Reply #24: How Pinochet destroyed democracy in Chile. Chile timeline: [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

~snip~
1970 Sep 4, Salvador Allende Gossens won the presidential election in Chile. A week later in Washington Henry Kissinger discussed a "covert action program" to oust Allende.
(MC, 9/4/01)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.D1)

1970 Sep 15, Pres. Nixon authorized a US-backed coup in Chile.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F7)

1970 Nov 3, Salvador Allende was inaugurated as president of Chile. He was elected with 36% of the vote, only 40,000 ahead of the candidate of the right.
(AP, 11/3/97)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)

1970 Dec 31, President Allende nationalized the Chilean coal mines.
(MC, 12/31/01)

1970 A US CIA-backed kidnapping attempt was botched and left Gen. Rene Schneider dead. Schneider had opposed a US plan for a military coup. In 2001 his widow and 3 sons filed a suit against Henry Kissinger, Richard Helms and several other former US bureaucrats.
(SFC, 9/12/01, p.C4)

1971 Mar 29, Chile president Allende nationalized banks, copper mines.
(MC, 3/29/02)

1971 Oct 21, Nobel prize for literature was awarded to Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973).
(MC, 10/21/01)(SSFC, 8/31/03, p.M3)

1971 The Chilean government confiscated the Chuquicamata mine.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R46)

1971 Claudio Bravo, Chilean-born Moroccan based artist, created a surrealist still life of an assemblage of light bulbs.
(WSJ, 3/17/00, p.W12)

1972 Mar 23, Pres. Nixon discussed his orders to undermine Chilean democracy after the leak of corporate papers revealing collaboration between ITT and the CIA to rollback the election of socialist leader Salvador Allende.
(www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB110/index.htm)

1972 May 13, There was a burglary at the Chilean Embassy in Washington DC. Two members of Pres. Nixon's secret White House team, known as the plumbers, were involved.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A4)

1972 Jun 17, Chile’s president Allende changed his Cabinet. The two most prominent departures were Brigadier General Pedro Palacios Cameron from Mines and Pedro Vuskovic from Economy.
(www.rrojasdatabank.org/murder30.htm)

1972 Oct 13, A Uruguay to Chile plane crashed in Andes Mountain. 12 of 23 were rescued as the rugby team ate crash victims to survive.
(MC, 10/13/01)

1972 Dec 23, 16 plane crash victims (Oct 13 flight from Uruguay to Chile) were rescued from the Andes after 70 died. They survived by cannibalism.
(MC, 12/23/01)

1972 Chile’s dept. of tourism, SERNATUR, was established.
(SFC, Z-1, 4/28/96, p.5)

1973 Jul 13, In Chile a strike began that lasted until the September 11 coup. More than a million workers were on strike demanding that Allende go. American CIA funding was involved.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)(http://foia.state.gov/reports/churchreport.asp)

1973 Aug 22, Chile’s Chamber of Deputies issued its “Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile’s Democracy.” It accused Pres. Allende of violating laws.
(www.pensionreform.org/icpr/eys/declaration.html)

1973 Aug 23, Gen'l. Augusto Pinochet was named commander-in-chief of the Chilean army by Pres. Salvadore Allende.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)

1973 Sep 11, Pres. Salvadore Allende of Chile was toppled in a bloody military coup in Santiago led by 4 commanders: Gen’l Augusto Pinochet, Admiral Jose Toribio Merino (d.8/31/96), air force Gen’l. Gustavo Leigh Guzman (d.1999 at 79) and police director Gen’l. Cesar Mendoza. Allende blew his head off with an AK 47 given to him by Fidel Castro. The government was taken over by Gen. Augusto Pinochet and his economic managers dubbed the "Chicago boys," for their training at the Univ. of Chicago and belief in free markets. The first 3 months of fighting claimed 1261 victims. The air force bombarded the presidential palace to put down resistance by Allende and a small group of followers.
(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-10)(SFC, 8/31/96, p.A23)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A31)

1973 Sep 15, Victor Jara (b.1932), one of the best-known members of Latin America's "New Song" folk movement, died. He had been arrested after the Chilean military coup that overthrew Allende and taken to a soccer stadium used as a detention camp. Court papers indicate Jara was tortured, his hands smashed with rifle butts, and then was shot to death. In 2008 a court charged retired Col. Mario Manriquez in the case, saying he was "responsible" for the death.
(AP, 5/15/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Jara)

