Pinochet and Judge Victor Montiglio.
Asked about the killing of civilians during his regime Pinochet says, "I suffer for these losses, but God does the deeds; he will pardon me if I exceeded in some, which I don't think."
On his decision to stage the 1973 coup he says, "Everything that I did, all that I carried out, all the problems I had, I dedicate to God, all this I dedicate to Chile because this permitted that the country was not communist and arose as it is today."
Pinochet denies he was in command of the DINA secret police force. "I don't remember (the chain of command), but it is not true," he says.
On 18 November Pinochet complies with an order from Judge Montiglio and attends a supervised meeting and joint interview with former DINA commander Manuel Contreras.
According to 'The New York Times', Pinochet says, "... it seems that he (Contreras) rendered accounts personally to me and also to members of the junta." The newspaper also quotes Pinochet as saying that he "could only have an indirect responsibility" for the human rights abuses of his regime.
The corruption scandal overtakes Pinochet on 23 November when he is charged with evading US$2.4 million in taxes, using four false passports to open overseas bank accounts, submitting a false government document to a foreign bank and filing a false report on his assets. Pinochet is placed under house arrest. Bail is set at US$23,000.
Pinochet makes the bail on 24 November but is immediately placed back under house arrest on charges relating to the disappearance of six dissidents during Operation Colombo. On 5 December these charges are expanded to cover the disappearances of a further three dissidents.
On 28 December Pinochet is formally booked by the Chilean police for the disappearance of all nine Operation Colombo dissidents. He is fingerprinted and has identification photographs taken from the front and side for a police file.
Two days later the Santiago Appeals Court removes Pinochet's immunity from prosecution for charges that he diverted US$2 million from the presidential office to personal accounts overseas.
2006 - The new year sees no let-up in the legal pursuit of Pinochet. On 11 January the Santiago Appeals Court removes the former dictator's immunity from prosecution for charges related to the killing of two of Salvador Allende's bodyguards during the Caravan of Death that followed the 1973 coup. The ruling is later upheld by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Pinochet is granted bail on the Operation Colombo charges and is released from his seven weeks of house arrest.
On 23 January Pinochet's wife, four of his children, the wife of his younger son, one of his lawyers and one of his secretaries are all charged with tax evasion related to the former dictator's overseas bank accounts. They are freed on bail the following day.
However, Pinochet's eldest daughter, Lucía, fails to appear in court to hear the tax evasion charges against her. On 22 January she flees to Argentina. From there she travels to the US, where she seeks political asylum. An international warrant is issued for her arrest. Two days after arriving in the US she withdraws her request for asylum and is sent back to Argentina. She returns to Chile on 28 January and is immediately arrested.
A possible explanation of the source of some of Pinochet's wealth surfaces at the start of July when former DINA commander Manuel Contreras claims that Pinochet was involved in manufacture, smuggling and sale of cocaine during the 1980s. According to 'The New York Times', Contreras also accuses Pinochet of "embezzling money from secret government accounts."
On 31 August Pinochet is formally questioned by Judge Alejandro Solis about the assassination of Carlos Prats.
The list of charges that could take Pinochet to trial mounts on 18 August when the Supreme Court lifts his immunity from prosecution for a corruption case related to his secret overseas bank accounts.
On 8 September Pinochet looses his immunity for charges relating to human rights abuses carried out at the Villa Grimaldi prison in the south of Santiago between 1974 and 1977. Villa Grimaldi, which was run by the secret police, was a notorious torture centre.
In October Pinochet is questioned by Judge Solis about Villa Grimaldi but denies any knowledge of the activities there. At the end of the month he is detained under house arrest over the Villa Grimaldi charges.
Pinochet celebrates his 91st birthday on 25 November. To mark the event a statement is read on his behalf by his wife.
"Today, near the end of my days, I want to say that I harbour no rancour against anybody, that I love my fatherland above all and that I take political responsibility for everything that was done which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration," Pinochet's statement says.
"I assume full political responsibility for what happened. ... I will gladly withstand all the humiliation, persecution and injustices my family and I have suffered in the name of peace and harmony, which should reign among Chileans. ...
"I am absolutely certain that tomorrow, once the political passions and resentments are ended, history will judge our work objectively and will recognise that we put Chile on top of the nations in our continent."
On 27 November Pinochet is placed under house arrest on charges relating to the killing of two of Salvador Allende's bodyguards.
Six days later, on 3 December, he suffers an acute heart attack and is admitted to the Santiago Military Hospital. He dies from heart failure at 2:15 p.m. on Sunday, 10 December.
Pinochet is denied a state funeral. His body lies in state at the Santiago Military Academy before being cremated on 12 December. No heads of state attend the military ceremony to mark his passing.
The former dictator speaks from the grave on 24 December when a six-page letter he had written in 2004 is released to the public.
"How I wish the 11 September, 1973, military action had not been necessary!" the letter says. "How I wish the Marxist-Leninist ideology had not entered our fatherland!"
"It was necessary to act with maximum rigor to avoid a widening of the conflict. ...
"It was necessary to implement certain procedures of military control, such as temporary imprisonment, authorised exile, executions by firing squad after military trials. ...
"Serious conflicts are like that and always will be: They give rise to abuses and exaggerations. ...
"As long as ideological and armed fanaticism continued to endanger stability, we could not lower our arms. ...
"With all sincerity I can say that I am proud of the enormous action which I had to undertake to stop Marxist-Leninism assuming total power. ... Nevertheless, if the experience was to repeat itself, I wish I had a greater wisdom. ...
"I have left no room for hatred in my heart."
"My destiny is a kind of banishment and loneliness that I would have never imagined, much less wanted."
Comment: Under the economic paradigms of today the Allende government appears dubious at best and would be brought to its knees by market forces alone. Similar stresses were placed on the government at the time - the flight of capital and the blocking of aid and loans - and it is quite possible that Allende would have been removed democratically if a scheduled vote for the presidency had been allowed to proceed.
