Chapter 29: Augusto Pinochet

123      “politics and governance”  CNN Chile, “Debate presidencial Anatel 2021,” www.youtube.com/live/hF-H0sIK_gU?si=oOYqVCftlItaQNL3, 10:17–10:20, 11:04–11:08.

123      “José Antonio Kast has manipulated this election . . .”  CNN Chile, “Debate presidencial Anatel 2021,” www.youtube.com/live/hF-H0sIK_gU?si=oOYqVCftlItaQNL3, 13:37–13:44.

123      “Remember that you have three . . .” CNN Chile, “Debate presidencial Anatel 2021,” www.youtube.com/live/hF-H0sIK_gU?si=oOYqVCftlItaQNL3, 14:05–14:08.

123      “José Antonio Kast, why would you want to govern . . .”  CNN Chile, “Debate presidencial Anatel 2021,” www.youtube.com/live/hF-H0sIK_gU?si=oOYqVCftlItaQNL3, 14:09–14:15.

123      led an assault on the presidential palace of . . . Allende Associated Press, “AP Photos: 50 Years Ago, Chile’s Army Ousted a President and Everything Changed,” NBC News, September 6, 2023, www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/ap-photos-50-years-ago-chiles-army-ousted-president-everything-changed-rcna103395.

123      took his own life Shortly before his death, Allende made a final speech to Chileans, in which he proclaimed, “I am not going to resign. Placed in a historic transition, I will pay for loyalty to the people with my life. And I say to them that I am certain that the seed which we have planted in the good conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled forever. They have strength and will be able to dominate us, but social processes can be arrested neither by crime nor force. History is ours, and people make history.” TeleSUR English, “Salvador Allende: Last Words to the Nation,” YouTube, September 11, 2013, youtu.be/5vX8buh32Hk?si=mL7v9f5on0d0JpgU, 1:22–2:16; and Associated Press, “Chilean President Salvador Allende Committed Suicide, Autopsy Confirms,” The Guardian, July 19, 2011, www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/20/salvador-allende-committed-suicide-autopsy.

123      backed by Chilean businessmen like Michael Kast  Chilean businesses worked to foment disorder to facilitate a coup. Within one month of seizing power, the New York Times reported that Pinochet had “announced the Government’s intention to return most of the more than 300 Chilean and foreign companies that were taken over without payment by the Government of the late President Salvador Allende.” On the role of Chilean businesses in fomenting disorder, see Peter Kornbluh, The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability (New York: The New Press, 2004), 91. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/862746867. The New York Times report can be found at Jonathan Kandell, “Chile to Return Seized Companies to Their Owners,” New York Times, October 20, 1973, www.nytimes.com/1973/10/20/archives/chile-to-return-seized-companies-to-their-owners-allende-opposed.html.

123      U.S. multinational corporations, and the CIA James Doubek, “The U.S. Set the Stage for a Coup in Chile: It Had Unintended Consequences at Home,” NPR, September 10, 2023, www.npr.org/2023/09/10/1193755188/chile-coup-50-years-pinochet-kissinger-human-rights-allende.

123      Chile’s oldest newspaper, founded in 1827  John Bartlett, “Rightwing Chilean Newspaper Accused of ‘Apology for Nazism’ Over Göring Article,” The Guardian, October 25, 2021, www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/25/chile-newspaper-el-mercurio-hermann-goring.

123      at least $1.5 million  Doubek, “The U.S. . Set the Stage for a Coup in Chile,”; and Jim Lobe and Connor Echols, “When the US Helped Kill Democracy in Chile,” Responsible Statecraft, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, September 11, 2023, responsiblestatecraft.org/pinochet-chile-coup/.

123      to criticize Allende’s economic reforms  Bartlett, “Rightwing Chilean Newspaper Accused of ‘Apology for Nazism’ Over Göring Article,” www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/25/chile-newspaper-el-mercurio-hermann-goring.

123      call for his overthrow “Throughout Allende’s aborted tenure, the paper continued an unyielding campaign, running countless virulent, inflammatory articles and editorials exhorting opposition against—and at times even calling for the overthrow of—the Popular Unity government.” Kornbluh, The Pinochet File, 92. For more on the CIA’s work with El Mercurio, see 91–94. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/862746867.

123–124 favorite paper of former Nazis like Michael Kast El Mercurio was “staunchly right-wing” and Chile’s “largest” newspaper. Kornbluh, The Pinochet File, 91. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/862746867.

124      supported Pinochet’s ascent to dictatorial power  Pinochet received support from (and sometimes returned support to) former Nazis in addition to Michael Kast (see above note for “The junta was backed by Chilean businessmen like Michael Kast”). Nazi war criminal Walther Rauff, who had “designed gas vans used to poison Jews and persons with disabilities,” was possibly involved in Pinochet’s intelligence apparatus. Pinochet refused to ever extradite Rauff. Nazi medic Paul Schäfer established Colonia Dignidad, “a magnet for Nazi emigrants that, from its founding in 1961 until the early 1990s, the site of countless atrocities, a vast majority of them committed under the auspices, and with the blessings, of Augusto Pinochet’s military apparatus.” Schäfer “became friends with Pinochet and his wife, Lucía Hiriart. Schäfer proved to be a popular figure with the military regime, wining and dining with the dictator and benefiting politically in all sorts of ways.” He built “torture chambers, including tunnels and bunkers, in exchange for mining licenses and other perks” from the regime. Schäfer died while in prison for sexually abusing about two dozen children. On Rauff, see National Archives, “Opening of CIA Records under Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act,” press release, May 8, 2022, www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2002/nr02-52. On Schäfer, see Ilan Stavans, “The Dark History of Colonia Dignidad,” Nation, March 24, 2022, www.thenation.com/article/culture/sinister-sect-colonia-dignidad/; and Alexei Barrionuevo, “Paul Schaefer, German Guilty of Chile Child Abuse, Dies at 89,” New York Times, April 24, 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/world/25schaefer.html.

