Pinochet Dictatorship

Content Warning: The following article contains extensive discussion on torture, rape and murder

The Pinochet Dictatorship or Military Dictatorship of Chile refers to the rule of authoritarian, militaristic government led by Augusto Pinochet in Chile from 1973 to 1990. The dictatorship acted as a client state to US interests, and began the first experiments in neoliberal economic policy, which was disastrous for the working class but succeeded in restoring the rate of profit to high levels.

Origins

In response to Salvador Allende's efforts to nationalise US-owned copper mines (to fund a larger welfare state) and grassroots efforts to create workers' self-management.

Crimes Against Humanity

The dictatorship committed numerous crimes against humanity and instituted a reign of terror to purge Chile of leftists, killing between 2,000 and 30,000 people, 27,000 people being tortured (and survived) and 200,000 people were forced into exile (mainly to Argentina). In other words, 2.2% of Chile's population (of 10.1 million) had their lives ended or ruined by the dictatorship.

The National Stadium in Santiago was converted into a detention centre (one of 80 in Santiago), over 40,000 people were held there over 17 years, with the locker rooms and changing rooms were where prisoners were first to sleep and torture and executions were performed in the velodrome (including killing two American journalists, Frank Teruggi Jr. and Charles Horman). Other buildings were converted into secret detention centres, and horrors occurred in all of them. Some of these horrors include:

• Electrocution of open wounds and the genitals on a person tied up on a metal bed.
• Arresting entire families if a single member had leftist sympathies, and forcing family members to watch soldiers rape other members of their family, in other situations, families or close friends would have to listen to their beloved being tortured.
• Forcing prisoners to crawl on the ground and lick the dirt off the floors. If the prisoners complained or even collapsed from exhaustion, they were promptly executed.
• Forcing prisoners to swim in vats of 'excrement (shit) and eat and drink it.
• Forcing prisoners to stay awake for five days while lying down, threatening to kill their children if they didn't.
• Forcing prisoners to lie down and driving trucks and cars over their arms and legs, crushing their bones.
• Beating prisoners to the point that they'd either be deaf from being hit on the ears or have broken arms and legs, occasionally, amputation would be used as a torture technique.
• Pouring water over a cloth that covered prisons' faces and breathing passages, causing individuals to experience a drowning sensation, and a near-death experience and killing many through asphyxiation.
• Prisoners were hung upside-down with ropes, and they were dropped into a tank of water, headfirst. The water was contaminated (with poisonous chemicals, shit and piss) and filled with debris.
• Anal rape of prisoners by soldiers while soldiers insulted them to break their spirit.
• Using dogs to rape prisoners and inserting rats into prisoners anuses and vaginas.
• Forcing female prisoners to engage in sex with their brothers and fathers at gunpoint.
• Throwing dissidents from helicopters into the ocean, rivers, lakes or mountains where they would be instantly killed (and spend the last seconds of their live in absolute terror) and their bodies never found. This method of torture is continuously joked about in online right-wing spaces as their 'joking' plan for leftists.
• Many victims reported suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, Fall of Dictatorshoiliation, worthlessness, shame, anxiety and hopelessness.