Rise of a Military Dictatorship in Chile (1960-1980)
5.4 Rise of a Military Dictatorship in Chile (1960-1980)
Conceptual Understanding
Key Question: What conditions, both internal and external to Chile, led to the breakdown of democracy?
Key Concepts: Causation, Perspectives
Case Study: Chile
The Cold War and Chile
The Cold War significantly impacted Chile, a nation with strong democratic traditions.
By the late 1950s, labor conflicts and strikes arose from popular and rural worker sectors expressing their demands.
An annual inflation rate of 51% and a rising cost of living were exacerbated by IMF loan conditions.
Political Landscape in the 1960s
The Christian Democratic Party (PDC) offered a moderate, middle-ground approach.
The left advocated for socialism and communism.
The right promoted capitalist values as the solution to economic problems.
Cold War alignments influenced news media, reflecting global polarization.
The left viewed conflicts as part of a historical struggle against exploitation, necessitating a more equitable system.
The right saw conflicts as attacks on democracy needing defense through private property rights and anti-communist Western values.
Allende's Rise to Power
Social, Economic, and Political Reasons
The moderate PDC won the 1964 presidential election with Eduardo Frei.
Frei's government faced miners' strikes and student demonstrations for educational reforms, especially after 1965.
Frei's domestic policy encouraged workers' unions, increasing membership.
The extreme right and left divide continued to grow, with the PDC in the middle.
The left criticized the PDC for slow progress and serving the upper classes.
The right viewed the PDC as encouraging revolutionary changes aligned with the left.
Extreme parties emerged on both sides: the Revolutionary Leftist Movement (MIR) and the rightist National Party.
Civilian-military relations became strained in 1969 due to low salaries and poor equipment for the military. Frei's government tried to address this.
A constitutional reform was introduced by Frei, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, adding approximately 1.5 million new voters by the 1970 elections.
Frei encouraged women to join 'Mothers Centers,' with nearly 500,000 women participating and receiving work training and sewing machines to start businesses.
Frei's foreign policy aimed to continue domestic reforms while avoiding direct confrontation with US dominance.
There was internal political pressure to nationalize US-owned copper companies.
Frei pursued a middle ground, the 'Chileanization' of the mines, buying partial ownership and investing profits in processing plants.
The results were not as profitable as planned, as US companies retained lucrative contracts.
Chile benefited from pro-USA leanings and received loans from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB).
*Mothers' Centers: Women's organizations created by the Chilean government in 1954 to support rural and urban women by teaching them household skills.
*Chileanization: Process initiated by President Eduardo Frei between Chile and the US for the gradual purchase by Chile of 51% of the shares of US-owned copper companies.
1970 Presidential Elections
By 1970, Frei had not fully met his campaign promises.
The PDC's attempt to create a middle ground between capitalism and communism in a Cold War world was unsuccessful.
The country was deeply divided, and Salvador Allende, leader of the leftist coalition Popular Unity (UP), received 36% of the vote.
Congressional approval of the candidate with the largest plurality was debated.
The centrist PDC was crucial in supporting Allende, contingent on his guarantee to respect constitutional democratic processes.
US covert pressure to prevent Allende's confirmation was unsuccessful.
Allende's Presidency (1970-1973)
The sociopolitical climate became highly charged.
The upper and middle classes demonstrated fears of a leftist government through capital flight, factory closures, and layoffs.
Allende and the UP aimed to institute deep social, political, and economic changes to build socialism in Chile.
This included a people's assembly and replacing capitalism with state-owned enterprises in key sectors.
The years 1970-1973 were marked by divisions within the UP on how to implement radical changes: legally versus immediate revolution.
Allende preferred legal means, but the UP was not united.
The centrist PDC split into factions, and the rightist National Party warned of a socialist takeover.
Even the Catholic Church was unable to foster conciliatory dialogue.
Domestic and Foreign Policies Under Allende
Allende enlarged government social services and nationalized key industries, alienating entrepreneurs.
He continued the agrarian reform initiated by Frei.
Despite congressional opposition and a US financial blockade, Allende nationalized copper mines, processing plants, banks, and financial institutions.
By 1971, a lack of coordination within the UP became evident in the agrarian reform, threatening the private sector and creating violent confrontations.
Allende's foreign policy included reaching out to countries in the Soviet bloc and inviting Fidel Castro to Chile.
This occurred during the Cold War when Che Guevara had been killed in Bolivia while exporting the communist revolution.
The early 1970s saw an increase in third-world countries challenging the superpowers.
Allende visited the Soviet Union and received a warm reception, making his government a focus for the bipolar conflict.
External Pressures and Internal Divisions
By the end of 1971, external pressures intensified as currency reserves diminished and inflation soared due to the US blockade.
Agrarian reform and industry expropriations led to a decrease in consumer goods and foodstuffs, leading to a growing black market despite government price controls.
The opposition staged increasing protest demonstrations.
Extreme left and right groups organized violent shock groups, leading to street clashes.
Political polarization and extremism penetrated Chilean society, affecting schools, workspaces, and the media.
Allende's Policies and Opposition (1972-1973)
Allende's salary hikes and price-fixing policies initially benefited poorer Chileans and brought short-term political gains.
The UP obtained 50% of the posts in the March 1971 municipal elections.