But placing such "what ifs" aside, Allende and his government were the rightful albeit minority incumbents in a robust democratic system and it is shameful that they were removed in a way that not only broke the social contract but also jeopardised the system itself. It is a credit to Chile that democratic norms have since been reinstated.
The culprits in the tragedy were, as is so often the case in Latin America, the US Government and the local military, headed by a despotic strongman. While the US may have grudgingly recognised its responsibility Pinochet went to his grave convinced of his blamelessness.
It is consoling to know that he lived to see his humiliation at home and abroad as well as the gradual dismantling of the safeguards he so carefully put in place to ensure that he and his cronies would never be brought to justice let alone charged. At the time of his death over 300 cases had been filed against Pinochet.
"At the end he was surrounded by lawyers who tried to defend the indefensible," observed Isabel Allende, the Chilean novelist and niece of Salvador Allende. "I would have preferred for the courts to have finished their work. I wish there had been a conviction and a sentence."
In her book 'My Invented Country' Isabel Allende asks, "Who was Pinochet, really? Why was he so feared? Why was he admired?"
She answers, "He was a crude, cold, slippery, authoritarian man who had no scruples or sense of loyalty other than to the army as an institution - though not to his comrades in arms, who he had killed according to his convenience, men such as General Carlos Prats and others. He believed that he was chosen by God and history to save his country. He was astute and suspicious, but he could be genial, and, at times, even likeable. Admired by some, despised by others, feared by all, he was possibly the man in our history who has held the greatest power in his hands for the longest period of time."
More information
Links are to external sites.
Chile - A Country Study (Library of Congress Country Studies Series)
Guardian Unlimited | Special Report: Augusto Pinochet
The National Security Archive - Pinochet: A Declassified Documentary Obit
The National Security Archive - Chile: 16,000 Secret Documents Declassified
Remember-Chile: General Pinochet and Human Rights Abuses
Transnational Institute - The Pinochet PrecedentThe Truth About Pinochet: Chile's
Legacy of Torture, Murder, International Terrorism and "The Disappeared"
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Country: Chile.
Kill tally: At least 3,197 killed following the 1973 military coup d'état.
Background: Chile is invaded and colonised by the Spanish in the first half of the 16th Century. The country achieves full independence in 1818 and slowly emerges as one of the most stable, reformist and representative democracies in the world. Following the Second World War, Chile's economy suffers a downturn. The country is further destabilised in September 1970 when Salvador Allende Gossens, a Marxist standing for the Popular Unity leftist coalition and promising to extend social reforms and introduce a socialist system, is elected president. Allende has a long-standing association with the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvenoi Bezopasnosti), the Soviet secret police force, and his election campaign has been heavily financed by the Soviets. More background.
Mini biography: Born on 25 November 1915 in the Pacific coastal port of Valparaiso, Chile. His father is a middle-class customs official whose family had immigrated from Brittany in northwest France in the early 18th Century. His mother is descended from immigrants from the Basque region of northern Spain. Pinochet is the oldest of six children.
1933 - He is accepted into the Chilean Escuela Militar (military school) for a four-year officers training course, graduating with the rank of sub-lieutenant in 1937 and receiving a commission in the infantry. By 1939 he has risen in rank to second lieutenant, becoming a full lieutenant in 1941.
1943 - Pinochet marries Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez, the daughter of a former member of Chile's parliament. The couple will have two sons, Augusto and Marco Antonio, and three daughters, Lucía, Verónica and Jacqueline.
1948 - While commanding a prison camp for communists Pinochet meets Salvador Allende for the first time when Allende, a doctor and Socialist senator, travels to the camp to visit the prisoners.
1949 - Pinochet continues his studies at the Academia de Guerra (War Academy). He is designated a general staff officer in 1951 and transferred to the Escuela Militar in a supervisory role. He also teaches classes at the War Academy. Between 1953 and 1972 he will author five books on geopolitics, geography and military history.
1953 - Now a major, Pinochet is transferred for two years field duty with the Rancagua regiment in Arica on the northern coastal border with Peru. Here he is involved in a military clampdown on the Communist Party of Chile, commanding a detention camp and disbanding local communist unions.
1955 - He returns to the War Academy in Santiago as a professor and begins to study law at the University of Chile, though his studies are suspended the following year when he is sent to Ecuador to help organise a military mission. During 1956 he also serves as a military attaché in Washington.
1959 - Pinochet returns to Chile from Ecuador late in the year and in 1960 is made commander of the Esmeralda regiment. In 1963 he is named as a subdirector of the War Academy. In 1966 he is made a colonel.
1968 - He is promoted to brigadier-general and named as commander-in-chief of the 6th division, headquartered in Iquique in the north of the country.
1970 - In September, following Salvador Allende's victory in the Chilean presidential vote, United States President Richard M. Nixon orders the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to do all it can to prevent Allende from being inaugurated.
Under the supervision of national security adviser Henry Kissinger the CIA will develop the so-called 'Track II' plan to oust Allende, allocating US$10 million while formally insulating the US embassy in Chile from any involvement.
The CIA attempts to bribe key Chilean legislators and funds a group of military officers plotting a coup, providing a further payment of US$35,000 following the assassination on 22 October of General Rene Schneider, the commander-in-chief of the army, who had refused to approve the coup plan.
One CIA document from October states, "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup. ... It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG (US Government) and American hand be well hidden."
Meanwhile, Soviet agents begin to move into Chile in force following Allende's victory. Soviet paramilitary instructors use Chile as a base for the training of insurgents from across Latin America.
1971 - Blaming the capitalist system for Chile's economic woes, Allende's Popular Unity (UP) coalition government moves quickly to socialise the economy, nationalising the country's US-controlled copper mines, other foreign-controlled businesses and industries, banks and large rural estates. The management of many factories is turned over to the workers and the state. Salaries and wages are lifted while prices are held down. The subsequent growth in demand sees employment levels rise.
The socialisation program is initially popular and successful but by 1972, as the economy goes into dramatic decline, opposition to Allende and the UP begins to escalate.
