Pinochets Power

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Pinochets Power
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Pinochets Grip on Power

• Evolutionary Stages of the Chilean Military
  Regime
• Amassing power within the Military
• Institutionalizing rule vis-à-vis society
• Institutionalized Terror
• The Courts
• Culture of Fear

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Evolutionary Stages of the Military Regime

• First Stage(September 1973)
• Military assumed power for the length of time
  that circumstances require.
• Second Stage (March 1974)
• Declaration of principles of the government of
  Chile the armed forces and the police do not
  set time tables for their management of the
  government, because the task of rebuilding the
  country morally, institutionally, and
  economically requires prolonged and profound
  action.

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Evolutionary Stages of the Military Regime

• Third Stage (Sept-Dec 1975)
• Doctrine of counterinsurgency warfare becomes one
  of the over-riding themes if not the dominant
  theme of the government.
• Fourth Stage (1977)
• Pinochet begins to make allusions to an eventual
  turn towards democracy with no firm dates or
  proposed plans
• Fifth Stage
• We start to see, for the first time, Pinochet
  attempting to de-politicize the army. There is a
  sense among the leadership that the military is
  being corrupted by politics.

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Amassing Power within the Military

• Distinction between Military power and Political
  power must be maintained for stable democracy and
  to maintain a professionalized military
• Dictatorship confuses the two roles
• Mixing the two thoroughly involves the army in
  political contingencies
• Promotion quickly becomes based on the support
  for the generals policies and not on ones merit

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Importance of Retirement
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Retirement of Military Officers

• Limiting the tenure of generals is important to
  maintain balance between military and political
  power
• Long tenure of a chief of staff creates great
  difference in ages among the leaders and
  subordinates
• Destroys the collaborative process that is
  supposed to exist among members of the general
  staff

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Pinochet Alters Retirement

• Pinochet adopts law that allowed him to keep
  generals in the military for as long as he deemed
  necessary
• By 1980, there was a much larger seniority gap
• The gap grows to 14 years!

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Amassing Power in the Military

• Statute of Governmental Junta
• Tied the exercise of executive power to Army
  General Augusto Pinochet with no tie limit and
  without the possibility of his being recalled by
  members of the junta
• Becomes Supreme Chief of the Nation (DINA was
  created 3 days before the Statute was Ordered)
• System of assessments and promotions was
  fundamentally altered (within a year of the coup)
• Left questions of promotions and retirements to
  boards that contained members from each branch
• Generally increased the power of the chiefs of
  staff over the whole process

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Institutionalizing rule vis-à-vis society

• The day of the coup
• There was a gentlemans agreement among the
  military leaders that the presidency which was
  bestowed upon Pinochet for matters of protocol
  was to rotate among the 4 military leaders.
• Baby steps were made by Pinochet to distance
  himself from the rest of his colleagues
• Referendum of 1978
• Faced with international aggression launched
  against our fatherland, I support President
  Pinochet in his defense of the dignity of Chile
  and reaffirm the legitimacy of the government.

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Institutionalizing rule vis-à-vis society

• Plebiscite 1980
• New Political Constitution Yes or No.
• Several hours after the polls closed authorities
  announced that 67 percent of 6.2 million voters
  had chosen yes (in come districts the vote was
  larger than the population!).

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Dirección Nacional de Inteligencia(DINA)

• Created on June 18, 1974
• Colonel Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda (head)
• Conservative Estimate (Catholic Legal Aid Office)
• 668 prisoners vanished between 1973 and 1978
  (probably 1,000)
• In contrast, probably 9,000 died in Argentina

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Torture

• Techniques
• The grill electric shock to sensitive areas of
  the body (genitals and temples).
• The submarine repeated dunking in excrement or
  filthy water
• The parrots perch prolonged suspension with the
  body twisted around a pole
• Methodology
• Torturer imposes on his victim an extreme
  dilemma let himself be mistreated and exposed to
  intolerable painor transform himself into the
  executioner of his own beliefs and companions.
• Agents themselves were subjected to blackmail in
  order to perform torturous acts.

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DINA reaches out

• General Prats dies with his wife when his car is
  bombed in Argentina
• Former Ambassador to the U.S. (under Allende)
  Orlando Letelier is killed in Washington, D.C.
  with a car bomb. American Citizen also dies in
  the explosion
• Contreras is removed from post and DINA is
  dissolved.
• In its place is created the National Information
  Center

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The Law

• Animosity Existed between Justices and Allende
• System stressed literal interpretation of the law
  (deference to law-making bodies)
• Judges automatically accepted the four-man Junta

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War Tribunals

• In case of domestic anarchy or foreign invasion
• Military tribunals could be used to try political
  crimes
• Sumpreme court accepted juntas determination
  that
• The extreme left constituted an active threat to
  national piece and order
• Made no objection to the establishment of an
  autonomous military justice system with no
  civilian oversight

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War Tribunals

• April 19, 1978
• Government announced that since Chiles internal
  commotion had subsided and a state of peace and
  order reigned, it had decided to grant amnesty to
  all authors, Accomplices, or concealers of
  politically connected crimes committed since the
  coup.
• Article 8
• Outlawed any group advocating violence, doctrines
  that offend the family, or a concept of society
  that was totalitarian or based on class conflict.
  The state could exile anyone with a reputation
  of being involved in Marxist or antifamily
  causes, with no appeal allowed.

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Culture of Fear

• El Mecurio was funded by CIA
• TV apologetic to Pinochet
• 1st opposition newspaper won approval in 1986
• Censoring
• Officials could censor any reportage that tends
  to create alarm or unhappiness.