Editing History of Chile (section)

=== Aylwin, Frei, and Lagos ===
Chileans elected a new president and the majority of members of a two-chamber congress on December 14, 1989. Christian Democrat [[Patricio Aylwin]], the candidate of a coalition of 17 political parties called the ''[[Coalition of Parties for Democracy|Concertación]]'', received an absolute majority of votes (55%).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Christian |first1=Shirley |title=Man in the News: Patricio Aylwin; A Moderate Leads Chile |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/16/world/man-in-the-news-patricio-aylwin-a-moderate-leads-chile.html |work=The New York Times |date=16 December 1989 }}</ref> President Aylwin served from 1990 to 1994, in what was considered a transition period. In February 1991 Aylwin created the [[National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation]], which released in February 1991 the [[Rettig Report]] on human rights violations committed during the military rule.

This report counted 2,279 cases of "[[forced disappearance|disappearances]]" which could be proved and registered. Of course, the very nature of "disappearances" made such investigations very difficult. The same problem arose, several years later, with the [[Valech Report]], released in 2004 and which counted almost 30,000 victims of [[torture]], among testimonies from 35,000 persons.

In December 1993, Christian Democrat [[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]], the son of previous president [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]], led the Concertación coalition to victory with an absolute majority of votes (58%).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-8257609.html|title=Chile elects new leader Late president's son wins big|access-date=2008-05-02|archive-date=2008-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080526090105/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-8257609.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Frei Ruiz-Tagle was succeeded in 2000 by Socialist [[Ricardo Lagos]], who won the presidency in an unprecedented [[runoff election]] against [[Joaquín Lavín]] of the rightist [[Alliance for Chile]],<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/01/17/chile.elex.01/ |title=Moderate socialist Lagos wins Chilean presidential election |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=January 16, 2000 |access-date=2008-05-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506162601/http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/01/17/chile.elex.01/ |archive-date=May 6, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> by a very tight score of fewer than 200,000 votes (51,32%).

In 1998, Pinochet travelled to London for back surgery. But under orders of Spanish judge [[Baltasar Garzón]], he was [[Augusto Pinochet's arrest and trial|arrested there]], attracting worldwide attention, not only because of the history of Chile and South America, but also because this was one of the first arrests of a former president based on the [[universal jurisdiction]] principle. Pinochet tried to defend himself by referring to the [[State Immunity Act of 1978]], an argument rejected by the British justice. However, [[UK Home Secretary]] [[Jack Straw]] took the responsibility to release him on medical grounds, and refused to extradite him to Spain. Thereafter, Pinochet returned to Chile in March 2000. Upon descending the plane on his wheelchair, he stood up and saluted the cheering crowd of supporters, including an army band playing his favorite military march tunes, which was awaiting him at the airport in Santiago. President [[Ricardo Lagos]] later commented that the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/665342.stm|title=Thousands march against Pinochet|date=March 4, 2000|work=[[BBC News]]|location=London, UK|access-date=2008-05-02|archive-date=2004-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040526083212/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/665342.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>