1973 Sep 17, Charles Horman, a US free-lance journalist, was arrested by Chilean security forces. His body was found months later. In 1999 US intelligence complicity was reported based on newly declassified material. Horman and Frank Teruggi worked for a newsletter that reprinted articles and clippings from American newspapers critical of US policy. Teruggi was also killed. The 1982 film "Missing" was based on their story. In 2003 retired security officer Rafael Gonzalez (64) became the 1st person formally charged for the murder.
(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A14)(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.A19)(AP, 12/11/03)

1973 Sep 21, A secret CIA report indicated that severe repression was planned in Chile and that 300 students were killed in the technical university when they refused to surrender to the military. The report was made public in 1999.
(SFC, 7/1/99, p.C3)

1973 Sep 22, In Chile Michael Woodward (42), a suspended priest, died. He had been taken into custody by security forces in the port city of Valparaiso on Sep. 16, 1973. Woodward was allegedly tortured with other detainees on at least two navy ships used as detention centers. In 2008 retired admirals Sergio Barros, Guillermo Aldoney and Adolfo Walbaum and retired navy captains Sergio Barra and Ricardo Riesgo were indicted for the kidnapping and torture of Woodward and other members of leftist groups.
(AP, 4/18/08)

1973 Sep 23, Pablo Neruda (b.1904), Chilean Nobel laureate poet, died of leukemia. One of his last works, "The Book of Questions," was published in an English translation in 1991. In 2003 Ilan Stavans edited "The Poetry of Pablo Neruda." In 2004 Matilda Urrutia’s “My Life With Pablo Neruda” was translated into English.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, BR p.2)(WUD, 1994 p.959)(SSFC, 8/31/03, p.M3)(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.M4)

1973 Oct 6, In Chile Andres Pereira was arrested, assassinated and thrown into the sea. He was considered disappeared until his death was confirmed in a 2001 government report.
(SFC, 1/9/01, p.A15)

1973 Oct 17, Winston Cabello Bravo (28) and 12 other political prisoners were shot to death in Copiago, Chile. Bravo's body was carved with a corvo knife. He had been Allende's chief of economic planning in 2 northern regions where copper mines were to be nationalized.
(SFC, 2/3/99, p.A9)

1973 Oct, A group of military officers toured several cities by helicopter in northern Chile in a "caravan of death" and had 72 dissidents dragged from jail and executed. Five high ranking officers, including Gen'l. Sergio Arellano, were indicted for these executions in 1999. In 2004 Gen. Gonzalo Santelices, head of the Santiago army garrison, resigned amid accusations that he was involved in the “Caravan of death.” Santelices acknowledged that as a young lieutenant he followed orders and transferred 14 prisoners from a jail in northern Chile to a desert area where they were executed by firing squad.
(SFC, 6/9/99, p.C2)(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A19)(SFC, 4/28/00, p.D4)(AP, 2/4/08)

1973 Nov 11, The Soviet Union was kicked out of World Cup soccer for refusing to play Chile.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2481)

1973 Dec 8, In Chile soldiers shot Argentine primary school teacher Bernardo Lejderman and Maria Avalos, a Mexican citizen, in front of their 2-year-old child. In 2007 a retired general and two former sergeants were fined and sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing the leftist couple, and were ordered to pay $600,000 to Ernesto Lejderman, the son of the slain couple.
(AP, 12/19/07)(www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/chile/chile_1993_pt3_ch1_a2_e.html)

1973 In 2006 Chile’s government-owned La Nacion newspaper reported that at least 22 dissidents, who disappeared under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, were killed at the secretive German commune-like Dignity Colony and their bodies later burned with chemicals. It was later alleged that the leaders of the Dignity Colony under Paul Schaefer engaged in sexual abuse and cult-like activity and helped the Chilean secret police operate a concentration camp after the military coup.
(AP, 7/23/06)(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A14)
1973 Chile’s secret police took over a mansion in Santiago that had served as the Spanish Embassy in the 1950s. In 2006 the mansion reopened as the Salvador Allende Solidarity Museum.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.F8)
1973 Chilean navy officers allegedly used the tall ship Esmeralda as a hideaway for interrogation and torture.
(SFC,10/23/97, p.A24)
1973 Bolivia’s Pres. Hugo Banzer met with Chilean military authorities. The Chilean military Operation Condor sought Chilean exiles in Bolivia and other countries for return to Chile for execution.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, p.A26)

