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AUGUSTO PINOCHET
1915 - 2006
Photo: Diego Goldberg—Sygma/Corbis
Augusto's full name was August Pinochet
Ugarte. He was the man who overthrew Chile's President Salvador
Allende and ruled the country himself. That was from 1974 until
1990.
President Allende appointed Augusto
Pinochet army commander in chief only 18 days before the coup. The
poor ole thing didn't know what bit him.
Once Augusto and his military friends were in power it was the end of any monkey business
whatsoever in Chile.
Thanks to an old bodyguard trick, Pinochet
survived a solid assassination attempt on September 8, 1986.
Pinochet was riding in the fourth car in
a five-car motorcade in Santiago, Chile, instead of riding in the
second car, which is normally the position of the VIP's car.
Sure enough, at the next ambush a rocket
blew up the second car, killing all bodyguards inside. Pinochet
survived unharmed.
Check out
Assassinations in History.
In 1998, Augusto made the mistake of
leaving his country to visit the United Kingdom.
Spain asked the UK to hand the guy over
because several Spanish citizens who had previously met Augusto and his
gorillas, complained that their torture chambers weren't altogether
up to international human rights standards.
Little by little various countries spoke
up and said they had found
all kinds of dirt on the man, but what can you do. Especially when
you're the polite British type. So, the Brits decided via court rule
that Augusto was not in a well enough physical condition for a trial
and sent him back home. The year? 2000.
And here is the map of Chile

Chile 1974
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