Death Of A Dictator

This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Alfonso Serrano.

As a history buff, Pinochet would not have failed to see the irony. Nor would Pinochet have been pleased with President Michele Bachelet's decision to deny him a state funeral.

The timing of his death, though, does nothing to appease the families of Pinochet's victims, and human rights activists, who hoped to see Pinochet face his accusers in court — a right that Pinochet never granted his victims. Having failed to see the dictator tried in court, Pinochet's victims must find solace in the idea that history will render Pinochet's verdict.

With the backing of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Pinochet stormed his way into power in 1973, ousting Salvador Allende, the democratically elected socialist president.

More than 3,200 people were killed in the years following the coup, while an estimated 30,000 were tortured in prison camps around the country, including Villa Grimaldi, Chacabuco and Chile's National Stadium. Pinochet gave go-ahead to a "Caravan of Death," a group of officers who traveled throughout the country by helicopter, killing political dissidents.

In 1976 Pinochet's secret police, DINA, killed the former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his American colleague, Ronnie Moffitt, with a car bomb in Washington. In 1974 DINA also assassinated Gen. Carlos Prats, who had refused to partake in the coup, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Pinochet tightened his grip on power through the 70s and into the mid-80s. In October 1981 he famously declared: "Not even a leaf moves in Chile without me knowing about it."

In 1988, in an effort to legitimize his rule, Pinochet agreed to a plebiscite — and lost. The following year, Patricio Alwyn won the presidential election. But Pinochet remained commander-in-chief of the army for eight more years. And he was sworn in as senator-for-life, which gave him immunity from prosecution. Pinochet had lost his rule, but he remained a towering and feared figure in Chilean political life.

That changed in 1998, when the Spanish judge Baltazar Garzon convinced British authorities to arrest Pinochet during a visit to London, something the Chilean judicial system had not been willing to do.

After a year of house arrest, Pinochet was released from London and returned to Chile, where the judicial system finally began examining cases against the former dictator. In the years that followed, Chileans filed more than 300 civil suits against Pinochet. He was charged in six cases for various crimes but exonerated twice for dementia. In November, Pinochet again was placed under house arrest, this time for kidnapping charges linked to murder of political dissidents in 1973.

Yes, Chile today enjoys an unprecedented prosperity. For more than a decade, Chileans have steadily risen above the poverty line. Unemployment rates and inflation have remained consistently low during the same period of time. And, yes, Chile's affluence is undoubtedly linked to the economic policies initiated by the ministers who Pinochet placed in power.

But those on the right who justify Pinochet's brutal reign by pointing to the economic prosperity that flowered in Chile in the late 80s and 90s are as myopic as those on the left who excuse Fidel Castro's murderous grasp on power because Cubans today enjoy universal health care and a quality education.

There is no doubt that Chile was in turmoil before Pinochet forced his way into power. The nation was sharply divided along political and class lines — the flawed policies of Allende, the democratically elected socialist president, had enraged and fractured the country.

But also it's flawed to argue that Chile, with its peaceful history and its solid democratic institutions before and after Pinochet, could not have found a democratic solution to its problems. Chile did not need a murderous regime to right its ship.

History will show that in the final years of his life, often under house arrest, Pinochet became an increasingly weakened man, politically and physically, as murder and kidnapping charges piled up against him. History will also record that current president Bachelet, who was tortured during the military regime and whose father died in prison, denied Pinochet a state funeral.

For a man obsessed with history and his place in it, Pinochet already must be turning in his grave.
By Alfonso Serrano