1973-1980 Gen’l. Augusto Pinochet led a dictatorship. He enacted a constitution that reserves 4 Senate seats for former military commanders and the national police. Under his rule the Chilean military Operation Condor was begun where Chilean exiles in Bolivia and other countries were sought for return to Chile for execution. In 2004 John Dinges authored "The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents."
(SFC,12/12/97, p.B6)(SFEC, 11/29/98, p.A26)(SSFC, 2/14/04, p.M6)
1973-1990 Chile’s National Information Center was the secret police agency under Gen. Pinochet. It was headed by Gen. Hugo Salas.
(SFC, 10/30/99, p.A13)

1974 Jun 27, In Chile Gen. Augusto Pinochet proclaimed himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation" (de facto provisional president).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet)

1974 Sep 30, Gen. Carlo Prats, a former Chilean army chief, was killed with his wife by a car bomb in Buenos Aires. In 2000 an Argentine judge called for the extradition of Augusto Pinochet for the slaying. In 2000 Enrique Arancibia Clavel was sentenced in Argentina to life in prison for his role in the murder.
(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A14)(SFC, 11/22/00, p.C6)

1974 Dec 11, In Chile General Augusto Pinochet took the title of president of the republic.
(SFC, 12/11/06, p.A4)

1974 Chile’s government created a military intelligence agency that became a rogue elephant responsible for many human abuses. It was disbanded by Gen’l. Pinochet in 1978.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)

1974-1978 The Villa Grimaldi, a 19th century estate outside of Santiago, Chile, was used by the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) under Gen’l. Manuel Contreras as clandestine detention center. Some 5,000 political prisoners passed through and many suffered inside torture chambers and closet-sized cells near the stables. The main house was used as an administrative center and casino for officers.
(SFC, 7/15/97, p.A12)

1974-1990 In 1996 a 5-year Chilean government investigation found that the 16-year dictatorship of General Pinochet killed 3,197 civilians for political reasons. This included 1,102 people who disappeared after being arrested by his security forces. In 2000 a retired air force colonel charged that 500 political dissidents were slain by security forces, and that their bodies were weighted down and tossed into the sea.
(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A20)(SFC, 1/21/98, p.C12)(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A11) (SFC, 8/4/00, p.D4)

1975 Jul, In Chile 119 dissidents were kidnapped as part of Operation Colombo. Their bodies were never found. In 2008 98 people were indicted on charges of kidnapping the victims.
(SFC, 5/27/08, p.A3)

1975 Oct 6, Chilean Vice Pres. Bernardo Leighton and his wife, Anita Fresno, were shot in Rome. Anita was left permanently disabled. In 2000 Chilean authorities arrested former Gen. Eduardo Iturriaga for the shooting.
(SFC, 3/15/00, p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leighton_case)

1975 Nov 20, An interim report by the US Senate’s Church Committee said that the CIA failed to assassinated Fidel Castro at least 8 times. The report also covered CIA activity in Chile, the Congo, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A9)(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Church_Committee)

1975 The Torres del Paine National park opened in the Patagonia region of southern Chile.
(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.T6)

1976 Sep 21, Chilean exile Orlando Letelier, one time foreign minister to Chilean President Salvador Allende, was killed when a bomb exploded in his car in Washington D.C. He was assassinated by order from Chile by Gen’l. Manuel Contreras, head of the secret police known as DINA. Ronni Moffitt (25), an American colleague of Letelier, was also killed. Contreras was convicted of the order in 1993 and sentenced to a 7-year prison term. In 2000 Gen. Pinochet was linked to the killing.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A14)(SFC, 7/1/99, p.C3)(SFEC, 5/28/00, p.A7)(AP, 9/21/01)

1976 Gen. Augusto Pinochet commenced that Carretera Austral project, an effort to connect the northern Chile to southern Aisen province.
(SFCM, 10/3/04, p.30)
1976 Chile departed the Andean Community trade block. In 2006 it planned to rejoin.
(Econ, 8/26/06, p.30)
1976 Victor Diaz Lopez, former leader of Chile’s Communist Party, was picked up the DINA, the secret police of dictator Augusto Pinochet. In 2007 the former leader of the DINA’s Lautaro Brigade confessed to murdering Victor Diaz in 1977.
(Econ, 4/14/07, p.39)
1976 Gen’l. Juan Jose Torres, ousted as president of Bolivia in 1971, was kidnapped by a death squad in Argentina and killed. He was a victim of the Condor Plan, a South American military pact between Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay to exchange intelligence information and help each other hunt down suspected leftists.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A16)
1976 A US congressional commission found that Pres. Nixon had authorized $10 million for a covert CIA mission to get rid of Allende in Chile. Papers to this effect were declassified in 1998.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.A12)