In 1972, Allende resorted to populist tactics, creating Neighborhood Supply and Price-control Committees (JAP) to distribute basic foodstuffs.
In October 1972, a truckers' strike, covertly financed by the USA, complicated the scarcity of supplies.
Allende's control of his coalition weakened, and he began to distance himself from its members.
The PDC allied with the rightist National Party in an opposition block to stop Allende's reforms.
Allende resorted to decrees to pass laws, including the controversial Unified National Schooling (ENU) reform in January 1973, which upset the traditional education system.
Demonstrations led to a state of emergency in 20 provinces. The ENU did not go through.
By the March 1973 congressional elections, 54% of Congress was pro-UP, and 44% were in opposition.
Opposition parties sought to impeach Allende for violating the constitution.
Copper miners began a two-month strike, significantly slowing production.
Extreme leftist groups called for arms and revolution.
Allende appointed armed forces officers to his cabinet to ease civilian-military relations, but political conflicts continued.
The PDC and the National Party argued that Allende had exceeded his constitutional and legal limits.
The UP, especially the MIR, insisted on continuing the transfer of private enterprises and landholdings to the state.
By August 1973, Allende's government had undergone 10 cabinet changes in three years. Media outlets spoke of civil war.
General Prats, Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Armed Forces, resigned due to pressure, and General Augusto Pinochet became Commander-in-Chief.
Social Unrest and Protests
Chileans faced increasing difficulties buying groceries, appliances, and household supplies.
Chilean women, primarily housewives, staged a large street demonstration in Santiago, supported by the PDC-National Party coalition and 'defended' by extreme-right shock groups.
The conservative newspaper El Mercurio covered the event, highlighting women's political agency.
The Military Coup and Aftermath
On 11 September 1973, a military coup led by General Pinochet took over the country.
Allende committed suicide as the presidential palace was bombed by the Chilean Air Force.
Some Chileans celebrated, while others mourned.
The military junta, consisting of the army, navy, air force, and national police, replaced the presidency.
Congress was dismissed and closed.
The judiciary was weakened due to the 'state of siege,' which suspended citizens' rights.
All political parties were prohibited, and elections were suspended indefinitely.
Economic and Social Policies Under Pinochet
The supply of foodstuffs improved, but Chileans faced curfews and censorship.
Public offices and universities were purged of leftists and replaced by the military.
The judiciary was also purged.
Government operated through edicts and decrees to control the population.
The Pinochet government attempted to reverse Allende's economic reforms and stop inflation and shortages.
By 1975, they turned to the 'Chicago boys,' Chilean economists trained at the University of Chicago, who advocated for neoliberal free-market economics.
These economists, influenced by Milton Friedman, privatized state-owned concerns (except copper), lowered tariffs, enacted economic and fiscal reforms, and promoted entrepreneurship.
They helped diversify exports to include fruit and tourism.
Economic Effects and Social Costs
After some years, per capita income rose two and a half times and inflation decreased from 500% to around 8%.
Strict monetary and fiscal policies led to unemployment as government bureaucracies were dissolved and industries became more competitive.
The government created a minimal employment program, prioritizing heads of households for jobs like street cleaning.
When prices rose, the urban poor organized soup kitchens.
Role of Women Under Pinochet
In 1975, two-thirds of women were homemakers.
Many had protested against the Allende government due to food shortages.
These women were integrated into the military government through 200 nationwide volunteer organizations, such as the Mothers' Centers, led by Lucía H de Pinochet.
*These aid organisations were made up of volunteers who supported the Pinochet dictatorship. The government used them to march in their support. Pinochet insisted women had wanted a military coup and that women were his staunchest supporters. These organizations did an enormous amount of volunteer work, helping the aged, children's hospitals, the blind, the disabled and many other people in need of assistance in Chile.
Repression and Human Rights Abuses
Leftists and Allende sympathizers were detained, tortured, and sometimes 'disappeared'.
The military systematically persecuted 'subversives'.
The National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) operated in Chile and with Argentine and Brazilian military governments.
The DINA searched, detained, and sometimes murdered political figures, even abroad.
The director and many officers involved in the DINA were graduates of the US School of the Americas.
Exposure and Attempts at Legitimacy
By 1978, human rights abuses became public with the discovery of bodies in Lonquén.
The murders of union leader Tucapel Jiménez in 1982 and two teachers in 1985, along with the burning alive of two university students in 1986, were notorious cases.
Over 100,000 Chileans were tortured or exiled, and approximately 4000 'disappeared'.
Pinochet sought legitimacy through plebiscites, claiming 70% support in 1978.
Under pressure from the Catholic Church, Pinochet lifted the 'state of siege' and declared an amnesty to improve his government's image, but abuses continued.
The Church excommunicated perpetrators.
Transition Towards Democracy
By 1980, a new constitution was presented in a plebiscite, outlining a slow process for ending military rule.
The new government would be an authoritarian democracy to protect against subversive influences.
Public opinion, dismayed at human rights abuses and the waning Cold War, led to Chileans voting no in a 1988 plebiscite to end the Pinochet government.
Pinochet left office in 1989, and Patricio Aylwin was elected President in the first democratic election since 1969.
*Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA): Chilean secret police during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, responsible for many human rights abuses.