"I hope the army will not have to come out, because if it does, it will be to kill." When General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte issued that grim warning in 1971, it sent shock waves across Chile.
The general, who was then commander of the Santiago garrison, had been asked by President Allende to help quell disorders in the province, and Chileans were not used to hearing threats from their generals. After a brief state of emergency the situation was resolved without bloodshed, and Pinochet went back to his barracks. But not, as it turned out, to stay. Named commander in chief of...
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