Already strained relations with the US are further stretched by the government's recognition of Cuba, China, North Korea and North Vietnam and by its continued cultivation of ties with the Soviet Union. The US responds by withdrawing financial assistance and blocking loans, although aid to the Chilean military is doubled.
Covertly the CIA continues to work to destabilise the UP government, providing up to US$7 million in funding to opposition groups in order to "create pressures, exploit weaknesses, magnify obstacles" and hasten Allende's downfall.
In January Pinochet is appointed major-general and given command of the Santiago garrison. The following year he wins Allende's trust when he is able to bring some order to the capital during a general strike. "I will not tolerate agents of chaos no matter what their political ideology," Pinochet says at the time.
1972 - The government attempts to revive the economy by increasing spending. The result is hyperinflation, reaching an annual rate of more than 500%, and complete economic paralysis. Racked by internal division and external opposition the government is unable to act.
Pinochet is named chief-major-general of the army general staff.
1973 - Parliamentary elections held in March are inconclusive and fail to resolve the political deadlock, although the UP does increase its vote. Street demonstrations against the government become an almost daily event, with protests coming from both the left and the right. Workplace shutdowns and lockouts are also commonplace.
The CIA finances strikes by transport workers and shopkeepers, is implicated in the sabotage of public infrastructure and infiltrates all of the parties in the UP. Almost one third of the staff at the US embassy in Santiago are now on the CIA payroll.
On 23 August Allende promotes Pinochet to commander-in-chief of the army, mistakenly believing that Pinochet can still be trusted to remain neutral.
Meanwhile, members of the armed forces are finalising their plans for a coup. While it now appears that Pinochet was not involved in the planning and was not informed of it until three days before the event when the coup is launched he is firmly in charge.
On 11 September the military strike, first taking Santiago in a violent offensive during which Pinochet orders air strikes on the presidential palace and then securing the provinces.
Allende dies defending the presidential palace, probably by his own hand. Many of his aides are arrested then transported to a military base, where they are executed and buried. In the provinces the notorious 'Caravan of Death' targets political opponents, summarily executing at least 72.
The military form a four-man junta headed by Pinochet and composed of the commanders-in-chief of the army, navy, air force and police and embark on a campaign to remove the influence of the UP from all social institutions.
A state of siege is declared, martial law is introduced and parliament is closed. The media is censored, universities are purged, books are burned, Marxist political parties are outlawed and union activities are banned. Thousands are murdered or "disappeared". Thousands more are jailed or forced to leave the country. Torture is commonplace. Up to one million will flee into self-imposed exile.
It is reported that up to 250,000 people are detained in the first months following the coup. Stadiums, military bases and naval vessels have to be used as short-term prisons. At least five new prison camps are established for political prisoners.
The newly formed secret police (National Intelligence Directorate - DINA) create a reign of terror at home and organise the assassinations of opponents in exile abroad. Civilian courts are supplanted with military tribunals.
According to General Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, the head of DINA, Pinochet receives daily briefing about the activities of the secret police. The US Defence Intelligence Agency also reports in 1975 that Pinochet "issues instructions on DINA, is aware of its activities and in fact heads it." The US embassy corroborates the report, stating that "DINA reports directly to Pinochet and is ultimately controlled by him alone."
Nevertheless, the US quickly recognises the junta and reinstates financial aid.
1974 - General Carlos Prats, a former Chilean military commander-in-chief who refused to join the coup then sought asylum in Argentina, is assassinated on 30 September when a bomb blows up his car in the garage of his Buenos Aires apartment building. Prats fled Chile after the coup because of his ties with Allende. The bomb is thought to have been planted by DINA on the order of Pinochet. Prats' wife, Sofia Cuthbert, is also killed in the explosion.
Pinochet takes complete control of Chile on 11 December when he is named president. Over the next 15 years he will rule the country as an iron-fisted autocrat in the mode of his admired role-model, the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
1975 - On 25 November the intelligence services of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay launch 'Operation Condor', an information gathering and sharing alliance designed to eliminate Marxist terrorist activities in South America.
According to a US Federal Bureau of Investigation officer working in Argentina at the time, "Chile is the centre for 'Operation Condor'." The officer also reports that, "A ... most secret phase of 'Operation Condor' involves the formation of special teams from member countries who are to travel anywhere in the world to non-member countries to carry out sanctions up to assassination against terrorists or supporters of terrorist organisations from 'Operation Condor' member countries."
Also in November Pinochet travels to Spain to attend the funeral of Francisco Franco.
Meanwhile, the CIA establishes contact with Manuel Contreras, the head of the Chilean secret police. Contreras is a key player in Operation Condor. In August he travels to Washington and meets with CIA Deputy Director, General Vernon Walters. He will also receive a one-off payment from the CIA.
Back in Chile the junta turns its attention to the economy, introducing free-market policies, slashing welfare and reducing the size of the government. Trade barriers are removed, a central bank is established, wages are cut, income taxes are lowered and the social security system is privatised. Inflation is curbed and property returned to its original owners. All companies nationalised by the Allende government are returned to private ownership. Growth accelerates but unemployment stays high.
Though the country falls into recession in 1975 growth accelerates in 1976 and remains high into the 1980s. Unemployment, however, also stays high.
In Washington a US Senate investigation finds that the Nixon administration backed the 1973 coup.
1976 - During the year the body of the communist activist Marta Ugarte is found washed up on a beach in Chile. It is later revealed that Ugarte's body, along with those of up to 500 other Chileans executed following the coup, was weighted with a piece of railroad track then dumped from a helicopter into the Pacific Ocean as part of an organised program to hide evidence of human rights violations.
On 21 September Orlando Letelier, a former ambassador to the US and defence minister under Allende, is assassinated in Washington by Cuban exiles operating on the orders of Pinochet's secret police. Letelier has been targeted as part of the Operation Condor alliance.
1977 - The inauguration of Jimmy Carter as US president combined with the assassination of Letelier leads to a cooling of relations between Chile and the US. Relations between the two countries will continue to decline through the administrations Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
Pinochet announces that there will be no early return to democracy. The junta alone will determine when civilian government will be reinstated. As head of state and commander-in-chief of the military he exerts absolute control over the country and ensures that his cronies control all key posts.
