Editing History of Chile (section)

==Military dictatorship (1973–1990)==
{{Further|1973 Chilean coup d'état|Chile under Pinochet}}

[[Image:Augusto Pinochet foto oficial.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Augusto Pinochet]]]]
By early 1973, [[inflation]] had risen 600% under Allende's presidency.''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3uFAr6lhPxgC&q=chile+inflation+1973+800%25&pg=PA142|title=Latin America's Economy|isbn=9780262531252|access-date=25 February 2015|last1=Cardoso|first1=Eliana A.|last2=Helwege|first2=Ann|year=1995|publisher=MIT Press |archive-date=23 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123232901/https://books.google.com/books?id=3uFAr6lhPxgC&q=chile+inflation+1973+800%25&pg=PA142|url-status=live}}</ref>'' The crippled economy was further battered by prolonged and sometimes simultaneous [[strike action|strikes]] by physicians, teachers, students, truck owners, copper workers, and the small business class. A [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|military coup]] overthrew Allende on September 11, 1973. As the armed forces bombarded the presidential palace ([[Palacio de La Moneda]]), Allende committed suicide.<ref>{{Cite book| first=Óscar|last=Soto|title=El Último dia de Salvador Allende}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|first=Eugenio|last=Ahumada|title=Chile: La memoria prohibida}}</ref> A military government, led by General [[Augusto Pinochet Ugarte]], took over control of the country.

The first years of the regime were marked by [[human rights violation]]s. The junta jailed, tortured, and executed thousands of Chileans. In October 1973, at least 72 people were murdered by the [[Caravan of Death]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/850932.stm|work=[[BBC News]]|title=Flashback: Caravan of Death|access-date=2008-05-02|date=July 25, 2000|archive-date=2008-02-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226211503/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/850932.stm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/07/chile-high-court-allows-pinochet.php | title=JURIST &#124; School of Law &#124; University of Pittsburgh | access-date=2009-05-04 | archive-date=2009-05-08 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508215435/http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/07/chile-high-court-allows-pinochet.php | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/63821.stm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100913121846/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/63821.stm |date=2010-09-13 }} Pinochet's rule: Repression and economic success</ref> At least a thousand people were executed during the first six months of Pinochet in office, and at least two thousand more were killed during the next sixteen years, as reported by the [[Rettig Report]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/chile/chile_1993_toc.html |title=Chile: Reports: Truth Commissions: Library & Links: U.S. Institute of Peace |access-date=2009-05-04 |archive-date=2009-05-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090506012049/http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/chile/chile_1993_toc.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1109861.stm |title=Finding Chile's disappeared |date=10 January 2001 |work=[[BBC News]] |location=London, UK |access-date=January 5, 2010 |archive-date=9 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209171048/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1109861.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> At least 29,000 were imprisoned and tortured.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.elpais.com/solotexto/articulo.html?xref=20081203elpepudep_19&type=Tes|title=El campo de concentración de Pinochet cumple 70 años|date=12 April 2009|newspaper=[[El País]]|location=Madrid, Spain|access-date=10 April 2009|archive-date=29 July 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120729172019/http://www.elpais.com/solotexto/articulo.html?xref=20081203elpepudep_19&type=Tes|url-status=live}}</ref> According to the Latin American Institute on Mental Health and Human Rights (ILAS), "situations of extreme trauma" affected about 200,000 persons.;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chipsites.com/derechos/dictadura_victimas_eng.html|title=chipsites.com|access-date=25 February 2015|archive-date=23 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923202904/http://www.chipsites.com/derechos/dictadura_victimas_eng.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/42a/132.html|title=Under the Dictatorship|access-date=25 February 2015|archive-date=25 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225230611/http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/42a/132.html|url-status=live}}</ref> this figure includes individuals killed, tortured or exiled, and their immediate families. About 30,000 left the country.<ref>{{cite news |title=Chile torture victims win payout |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4050655.stm |work=BBC News |date=29 November 2004 }}</ref>

The four-man junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet abolished [[civil liberties]], dissolved the national congress, banned union activities, prohibited strikes and collective bargaining, and erased the Allende administration's agrarian and economic reforms.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Valdivia Ortiz de Zarate |first1=Veronica |title=Terrorism and Political Violence during the Pinochet Years: Chile, 1973-1989 |journal=Radical History Review |date=2003 |volume=85 |issue=1 |pages=182–190 |id={{Project MUSE|37744}} }}</ref>