1977 Apr 5, A group of Chilean military men in London announced the formation of a "Front of Democratic Forces of Chile in Exile." Another similar group was formed in Brussels and shortly later in East Berlin.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)

1977 Apr 6, Jaime Estevez spoke from a Moscow broadcast that the purposes of the newly formed Soviet-backed entities was to lead the fight for the overthrow of the fascist junta in Chile.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)

1977 Aug, The Central Committee of the Chilean Communist Party constituted itself as "The General Staff of Revolution."
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)

1977 Chile’s DINA secret police reporting to Gen. Pinochet was replaced by the National Information Center (Centro Nacional de Información--CNI).
(www.fas.org/irp/world/chile/dina.htm)

1978 Jan 4, Chile’s Gen. Pinochet held a National Consultation, "in defense of the dignity of Chile," which took place one week after it was first announced, on December 27.
(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)

1978 Apr 19, In Chile a law was enacted that gave amnesty to the military.
(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-10)(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)

1978 Jul 24, Chile’s Air Force Gen'l. Gustavo Leigh Guzman was demoted. He was the first junta member to urge the restoration of civilian rule.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A31)(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)

1978 Nov 30, In Chile the remains of 15 disappeared were discovered in Lonquen. The Vicaria publicly announced the discovery of an illegal burial ground in an abandoned limestone mine in Lonquén which had been used to conceal the bodies of 15 people who had disappeared since the onset of the military regime in 1973.
(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)

1979 Jan 9, The Act of Montevideo was signed in Uruguay pledging Argentina and Chile to a peaceful solution and a return to the military situation of early 1977. Cardinal Antonio Samore (1905-1983), Vatican representative, mediated the Beagle conflict.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_conflict)

1979 Chilean Communist Party Sec. Gen’l. Luis Corvalan proclaimed from Moscow a new era of acute violence, and endorsed guerrilla warfare, terrorism and a massive armed uprising.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)

1980 Sep, Chile’s Gen'l. Pinochet called for a referendum to approve a constitution extending his rule for the next 8 years.
(SFC, 12/11/06, p.A4)

1980 Oct 21, Chile’s Gen'l. Pinochet issued a new constitution that allowed him to stay in power for another 8 years. It was approved by plebiscite.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)(Econ, 10/23/04, p.36)

1980 Jose Pinera revolutionized Chile's pension system while he was secretary of labor and social security. Pinochet wrote a new constitution that included statutes that forced politicians, journalists and musicians to practice self-censorship or face prosecution.
(WSJ, 6/28/96, p.A9)(SFC, 12/9/96, p.A18)(AP, 12/12/04)

1981 May 1, Chile completely privatized Social Security as part of its economic reforms.
(SFC, 6/16/96, Z1 p.7)(SFC, 6/25/96, p.A18)

1981 Jul 2, L.E. Gonzalez discovered asteroid #3495, Colchagua, from the astronomical station of Cerro El Roble in Chile.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroids_(3001-4000))

1981 In Chile Paul Schaefer (b.1921) of the Dignity Colony was accused of child molestation but the case file disappeared at the courthouse in Parral. The judge lived in a house owned by the colony.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sch%C3%A4fer)

1982 Jan 22, Eduardo Frei Montalva, former Chilean President (1964-1970), died from septic shock as he recovered from stomach surgery at a Santiago clinic. In 2007 his family filed a court complaint claiming that Frei had been assassinated by poisoning after a Belgian university investigation found mustard gas in the body of the former Christian Democratic leader.
(AP, 1/24/07)

1982 Feb 23, Tucapel Jimenez, a Chilean labor leader, was found with his throat cut and face shot in his car. Gen. Humberto Gordon Rubio (d.2000), secret police chief, was implicated in the killing.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A20)(www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/single.pl?query=0319822171117)

1982 An economic crises in Chile caused the establishment of capital controls and a minimum permanence period for foreign capital of ten years.
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A17)

