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Augusto Pinochet 1915 - 2006
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Image above:
Augusto Pinochet
Diego Goldberg—Sygma/Corbis |
Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was the man who overthrew Chile's President
Salvador
Allende and ruled the country himself from 1974 until
1990.
President Allende had appointed Augusto
Pinochet army commander in chief only 18 days before the coup.
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, Pinochet made the mistake of
leaving his country to visit the United Kingdom.
Spain demanded extradition because several Spanish citizens who had previous
encounters with the man complained that his torture chambers weren't altogether
up to international human rights standards.
Little by little various other
countries came forward with accusations against Chile's dictator.
What did the British do?
They decided via court rule
that Augusto Pinochet 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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