Military officers are appointed as mayors of towns and cities throughout the country. Former military personnel also take control of universities, purging faculties of all suspected of left-wing sympathies.
The state of siege is lifted and replaced with a state of emergency. The National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) is abolished and replaced by the National Information Centre.
The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Commission condemns the Pinochet regime for its practice of torturing detainees.
1978 - Pinochet allows a referendum on the legitimacy of his regime then claims that more than 75% of the voters have endorsed his rule. When the commander of the Chilean air force, Gustavo Leigh Guzmán, begins to question the legitimacy of the junta and call for an early return to civilian rule Pinochet has him forcibly dismissed. Pinochet's position is now unassailable. An amnesty law is passed to protect military officers accused of human rights abuses committed since the 1973 coup.
Meanwhile, the military extends its program to hide the evidence of human rights violations committed during the coup, exhuming the remains of the "disappeared" and disposing of them elsewhere. As with the bodies of the executed many of the remains are dumped from helicopters into the Pacific Ocean. Many others are burnt. The order for the clean-up comes directly from Pinochet, who threatens to "retire" any commander if bodies continue to be found in his jurisdiction.
1980 - Pinochet introduces a new constitution allowing him to remain as president until 1989. The new constitution also entrenches the military's domination of the government and allows Pinochet to restrict freedom of association and speech and to arrest or exile any citizen, with no rights of appeal except to Pinochet himself.
The political activities of unions and community organisations are restricted and politicians are barred from advocacy roles for such groups. Local governments are abolished and Pinochet is given the power to dissolve the House of Representatives. The constitution cannot be amended without approval from Pinochet. A plebiscite is scheduled for 1988-89 to determine if he will have an additional eight years in office. When the constitution is ratified by a reportedly fraudulent plebiscite the Communist Party of Chile calls for armed insurrection.
1982 - The economy flounders then goes into recession, sparking protests against the regime and leaving more than a third of the workforce unemployed. Demonstrations become more widespread during the 1980s as political parties begin to resurface. In 1982 the prominent trade unionist Tucapel Jimenez is assassinated by the military.
1984 - Pinochet declares a state of siege in November and cracks down on the demonstrators.
"I am a man fighting for a just cause; the fight between Christianity and spiritualism on the one hand and Marxism and materialism on the other," he says during the year. "I get my strength from God."
1985 - Chile's various political parties put aside their differences and unit against Pinochet's regime, signing the 'National Accord for Transition to Full Democracy'. The accord calls for a transition to civilian rule, the legalisation of all political activity, an end to restrictions on civil liberties and free, direct presidential elections. Pinochet rejects the document and uses a "divide and rule" strategy to undermine the accord.
1986 - On 7 September an armed wing of the Communist Party stages an unsuccessful attempt on Pinochet's life. Five bodyguards are killed but Pinochet is unharmed. The assassination attempt is the final nail in the coffin of the accord and unleashes a new round of military terror against the left.
1987 - With the plebiscite to determine if Pinochet will remain in office looming, opposition leaders form a loose coalition to support and promote a "no" vote. As the date approaches cooperation between the opposition parties increases to the point where they are viewed as a credible alternative to continued military rule.
1988 - The plebiscite is held on 5 October. The next day Pinochet announces his defeat. Nearly 55% of the electorate have voted to end his regime. Pinochet's dictatorship has effectively come to an end. Democracy has been restored democratically, although the political climate remains volatile as the opposition and military begin to negotiate the transition process.
1989 - Constitutional reforms overwhelming ratified by a plebiscite on 30 July remove some of the more draconian provisions in the 1980 document. Unions and community organisations are freed to actively participate in the political process, exile is prohibited and restrictions on the process for amending the constitution are loosened. The power of the president and the executive is reduced. However, the military retain significant control of the parliament.
Elections for president and parliament are held on 14 December. They are the first elections in 19 years. Patricio Aylwin, the leader of the Christian Democrats, wins the presidency with 55% of the vote. The Coalition of Parties for Democracy, comprising 14 opposition groups, wins a majority of seats in the parliamentary vote, although not enough to offset designated senators to be appointed by Pinochet, who is to remain as commander-in-chief of the army until 1998.
The new government establishes the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation to inquire into human rights abuses committed during Pinochet's rule. Its report finds the security forces were responsible for 2,115 deaths, including those of 957 detainees who disappeared. The secret police, accused of responsibility for 392 of the disappearances, is disbanded.
Pinochet dismisses the report's findings, saying that those who disappeared "were nothing but bandits."
He also warns that attempts to bring military personnel to trial for the abuses of his regime will not be tolerated. "The day they touch one of my men, the rule of law ends," he declares in 1991.
1992 - The National Corporation for Reconciliation and Reparation is formed to continue the work of the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation. In 1996 the corporation finds the Pinochet regime responsible for the death or disappearance of 3,197 people between September 1973 and March 1990. Of these 1,102 are classified as "disappearances" and 2,095 as deaths.
1993 - About 600 military officers are named as having committed human rights abuses during the Pinochet regime.
Meanwhile, Pinochet is fitted with a heart pacemaker. Along with an ongoing heart complaint he suffers from diabetes and arthritis.
1995 - The former chief of the Chilean secret police, Manuel Contreras, and his deputy are convicted and imprisoned for their role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier, ambassador to the US under Allende, in Washington in 1976. Contreras receives a seven year sentence. In 1997 he claims that Pinochet had ordered the killing of Letelier. In November 2004 he tells 'The New York Times' that Pinochet had known about and approved of all his actions.
1996 - A Spanish judge rules that his court has jurisdiction in a case of international terrorism, genocide and crimes against humanity brought against Pinochet by the families of some of the victims of his regime. The charges allege that agents of the regime working under the Operation Condor alliance killed or attempted to kill individuals in the US, Argentina, Italy and other countries and cite the findings of the Chilean National Corporation for Reconciliation and Reparation.
