Latin American politics — military dictatorship and democratization
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Flip to reveal answersWhat event on 11 September 1973 began military rule in Chile?
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Question
What event on 11 September 1973 began military rule in Chile?
Answer
General Augusto Pinochet led a coup that overthrew elected president Salvador Allende, who died during the attack on the presidential palace.
Question
Name the secret police agency Pinochet used to crush opposition (1974-1977).
Answer
DINA (Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional) -- ran torture centres and assassinated exiled opponents abroad (e.g. Orlando Letelier, Washington DC, 1976).
Question
What economic policy did Pinochet adopt, and who advised it?
Answer
Free-market 'shock therapy' -- privatization, deregulation, cuts to state spending -- designed by the 'Chicago Boys', Chilean economists trained under Milton Friedman.
Question
How did Pinochet try to give his rule a legal face?
Answer
The 1980 Constitution, passed in a controlled plebiscite, created an authoritarian-democratic hybrid and let him rule until at least 1989.
Question
What happened in the 1988 plebiscite?
Answer
Chileans voted on whether Pinochet should rule another 8 years. 56% voted 'No' -- the first peaceful, ballot-based defeat of a Latin American military dictator.
Question
Who won Chile's first free presidential election in 1989/90?
Answer
Patricio Aylwin, a Christian Democrat leading the Concertación coalition of anti-Pinochet parties -- took office March 1990.
Question
What was the Rettig Commission (1990-91)?
Answer
A truth commission set up by Aylwin that documented roughly 3,000 deaths and disappearances under Pinochet, without power to prosecute -- a transitional justice tool.
Question
Why could Pinochet not simply be arrested and tried after 1990?
Answer
He stayed Commander-in-Chief of the army until 1998, then became senator-for-life under the 1980 Constitution's amnesty and immunity clauses -- the military retained a veto over civilian rule.
Question
Order the main phases of Pinochet's power-holding, 1973-1990.
Answer
1) 1973-77 terror phase (DINA, Caravan of Death) -> 2) 1977-82 institutionalization (1980 Constitution) -> 3) 1982-88 economic crisis and mass protest -> 4) 1988 plebiscite defeat -> 5) 1990 transition.
Question
Compare economic and social factors driving Chile's democratization.
Answer
Economic: 1982 debt crisis exposed the model's fragility and fuelled protest. Social: mass 'National Protests' (1983-86) and a reorganized Catholic Church-backed opposition rebuilt civil society's confidence to challenge the regime.
Question
What is 'transitional justice'?
Answer
{{transitional justice|how a new government addresses past human-rights abuses}} -- e.g. truth commissions, reparations, limited trials -- balancing justice against a fragile new democracy's stability.
Question
Give one argument that Pinochet's dictatorship 'modernized' Chile, and one rebuttal.
Answer
For: low inflation and growth returned by the late 1980s. Against: growth relied on huge inequality, a 1982 financial collapse, and thousands of human-rights victims -- the 'miracle' was narrow and costly.
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Full study notes for Latin American politics — military dictatorship and democratization
Topic 11.10 hub
Political developments in Latin America (1934–2020)
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