The junta embarked on a radical program of [[liberalization]], [[deregulation]] and [[privatization]], slashing [[tariff]]s as well as government welfare programs and [[Government budget deficit|deficit]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Petras |first1=James |last2=Vieux |first2=Steve |title=The Chilean 'Economic Miracle': An Empirical Critique |journal=Critical Sociology |date=July 1990 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=57–72 |id={{ProQuest|1308074192}} |doi=10.1177/089692059001700203 |s2cid=143590493 }}</ref> Economic reforms were drafted by a group of technocrats who became known as the [[Chicago Boys]] because many of them had been trained or influenced by [[University of Chicago]] professors. Under these new policies, the rate of inflation dropped:<ref>Robert G. Wesson: ''Politics, policies, and economic development in Latin America''. Hoover Press, 1984, {{ISBN|0-8179-8062-8}}, p. 5.</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|- class="hintergrundfarbe5"
! style="width:10.5em;" style="text-align:left;" | Year
! style="width:4.5em;" | 1973
! style="width:4.5em;" | 1974
! style="width:4.5em;" | 1975
! style="width:4.5em;" | 1976
! style="width:4.5em;" | 1977
! style="width:4.5em;" | 1978
! style="width:4.5em;" | 1979
! style="width:4.5em;" | 1980
! style="width:4.5em;" | 1981
! style="width:4.5em;" | 1982
|-
| style="text-align: center;" style="text-align:left;" | Inflation (%)
| style="text-align: center;" | 508.1
| style="text-align: center;" | 376.0
| style="text-align: center;" | 340.0
| style="text-align: center;" | 174.0
| style="text-align: center;" | 63.5
| style="text-align: center;" | 30.3
| style="text-align: center;" | 38.9
| style="text-align: center;" | 31.2
| style="text-align: center;" | 9.5
| style="text-align: center;" | 20.7
|}
[[Image:Economic growth of Chile.PNG|thumb|upright=1.35|Chilean (orange) and average Latin American (blue) rates of growth of [[GDP]] (1971–2007)]]

A new [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|constitution]] was approved by [[plebiscite]] characterized by the absence of registration lists, on September 11, 1980, and General Pinochet became president of the republic for an 8-year term.<ref name="US Library of Congress">{{cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/chile/88.htm|title=Country Study of Chile: Authoritarianism Defeated by Its Own Rules|date=March 31, 1994|publisher=US Library of Congress|location=Washington, D.C.|access-date=December 11, 2006|archive-date=August 5, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805012310/http://countrystudies.us/chile/88.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1982–1983 Chile witnessed a [[Crisis of 1982|severe economic crisis]] with a surge in unemployment and a meltdown of the financial sector.<ref>Sebastián Edwards, Alejandra Cox Edwards: ''Monetarism and Liberalization: the Chilean Experiment.'' University of Chicago Press, 1991, S. xvii.</ref> 16 out of 50 financial institutions faced bankruptcy.<ref name="Fischer 329">{{cite book |doi=10.4159/9780674054264-010 |chapter=The Influence of Neoliberals in Chile before, during, and after Pinochet |title=The Road from Mont Pèlerin |date=2009 |last1=Fischer |first1=Karin |pages=305–346 [329] |isbn=978-0-674-05426-4 }}</ref> In 1982 the two biggest banks were [[Nationalization|nationalized]] to prevent an even worse [[credit crunch]]. In 1983 another five banks were nationalized and two banks had to be put under government supervision.<ref name="Fischer 329"/> The central bank took over foreign debts. Critics ridiculed the economic policy of the Chicago Boys as "Chicago way to socialism“.<ref>Robert G. Wesson: ''Politics, policies, and economic development in Latin America''. Hoover Press, 1984, {{ISBN|0-8179-8062-8}}, S. 8.</ref>

After the economic crisis, [[Hernán Büchi]] became Minister of Finance from 1985 to 1989, introducing a more pragmatic economic policy. He allowed the peso to float and reinstated restrictions on the movement of capital in and out of the country. He introduced [[Bank regulation]]s, simplified and reduced the corporate tax. Chile went ahead with privatizations, including public utilities plus the re-privatization of companies that had returned to the government during the 1982–1983 crisis. From 1984 to 1990, Chile's gross domestic product grew by an annual average of 5.9%, the fastest on the continent. Chile developed a good export economy, including the export of fruits and vegetables to the northern hemisphere when they were out of season, and commanded high prices.

The military junta began to change during the late 1970s. Due to problems with Pinochet, Leigh was expelled from the junta in 1978 and replaced by General [[Fernando Matthei]]. In the late 1980s, the government gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, [[Freedom of speech|speech]], and association, to include trade union and political activity. Due to the [[Caso Degollados]] ("slit throats case"), in which three [[Chilean Communist Party|Communist party]] members were assassinated, [[César Mendoza]], member of the junta since 1973 and representants of the [[Carabineros de Chile|carabineros]], resigned in 1985 and was replaced by [[Rodolfo Stange]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=L. A. Times |date=1985-08-04 |title=Chile Replaces Top Police Officer, Bolsters Security |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-08-04-mn-4340-story.html#:~:text=Gen.%20Rodolfo%20Stange,%2059,%20replaced%20Gen.%20Cesar%20Mendoza,%2066,%20as%20junta%20member%20and%20director%20of%20the%2030,000-man%20police%20force,%20considered%20a%20key%20element%20of%20Pinochet%E2%80%99s%20support. |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> The next year, [[Carmen Gloria Quintana]] was burnt alive in what became known as the [[Burnt Alive case|Caso Quemado]] ("Burnt Alive case").<ref>{{in lang|es}} http://www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/87.88sp/Chile9755.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707163023/http://www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/87.88sp/Chile9755.htm |date=2010-07-07 }}</ref>

Chile's [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|constitution]] established that in 1988 there would be another plebiscite in which the voters would accept or reject a single candidate proposed by the Military Junta. Pinochet was, as expected, the candidate proposed, but was denied a second 8-year term by 54.5% of the vote.<ref name="US Library of Congress"/>