1998 - Pinochet steps down as commander-in-chief of the army on 10 March but becomes a senator for life. He remains immune from prosecution for his role in the human rights abuses of his regime and is given the honorary title of commander-in-chief emeritus of the Chilean Army.
In September Pinochet travels to Britain to undergo surgery for a back complaint, believing his immunity from prosecution stretches worldwide. However, on 16 October the British police act on a warrant issued from Spain and arrest him in his hospital bed. The warrant requests Pinochet's extradition to Spain to face charges relating to the abduction of the leader of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left from Argentina in April 1976. The abduction had been coordinated between the military regimes of Argentina and Chile under the Operation Condor alliance.
A famous and lengthy court case follows during which Pinochet is held under house arrest at the Wentworth estate in Surrey. The British High Court initially rules in Pinochet's favour but on 25 November the House of Lords upholds the extradition request, a decision that is ratified the following month by British Home Secretary Jack Straw. Pinochet's legal team appeal.
1999 - In March the High Court rejects the appeal. The home secretary again ratifies the extradition request. Pinochet's team launches a further appeal but in October this is also rejected.
2000 - On 11 January the home secretary reverses the decision to extradite Pinochet after a panel of doctors finds Pinochet medically unfit to stand trial. Pinochet is released on 2 March and allowed to return to Chile. He has spent 503 days under house arrest. But he is not yet free of the law.
On 8 August the Chilean Supreme Court rules to lift Pinochet's immunity from prosecution so he can be charged with 18 of the kidnappings and 57 of the executions carried out during the Caravan of Death that followed the 1973 coup. The efforts to prove that he is medically unfit for trial are renewed.
Meanwhile, a monument to Salvador Allende is unveiled on the plaza in front of the presidential palace in Santiago, where he died. In 2003 a plaque dedicated to him is installed inside the palace at the spot where he fell.
In the US the administration of President Bill Clinton opens an investigation into the assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington in 1976, sending a team from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Chile to interview witnesses. The investigation recommends that the US indict Pinochet in relation to the killing. The recommendation will never be followed through.
2001 - In January Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia questions Pinochet on the circumstances surrounding the Caravan of Death. It is the first time the former dictator has been legally called to account for the human rights abuses of his regime.
As a result Pinochet is charged and placed under house arrest in his Santiago mansion on 30 January. He is released on bail on 11 April. On 9 July Chile's Appeals Court rules that Pinochet is mentally unfit for trial due to dementia.
On 10 September the family of General Rene Schneider, the former commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army who was assassinated in 1970 after refusing to endorse a military coup against the Allende government, announce that it intends to sue the US Government and Henry Kissinger, the US national security adviser at the time of Schneider's death, for allegedly plotting the assassination. Kissinger denies any involvement.
Schneider's death is also related to the abduction and murder of US journalist Charles Horman shortly after the 1973 coup. Horman, whose story was later dramatised in the film 'Missing', had been investigating the death.
2002 - In June Judge Guzmán announces that extradition proceedings may be launched against Henry Kissinger in an attempt to force him to travel to Chile and appear before a judicial investigation into CIA involvement in the coup. The investigation is seeking to determine whether US officials passed the names of suspected left-wing Americans to Chilean military authorities - the existence of such a list having been verified by declassified documents.
Kissinger is wanted for questioning about circumstances surrounding the death of Charles Horman.
On 1 July Chile's Supreme Court reaffirms that Pinochet cannot be put of trial because of his ill-health. Judge Guzmán is ordered to halt his Caravan of Death case against the former dictator. Three days later Pinochet resigns as senator for life, formally ending his political career. According to his son, Pinochet made his decision "as a contribution to social peace in Chile". Pinochet had not attended the Senate since 1998.
Pinochet's letter of resignation states that his health prevents him from properly carrying out his duties as a senator. His withdrawal from public life has been made with a "clean conscience". Though "there still remain too many passions" to expect "a verdict that is objective, serene and, above all, fair", history would honour his "soldierly sacrifice".
2003 - On 25 February the former chief of the Chilean secret police, Manuel Contreras, and his deputy are again arrested for their role in an assassination organised during Pinochet's reign. The two are charged with plotting the 1974 assassination of General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires. Contreras will be sentenced to two life terms for the murders.
In July a group of former high-ranking members of the Pinochet regime issue a statement apologising for human rights violations that occurred following the 1973 coup. "We lament the pain these events have produced," the statement says. "Apart from understanding the origin of the military government and valuing its work, we recognise the problems in the area of human rights, which must never be repeated."
Signatories include a former interior minister, Pinochet's former second-in-command and a former defence minister.
Meanwhile, in a rare interview broadcast by the Miami-based Spanish language television station WDLP-22 on 24 November, Pinochet says he has no regrets about his time in power and refuses to apologise for the abuses of his regime.
"I never aspired to be a dictator because ... I considered that to be a dictator would end badly," Pinochet says. "I always acted in a democratic way. ... Who shall I ask to be pardoned by? They say I should ask for forgiveness, what shall I ask to be forgiven for? ... I feel like an angel. I have no resentment."
Pinochet says he is writing an autobiography titled 'Caminos Recorridos' (The Roads I Have Travelled) and reveals that he has drafted a letter to be released after his death which will describe "the truth" of what happened.
"I am a man who does not carry any hate in his heart," Pinochet says. "I don't want future generations to think badly of me. I want them to know what really happened."
Following the broadcast, Chilean lawyers announce that they will resume their efforts to have Pinochet prosecuted for human rights abuses, saying that the interview indicated that the former dictator is medically fit to stand trial.
2004 - By the middle of the year 311 former military personnel, including 21 army generals, have been convicted or are facing charges for human rights violations committed during the Pinochet era. For many cases the judiciary is able to get around the amnesty law introduced by Pinochet in 1978 by ruling that it does not apply to continuing crimes such as unsolved disappearances.
On 14 July the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations releases a report into the Washington-based Riggs Bank that finds that from 1994 to 2002 the bank helped Pinochet hide US$4-8 million in multiple accounts and two offshore shell companies.
