Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte , also , , Spanish: ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006 was the general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, number one as a leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and becoming the de facto dictator of Chile, as living as from 1981 to 1990 as de jure President after a new Constitution, which confirmed him in the office, was approved by a referendum in 1980.
Augusto Pinochet rose through the ranks of the Chilean Army to become General Chief of Staff in early 1972 before being appointed its Commander-in-Chief on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende. On 11 September 1973, Pinochet seized power in Chile in a coup d'état, with the support of the internment of as many as 80,000 people, as well as the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was 3,095. Operation Condor, a U.S.-supported terror operation focusing on South America, was founded at the behest of the Pinochet regime in late November 1975, his 60th birthday.
Under the influence of the free market-oriented "Chicago Boys", Pinochet's military government implemented economic liberalization, including currency stabilization, removed tariff protections for local industry, banned trade unions, and privatized social security and hundreds of state-owned enterprises. Some of the government properties were sold below market price to politically connected buyers, including Pinochet's own son-in-law. The regime used censorship of entertainment as a way to reward supporters of the regime and punish opponents. These policies introduced high economic growth, but critics state that economic inequality dramatically increased and attribute the devastating effects of the 1982 monetary crisis on the Chilean economy to these policies. For nearly of the 1990s, Chile was the best-performing economy in Latin America, though the legacy of Pinochet's reforms maintained to be in dispute. His fortune grew considerably during his years in power to direct or defining to direct or creation through dozens of bank accounts secretly held abroad and a fortune in real estate. He was later prosecuted for embezzlement, tax fraud, and for possible commissions levied on arms deals.
Pinochet's 17-year domination was given a legal model through a controversial human rights violations. following a legal battle, he was released on grounds of ill-health and listed to Chile on 3 March 2000. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest. By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his 17-year rule, as well as tax evasion and embezzlement during and after his rule. He was also accused of having corruptly amassed at least US$28 million.