Augusto Pinochet was a Chilean dictator born in Valparaíso, Chile. A career army officer, he led the military coup overthrowing the Allende government inestablishing himself at the head of the ensuing military regime.
In he enacted a constitution giving himself an eight-year presidential term — A plebiscite held in rejected his candidacy as president beyondbut he retained his post as commander-in-chief of the army until The arrest caused tension between UK and Chile, and civil unrest in Chile between Pinochet supporters and opponents.
At the beginning ofPinochet remained under house arrest in the UK, pending the outcome of legal procedures, but the UK government returned him to Chile on the grounds of ill health. In a Santiago appeals court voted in favour of suspending proceedings against him on the grounds that he was mentally unfit to stand trial, and in the Chilean Supreme Court ruled that proceedings against him be suspended for good.
However, in the Court of Appeal stripped him of immunity from prosecution, thus paving the way for a trial on charges of human rights abuses during his rule. Pinochet died December 10,never having stood trial for the crimes for which he was accused.
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