According to the report, Riggs "served as a long-standing personal banker for Mr Pinochet and deliberately assisted him in the concealment and movement of his funds while he was under investigation (in Britain) and the subject of a worldwide court order freezing his assets."
The report also cites a Riggs client profile estimating Pinochet's entire fortune at between US$50 million and US$100 million.
Five days later, on 19 July, US President George W. Bush announces that the US Government will fully investigate the bank's dealings. In Chile the State Defence Council begins an investigation into the evidence in the Riggs report and the origins of Pinochet's fortune. Chilean lawyers, meanwhile, file criminal charges against Pinochet for fraud, bribery, money laundering and other financial crimes. A judicial investigation is also opened into whether Pinochet has been involved in tax fraud and the misappropriation of funds.
At the same time, other investigations are being conducted into the business dealings of 38 of Pinochet's relatives, including his wife, his five children and various grandchildren, siblings and cousins.
On 26 August the Supreme Court rules that Pinochet's immunity from prosecution should be lifted for the case involving the disappearance of 19 leftists in the mid-1970s during Operation Condor. The decision opens the possibility that Pinochet may finally go to trial for the human rights abuses of his regime.
On 15 September Pinochet is admitted to hospital with "an acute respiratory condition and for evaluation of his diabetes".
On 25 September Judge Guzmán questions Pinochet about his role in the Operation Condor disappearances. It is only the second time Pinochet has been legally called to account for the human rights abuses of his regime.
According to media reports following the questioning, Pinochet tells the judge that he has no knowledge of the disappearances and claims that mid-level military officers coordinated Operation Condor.
Further medical tests to determine weather Pinochet is fit to stand trial are inconsistent, with court-appointed doctors chosen by Judge Guzmán and Pinochet's defence finding that the former dictator does suffer from moderate dementia while a doctor chosen by the lawyers for the victims finds he is competent and could stand trial.
Meanwhile, on 5 November, the Chilean Army publicly accepts "institutional" blame for the abuses of the Pinochet regime. "The Army of Chile has taken the difficult but irreversible decision to assume the responsibility for all punishable and morally unacceptable acts in the past that fall on it as an institution," the current army commander, General Juan Emilio Cheyre Espinosa, writes in 'La Tercera' newspaper. "Never and for no one can there be any ethical justification for human rights violations," he writes.
On 24 November it is reported that the judge investigating Pinochet's dealings with the Riggs Bank and the origins of his fortune has ordered his assets to be frozen in order to guarantee that fines will be paid if the former dictator is found guilty of tax fraud or money laundering. The freeze is later partially lifted to allow Pinochet to pay back taxes.
On 28 November President Lagos releases the report of the National Commission on Political Prisoners and Torture established by him in November 2003. The three-volume report estimates that 28,000 people were abused at 1,131 detention centres around the country during Pinochet's rule. It concludes that "torture was a policy of the state, meant to repress and terrorise the population."
Lagos announces that surviving victims of torture will be eligible for a government pension of about US$190 a month, as well as health and education benefits.
On 2 December Pinochet looses his immunity from prosecution for yet another case brought against him, with the Santiago Court of Appeal ruling that he can stand trial for his alleged role in the assassination of General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires in 1974.
Less than two weeks later, on 13 December, Judge Guzmán declares that Pinochet is fit to stand trial and charges him with nine counts of kidnapping and one of murder arising out of the Operation Condor case. Pinochet is to be placed under house arrest.
According to Judge Guzmán, while Pinochet "is very physically deteriorated ... he has coherence in his psychological capacity and he understands question (and) gives appropriate answers."
Pinochet's lawyers promptly file an injunction with the Santiago Appeals Court, effectively blocking the house arrest until the court ruling. The lawyers argue that Pinochet's dementia is getting worse.
On Saturday 18 December Pinochet suffers what is described as a "minor stroke" and is admitted to the Santiago Army Hospital.
Two days later, on 20 December, the three-member Santiago Appeals Court unanimously rejects Pinochet's appeal against the Operation Condor indictments and his house arrest. Pinochet's legal team now takes the appeal to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, on 22 December, as the Supreme Court deliberates the case, Pinochet is released from hospital "to continue his treatment and rehabilitation" at his Santiago home.
2005 - On 4 January the Supreme Court upholds the charges against Pinochet, clearing the way for his trial. The following day Pinochet is placed under house arrest at his coastal estate at Los Boldos, 110 km west of Santiago. Bail is granted on 12 January.
At the same time, Judge Guzmán opens an investigation into the role of 10 former members of the DINA secret police, including Manuel Contreras, in the disappearance of eight people detained by the Pinochet regime between August 1974 and February 1975.
Later in January Contreras is jailed for 12 years in a separate case concerning the kidnapping and disappearance Miguel Angel Sandoval Rodríguez. It is the first time a Chilean official has been imprisoned on a disappearance charge. Contreras will serve his sentence in a new prison specially built to house military officials. In November Contreras is sentenced to three years for the 1976 killing of the teacher Julia Retamal.
Contreras will later receive a separate 15 year sentence for his role in the 1974 disappearance of Marcelo Salinas.
On 20 January the Supreme Court gives Judge Sergio Munoz permission to search for secret international bank accounts held by Pinochet. According to Judge Munoz, the former dictator's fortune could amount to US$15 million. Judge Munoz later raises the estimate to US$27 million.
Five days later, on 25 January, the Supreme Court places a six-month deadline for formal charges to be filed in the 356 human rights cases against Pinochet still being investigated. If charges are not brought the cases are to be closed, the court says.
On 15 February it is reported that Chile's International Tax Service is extending its investigation into Pinochet's tax record back to 1980. It is thought that Pinochet may have evaded as much as US$17 million in taxes over the years.
On 16 March a new report by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations reveals that over the span of a quarter of a century Pinochet hid at least US$15 million in more than 125 secret bank accounts around the world.
As well as the Riggs bank previously investigated by the subcommittee, accounts were opened at Citigroup, Coutts & Co., Bank of America, Banco de Chile and Espirito Santo Bank of Miami. Other banks were also involved. The accounts were used to move funds from holding companies to personal accounts and to transfer cash to Chile.
