Augusto Pinochet

Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte was born on November 25, 1915, in Valparaiso, Chile. He entered the military in 1933, rising through the Army officer corps to become Commander-in-Chief in August 1973, appointed to that post by President Salvador Allende - a decision Allende would not survive. Pinochet died on December 10, 2006, in Santiago, Chile, from heart failure, without having been convicted of any of the human rights charges against him.¹

CIA Support and the 1973 Coup

The Central Intelligence Agency's involvement in Chilean politics preceded the coup by years. Following Allende's election in September 1970, President Richard Nixon ordered CIA Director Richard Helms to prevent Allende from taking office ("make the economy scream"). The CIA funded opposition media and political parties, supported business strikes, and made contact with military officers. CIA Station Chief Henry Hecksher and other operatives were in contact with coup plotters including Pinochet and General Gustavo Leigh.

On September 11, 1973, the Chilean military - led by Pinochet, Leigh, and Admiral Jose Merino - launched a coordinated coup. The presidential palace, La Moneda, was bombed by Chilean Air Force jets. Allende died during the assault, either by suicide or homicide. The military junta established a dictatorship with Pinochet emerging as the dominant figure and head of state by June 1974.¹

The 2000 Church Committee successor investigation and subsequent declassified documents confirmed the CIA's extensive involvement in destabilizing the Allende government, though the CIA disputed direct operational involvement in the coup itself. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was documented as aware of and approving the coup conspiracy; the "Track II" operation to prevent Allende from assuming the presidency in 1970 was a CIA operation authorized by Nixon and Kissinger.²

Operation Condor

Pinochet's Chile was a founding participant in Operation Condor, the CIA-facilitated transnational network of South American military intelligence services (Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Brazil) that coordinated the identification, tracking, and assassination of leftist dissidents across borders and in third countries. Condor's operations killed thousands of people across the continent; documented Condor assassinations include the 1974 car bombing of General Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires and the 1976 car bombing in Washington, D.C. of former Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier - a rare Condor operation on American soil. The Letelier assassination was carried out by the DINA (Chilean secret police) under Manuel Contreras; Contreras was convicted in Chile in 1995.²

Arms and Carlos Cardoen

Chilean arms manufacturer Carlos Cardoen operated with CIA connections during the Pinochet era, developing cluster munitions and other weapons that were supplied to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War. Cardoen's operations blended private arms manufacturing with intelligence relationships cultivated under Pinochet's government. Cardoen's companies were investigated by the U.S. government following the Persian Gulf War for their role in Iraq's weapons procurement.¹

London Arrest and Extradition Battle

Pinochet traveled to London for back surgery in September 1998. On October 16, 1998, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon issued an international arrest warrant for crimes against humanity, and British police arrested Pinochet at the London Clinic. The 16-month extradition battle involved rulings by the House of Lords (which held that former heads of state have no immunity for torture) before British Home Secretary Jack Straw released Pinochet on medical grounds in March 2000. He returned to Chile where he faced numerous criminal and civil charges until his death.¹