1983 May, Chile’s Gen'l. Pinochet reacted to protests with strong repression.
(SFC, 12/11/06, p.A4)

1984 Alpacas from Chile began arriving in the US after the US lifted a ban.
(WSJ, 4/5/07, p.A10)

1985 Feb 5, The US halted a loan to Chile in protest over human rights abuses.
(HN, 2/5/99)

1985 Mar 29, In Santiago, Chile, police killed Rafael and Eduardo Vergara. The 2 young brothers, active members of the often violent “Movement of the Revolutionary Left” (MIR), were peppered with bullets by military police during an anti-Pinochet protest in the low-income Villa Francia district. The event became known as the “Day of the Young Combatants.”
(SFC, 3/31/08, p.A3)(http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/6384027.html)

1985 Jan 5, Boris Weisfeiler (43), a Russian émigré and naturalized US citizen, disappeared while hiking in Chile. US declassified documents in 2000 indicated that Boris, a mathematics professor, was detained by the Chilean military and handed over to Colonia Dignidad.
(SFC, 6/19/00, p.A8)(SFC, 6/12/08, p.A10)

1986 Sep 7, Chile’s Gen’l. Pinochet narrowly survived an assassination attempt involving 70 terrorists. 5 of his escorts were murdered.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)

1986 Chile’s military discovered a clandestine arms shipment that was traced to Cuba. There were enough arms to support 5,000 men.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)

1987 Cecilia Bolocco of Chile won the Miss Universe crown.
(WSJ, 8/3/01, p.A1)

1987 In Chile a secret police unit killed 12 members of a pro-communist urban guerrilla gang. In 2007 retired Col. Ivan Quiroz was convicted as a member of the secret police unit and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Sentenced along with Quiroz were 10 other agents of Dina, including its director at the time, retired Gen. Hugo Salas, who received a life sentence.
(AP, 1/24/08)

1988 Apr 2, Police Corp. Alfredo Rivera Rohas (35) was murdered by 3 youths while carrying home groceries in Santiago, Chile.
(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A19)

1988 Sep 29, In Chile a 17-year-old girl died from electric torture by military police. This case was later cited by a Spanish judge as part of the 1998 warrant against Gen’l. Pinochet.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.D3)

1988 Oct 5, The Chilean population agreed at referendum their opposition to the Pinochet regime.
(http://tinyurl.com/ew36c)

1988 Oct 6, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the president of Chile, conceded defeat in a referendum held the day before to determine whether he should receive a new eight-year term of office. He was forced to call for an open election but stayed president until his term ran out in 1990.
(AP, 10/6/98)(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)

1988 Jacobo Timerman (d.1999 at 76), Argentine journalist, published "Chile: Death in the South."
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.D6)

1988 Chile was kicked out of America’s system of preferences and cut its average tariffs from 20% to 15% in a bid to lower the cost of imports.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.78)

1989 Mar 13, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration began a quarantine of all fruit imported from Chile after traces of cyanide were found in two Chilean grapes.
(AP, 3/13/99)

1989 Dec 14, Opposition leader Patricio Aylwin, representing the left and center opposition alliance, was elected president in Chile's first free election since 1970. However the generals maintained great power that included the right to veto political decisions.
(AP, 12/14/02)(WSJ, 1/9/96, p.A-10)(http://web.mit.edu/17.508/www/week8.html)

1989 Sebastian Pinera (b.1949), Chilean businessman and politician, was elected senator in Chile. His fortune in 1996 was estimated at $300 mil.
(WSJ, 3/26/96, p.A-10)

1990 Mar 11, Chile’s General Augusto Pinochet gave up power after 16 years of rule, but remained commander of the army. Some 3,200 people were murdered under his dictatorship and 30,000 more were tortured.
(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A20)(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A3)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.89)

1990 Mar 12, Vice President Quayle met in Santiago, Chile, with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who promised to peacefully relinquish power to Violeta Chamorro, the U.S.-backed candidate who had won Nicaragua's presidential election.
(AP, 3/12/00)

1990 Chile’s Gen’l. Pinochet sent troops into the streets of Santiago as a warning to drop an official investigation into his son’s business dealings.
(SFC, 12/9/96, p.A18)

1990 Patricio Aylwin was elected president of Chile.
(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-15)

1990 Inflation in Chile hit 26%.
(Econ, 4/30/05, p.74)

ETC.
http://timelines.ws/countries/CHILE.HTML