It is later reported that the Chilean Government's State Defence Council believes that some of the money came from kick-backs from European weapons manufacturers. The report is confirmed on 15 September when 'The Guardian' reveals that Britain's biggest arms company, BAE Systems, had made secret payments to Pinochet totalling over US$2 million.
In a communiqué issued during the year Pinochet explains the foreign accounts by saying that "for reasons of prudence, because I knew I would be the target of persecution and political harassment, I delivered to professional international institutions the savings of my entire life. If some tax difference occurred, my advisers have paid every thing that was owed."
On 18 March 2006, Reuters newsagency reports that a US lawyer hired to track down Pinochet's hidden assets had identified more than US$100 million in bank accounts linked to the former dictator. "I'm not confident at all that we have found all the funds," the lawyer says.
On 24 March 2005, Pinochet's immunity from prosecution for his alleged role in the assassination of General Carlos Prats and his wife is reinstated by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Judge Sergio Munoz accuses Pinochet of corruption, falsifying documents, tax fraud and money laundering and asks the Appeals Court to remove his immunity from prosecution so the charges can be brought to trial. Chile's tax agency also promises to pursue tax fraud charges against Pinochet, even if he pays his back taxes. (Pinochet does pay about US$2 million in back taxes during the year.)
On 13 May Manuel Contreras provides the Supreme Court with a 32-page document detailing the fate of almost 600 people who disappeared during Pinochet's regime. In a letter accompanying the document Contreras alleges that Pinochet personally ordered human rights violations, including the assassinations of Carlos Prats in 1974 and Orlando Letelier in 1976.
Pinochet is once again admitted to the Santiago Military Hospital on 19 May after suffering a mild stroke. His condition is reported to be not serious and he is released after five hours.
On 7 June the Appeals Court removes Pinochet's immunity from prosecution for tax evasion charges relating to the former dictator's secret foreign bank accounts. Pinochet is accused of not paying US$9.2 million in taxes from 1984 to 2004. If convicted he could face up to five years in jail.
However, on the same day an Appeals Court panel rules that Pinochet is mentally unfit to stand trial for the nine counts of kidnapping and one of murder arising out of the Operation Condor case. The panel argues that Pinochet is too senile to defend himself effectively.
The decision to remove Pinochet's immunity from prosecution for tax evasion is also taken to the Supreme Court for an appeal ruling. The Supreme Court upholds the decision. It is expected that this ruling will also be appealed.
On 21 June Pinochet returns to hospital after loosing consciousness for 30 minutes. He is released the following day.
On 6 July Pinochet looses his immunity from prosecution for another case brought against him, with the Appeals Court ruling that he should face charges relating to the misrepresentation and cover-up of the deaths of between 20 and 119 rebels from the Revolutionary Leftist Movement in 1975. The execution of the leftists and subsequent cover-up was known at the time as 'Operation Colombo'.
The final constitutional vestiges of the Pinochet regime are removed on 13 July when the Chilean Senate passes reforms that cut the presidential term from six years to four and remove parliamentary privileges granted to the military.
Under the reforms 10 appointed Senate seats are abolished, leaving the Senate as a wholly elected institution. The president's power to remove the commanders of the armed forces is restored and military influence over the legal system is eliminated.
Meanwhile, the search for secret funds held by Pinochet is widened on 26 July when Judge Sergio Munoz orders the investigation of further bank accounts in Colombia, Panama, Cayman Islands, Germany, the US, Bahamas, Britain and Spain.
On 10 August Pinochet's wife, Lucía Hiriart de Pinochet, and younger son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, are arrested and charged as accomplices in the tax evasion case being pursued by Judge Munoz.
Hiriart is held at the Santiago Military Hospital for one day then released on bail. Marco Antonio is held at a special prison for white-collar criminals. He is not granted bail until the end of August.
The arrest of his wife and son follows the formal charging of Pinochet's secretary, Monica Ananias, and a former aide, Oscar Aitken, in relation to the case.
On 17 November 'The Guardian' publishes extracts from a record of interview between Pinochet and Judge Victor Montiglio.
Asked about the killing of civilians during his regime Pinochet says, "I suffer for these losses, but God does the deeds; he will pardon me if I exceeded in some, which I don't think."
On his decision to stage the 1973 coup he says, "Everything that I did, all that I carried out, all the problems I had, I dedicate to God, all this I dedicate to Chile because this permitted that the country was not communist and arose as it is today."
Pinochet denies he was in command of the DINA secret police force. "I don't remember (the chain of command), but it is not true," he says.
On 18 November Pinochet complies with an order from Judge Montiglio and attends a supervised meeting and joint interview with former DINA commander Manuel Contreras.
According to 'The New York Times', Pinochet says, "... it seems that he (Contreras) rendered accounts personally to me and also to members of the junta." The newspaper also quotes Pinochet as saying that he "could only have an indirect responsibility" for the human rights abuses of his regime.
The corruption scandal overtakes Pinochet on 23 November when he is charged with evading US$2.4 million in taxes, using four false passports to open overseas bank accounts, submitting a false government document to a foreign bank and filing a false report on his assets. Pinochet is placed under house arrest. Bail is set at US$23,000.
Pinochet makes the bail on 24 November but is immediately placed back under house arrest on charges relating to the disappearance of six dissidents during Operation Colombo. On 5 December these charges are expanded to cover the disappearances of a further three dissidents.
On 28 December Pinochet is formally booked by the Chilean police for the disappearance of all nine Operation Colombo dissidents. He is fingerprinted and has identification photographs taken from the front and side for a police file.
Two days later the Santiago Appeals Court removes Pinochet's immunity from prosecution for charges that he diverted US$2 million from the presidential office to personal accounts overseas.
2006 - The new year sees no let-up in the legal pursuit of Pinochet. On 11 January the Santiago Appeals Court removes the former dictator's immunity from prosecution for charges related to the killing of two of Salvador Allende's bodyguards during the Caravan of Death that followed the 1973 coup. The ruling is later upheld by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Pinochet is granted bail on the Operation Colombo charges and is released from his seven weeks of house arrest.
