Labels:text | font | paper | black and white | publication | document OCR: After 12 years of military rule under Pinochet, Chile returned to multiparty democracy in 1989. Main political issues Human rights abuse trials The 1989-1993 Aylwin administration resisted popular pressure to try known members of the death squads which operated during the Pinochet regime. It argued that 1988 marked a time for national reconciliation, but knew that the army, still headed by Pinochet, would not tolerate any human rights trials. Poverty Opposition groups point out that the promised "trickle down" effect of Pinochet's Chicago School economic policies has not reached Chile's poor. Many believe that the present Frei administration cannot both deliver improved conditions for the poor and maintain Pinochet's economic policies. Profile In 1988, Chile voted for political change, effectively rejecting the system instituted by the military dictator, Pinochet, and for a return to Chile's once-strong democratic traditions. Pinochet seized power in a chaotic situation. The socialist Allende government had been attempting the wholesale nationalization of the Chilean economy. Allende's nationalization of the largely US-owned copper mines led the CIA - which had a specific budget to overthrow the democratically-elected Allende - to back the Pinochet coup. In 1973, the military stormed the presidential palace; it is now accepted that Allende committed suicide during the attack. Subsequently, thousands of Chileans were killed by the military, an estimated 3,000 people "disappeared" and 80,000 political prisoners were taken. Pinochet's politics - largely based on a notion of the nation-state modeled on Franco's Spain - replaced democratic traditions and conflict. His economic policy reversed Allende's, and was one of the first experiments in the free-market Chicago School of monetarism which was later to be influential in the West, particularly in the UK under Margaret Thatcher. Although opposition to the regime was brutally suppressed by DINA, the secret police, it also had considerable support - particularly among Chile's business and middle classes, which prospered. Opposition came from the Church - an embarrassment to Pinochet, who saw himself as a champion of Catholicism - and the urban poor. In 1988, Pinochet, seeking popular legitimacy, held a plebiscite which, given the military's control over the country, he expected to win. Contrary to his expectations, the vote turned not on his economic record but on whether Chile wished to continue living under a military dictatorship. On a turnout of 93%, 55% voted for democracy and 43% for the "status quo." Pinochet stepped down, but remained head of the army. Patricio Aylwin won the presidential elections held in 1989. During Aylwin's presidency, Chilean politics became more stable, in part the result of a cross-party consensus on economic policy. The economy continued to grow and social measures, which marginally increased protection for workers, gave Aylwin the support of the trade unions. In elections at the end of 1993, Eduardo Frei of the PDC was elected president. He has pledged to continue the economic and social policies of his predecessor, and is governing a broad coalition of center-left parties. The armed forces, however, remain strong in politics; they, not the president, appoint their own chief.