124      unregulated freedom to exploit the people and the land  Carlos Huneeus and Tomás Undurraga, “Authoritarian Rule and Economic Groups in Chile: A Case of Winner-Takes-All Politics,” in Big Business and Dictatorships in Latin America: A Transnational History of Profits and Repression, eds. Victoria Basualdo, Hartmut Berghoff, and Marcelo Bucheli (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), 91–125. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1230565588.

124      routinely provided General Pinochet with political support and cover Bartlett, “Rightwing Chilean Newspaper Accused of ‘Apology for Nazism’ Over Göring Article,” www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/25/chile-newspaper-el-mercurio-hermann-goring.

124      received similar support and cover from El Mercurio  El Mercurio has repeatedly platformed Kast through op-eds and interviews, which Kast has shared on social media. See, for example, José Antonio Kast Rist, Twitter, April 24, 2020, 12:33 p.m., x.com/joseantoniokast/status/1253723743098155008, archived at archive.today, February 9, 2026 capture, archive.ph/kzxb4; José Antonio Kast Rist, Twitter, April 18, 2021, 1:14 p.m., x.com/joseantoniokast/status/1383831432116641792, archived at archive.today, February 9, 2026 capture, archive.ph/uZ9i0; José Antonio Kast Rist, X, December 23, 2023, 3:33 p.m., x.com/joseantoniokast/status/1738659059513893316, archived at archive.today, February 9, 2026 capture, archive.ph/gP51h; and José Antonio Kast Rist, X, May 26, 2024, 4:49 p.m., x.com/joseantoniokast/status/1794833201828966717, archived at archive.today, February 9, 2026 capture, archive.ph/yR4hq.

124      Chile’s highest paid circulation  International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, “Chile Country Commercial Guide: Chile—Trade Promotion and Advertising,” Privacy Shield Framework, accessed January 22, 2025, www.privacyshield.gov/ps/article?id=Chile-Trade-Promotion-and-Advertising.

124      commemorated the life of Hermann Göring “A 75 años de su muerte: Hermann Göring, el sucesor de Hitler,” El Mercurio, October 24, 2021, available at go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA680013869&sid=sitemap&v=2.1&it=r&p=IFME&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7Ea87dee5e&aty=open-web-entry; and Bartlett, “Rightwing Chilean Newspaper Accused of ‘Apology for Nazism’ Over Göring Article,” www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/25/chile-newspaper-el-mercurio-hermann-goring.

124      became the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany “Hermann Göring,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, November 22, 2024, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hermann-goering.

124      official Deputy . . . to Adolf Hitler from 1933 until 1941 “Rudolf Hess: DNA Test Disproves Spandau Prison Conspiracy Theory,” BBC News, January 22, 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46964928; and “Rudolf Hess,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, accessed January 23, 2025, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/rudolf-hess.

124      ran an article commemorating Hess’s life  “La ‘misión de paz’ del nazi Rudolf Hess,” El Mercurio, May 9, 2021; and Bartlett, “Rightwing Chilean Newspaper Accused of ‘Apology for Nazism’ Over Göring Article,” www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/25/chile-newspaper-el-mercurio-hermann-goring.

124      silence any and all Chileans committed to antiracist democracy  During Pinochet’s rule, about 40,000 Chileans were arrested as political prisoners and tortured. Another 3,000 people were killed or “disappeared.” “Chile Recognises 9,800 More Victims of Pinochet’s Rule,” BBC News, August 18, 2011, www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-14584095. To learn more about Pinochet’s secret police, Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (National Intelligence Directorate, or DINA), see “The Pinochet Regime Declassified: DINA: ‘A Gestapo-Type Police Force,’ in Chile,” National Security Archive, George Washington University, June 18, 2024, nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2024-06-18/pinochet-regime-declassified-dina-gestapo-type-police-force-chile.

124      established a conventional dictatorship  Jonathan Kandell reported in the New York Times, “The leader of the four‐man junta that took power last September became chief of state of Chile today. The three other members were relegated to what was described as an advisory and legislative role.” When other coup leaders met this move, and Pinochet’s new title of “Supreme Chief of the Nation,” with disapproval, Pinochet forced them into lesser positions, retirement, or, in the cases of Augusto Lutz and Oscar Bonilla, death. See Jonathan Kandell, “Chilean Assumes Full Leadership,” New York Times, June 27, 1974, www.nytimes.com/1974/06/27/archives/chilean-assumes-full-leadership-pinochet-head-of-the-junta-and-the.html, 6; and Heraldo Muñoz, The Dictator’s Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet (New York: Basic Books, 2008), 62–65. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/646769227.

124      direct elections over the next fifteen years  James F. Smith, “Chilean Opposition Wins Presidency by a Landslide,” Los Angeles Times, December 15, 1989, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-15-mn-181-story.html.

124      decreed an “anti-terrorism” law  A Special Rapporteur for the United Nations explains that Pinochet enacted the law on May 17, 1984, “with the clear purpose of severely penalizing any rebellion against the regime.” Ben Emmerson, Addendum, Mission to Chile, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms While Countering Terrorism. United Nations document A/HRC/25/59/Add.2, April 14, 2014, 9, available at digitallibrary.un.org/record/769432?ln=en&v=pdf. See also Carole Concha Bell, “Chile Still Wrestling With Demons 50 Years After the Coup,” North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), September 10, 2023, nacla.org/chile-50-years-pinochet-coup.