On 23 January Pinochet's wife, four of his children, the wife of his younger son, one of his lawyers and one of his secretaries are all charged with tax evasion related to the former dictator's overseas bank accounts. They are freed on bail the following day.
However, Pinochet's eldest daughter, Lucía, fails to appear in court to hear the tax evasion charges against her. On 22 January she flees to Argentina. From there she travels to the US, where she seeks political asylum. An international warrant is issued for her arrest. Two days after arriving in the US she withdraws her request for asylum and is sent back to Argentina. She returns to Chile on 28 January and is immediately arrested.
A possible explanation of the source of some of Pinochet's wealth surfaces at the start of July when former DINA commander Manuel Contreras claims that Pinochet was involved in manufacture, smuggling and sale of cocaine during the 1980s. According to 'The New York Times', Contreras also accuses Pinochet of "embezzling money from secret government accounts."
On 31 August Pinochet is formally questioned by Judge Alejandro Solis about the assassination of Carlos Prats.
The list of charges that could take Pinochet to trial mounts on 18 August when the Supreme Court lifts his immunity from prosecution for a corruption case related to his secret overseas bank accounts.
On 8 September Pinochet looses his immunity for charges relating to human rights abuses carried out at the Villa Grimaldi prison in the south of Santiago between 1974 and 1977. Villa Grimaldi, which was run by the secret police, was a notorious torture centre.
In October Pinochet is questioned by Judge Solis about Villa Grimaldi but denies any knowledge of the activities there. At the end of the month he is detained under house arrest over the Villa Grimaldi charges.
Pinochet celebrates his 91st birthday on 25 November. To mark the event a statement is read on his behalf by his wife.
"Today, near the end of my days, I want to say that I harbour no rancour against anybody, that I love my fatherland above all and that I take political responsibility for everything that was done which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration," Pinochet's statement says.
"I assume full political responsibility for what happened. ... I will gladly withstand all the humiliation, persecution and injustices my family and I have suffered in the name of peace and harmony, which should reign among Chileans. ...
"I am absolutely certain that tomorrow, once the political passions and resentments are ended, history will judge our work objectively and will recognise that we put Chile on top of the nations in our continent."
On 27 November Pinochet is placed under house arrest on charges relating to the killing of two of Salvador Allende's bodyguards.
Six days later, on 3 December, he suffers an acute heart attack and is admitted to the Santiago Military Hospital. He dies from heart failure at 2:15 p.m. on Sunday, 10 December.
Pinochet is denied a state funeral. His body lies in state at the Santiago Military Academy before being cremated on 12 December. No heads of state attend the military ceremony to mark his passing.
The former dictator speaks from the grave on 24 December when a six-page letter he had written in 2004 is released to the public.
"How I wish the 11 September, 1973, military action had not been necessary!" the letter says. "How I wish the Marxist-Leninist ideology had not entered our fatherland!"
"It was necessary to act with maximum rigor to avoid a widening of the conflict. ...
"It was necessary to implement certain procedures of military control, such as temporary imprisonment, authorised exile, executions by firing squad after military trials. ...
"Serious conflicts are like that and always will be: They give rise to abuses and exaggerations. ...
"As long as ideological and armed fanaticism continued to endanger stability, we could not lower our arms. ...
"With all sincerity I can say that I am proud of the enormous action which I had to undertake to stop Marxist-Leninism assuming total power. ... Nevertheless, if the experience was to repeat itself, I wish I had a greater wisdom. ...
"I have left no room for hatred in my heart."
"My destiny is a kind of banishment and loneliness that I would have never imagined, much less wanted."
Comment: Under the economic paradigms of today the Allende government appears dubious at best and would be brought to its knees by market forces alone. Similar stresses were placed on the government at the time - the flight of capital and the blocking of aid and loans - and it is quite possible that Allende would have been removed democratically if a scheduled vote for the presidency had been allowed to proceed.
But placing such "what ifs" aside, Allende and his government were the rightful albeit minority incumbents in a robust democratic system and it is shameful that they were removed in a way that not only broke the social contract but also jeopardised the system itself. It is a credit to Chile that democratic norms have since been reinstated.
The culprits in the tragedy were, as is so often the case in Latin America, the US Government and the local military, headed by a despotic strongman. While the US may have grudgingly recognised its responsibility Pinochet went to his grave convinced of his blamelessness.
It is consoling to know that he lived to see his humiliation at home and abroad as well as the gradual dismantling of the safeguards he so carefully put in place to ensure that he and his cronies would never be brought to justice let alone charged. At the time of his death over 300 cases had been filed against Pinochet.
"At the end he was surrounded by lawyers who tried to defend the indefensible," observed Isabel Allende, the Chilean novelist and niece of Salvador Allende. "I would have preferred for the courts to have finished their work. I wish there had been a conviction and a sentence."
In her book 'My Invented Country' Isabel Allende asks, "Who was Pinochet, really? Why was he so feared? Why was he admired?"
She answers, "He was a crude, cold, slippery, authoritarian man who had no scruples or sense of loyalty other than to the army as an institution - though not to his comrades in arms, who he had killed according to his convenience, men such as General Carlos Prats and others. He believed that he was chosen by God and history to save his country. He was astute and suspicious, but he could be genial, and, at times, even likeable. Admired by some, despised by others, feared by all, he was possibly the man in our history who has held the greatest power in his hands for the longest period of time."
More information
Links are to external sites.
Chile - A Country Study (Library of Congress Country Studies Series)
Guardian Unlimited | Special Report: Augusto Pinochet
The National Security Archive - Pinochet: A Declassified Documentary Obit
The National Security Archive - Chile: 16,000 Secret Documents Declassified
Remember-Chile: General Pinochet and Human Rights Abuses
Transnational Institute - The Pinochet PrecedentThe Truth About Pinochet: Chile's
Legacy of Torture, Murder, International Terrorism and "The Disappeared"
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