[7] On 11 September 1973, Pinochet seized power in Chile in a military coup, with the support of the United States,[9][10][11][C] that toppled Allende's democratically elected left-wing Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule.

In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation by joint decree, although without the support of one of the coup's instigators, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh.

[18] Under the influence of the free market–oriented "Chicago Boys", Pinochet's military government implemented economic liberalization following neoliberalism, including currency stabilization, removed tariff protections for local industry, banned trade unions, and privatized social security and hundreds of state-owned enterprises.

On 8 June 1971, following the assassination of Edmundo Pérez Zujovic by left-wing radicals, Allende appointed Pinochet a supreme authority of Santiago province, imposing a military curfew in the process,[29] which was later lifted.

[35] In the months that followed the coup, the junta published a book with text written by historian Gonzalo Vial and admiral Patricio Carvajal, titled El Libro Blanco del cambio de gobierno en Chile ('The White Book on the Change of Government in Chile'), commonly known as El Libro Blanco, in which they said that they were in fact anticipating a self-coup (the alleged Plan Zeta, or Plan Z) that Allende's government or its associates were purportedly preparing.

[43] Authors Tim Weiner (Legacy of Ashes)[44] and Christopher Hitchens (The Trial of Henry Kissinger)[45] similarly argue the case that US covert actions actively destabilized Allende's government and set the stage for the 1973 coup.

DINA led the multinational campaign known as Operation Condor, which amongst other activities carried out assassinations of prominent politicians in various Latin American countries, in Washington, D.C., and in Europe, and kidnapped, tortured and executed activists holding left-wing views, which culminated in the deaths of roughly 60,000 people.

As established, the junta exercised both executive and legislative functions of the government, suspended the Constitution and the Congress, imposed strict censorship and curfew, banned all parties and halted all political and perceived subversive activities.

The new Constitution, partly drafted by Jaime Guzmán, a close adviser to Pinochet who later founded the right-wing party Independent Democratic Union (UDI), gave a lot of power to the President of the Republic—Pinochet.

In a massive operation spearheaded by Chilean Army para-commandos, some 2,000 security forces troops[57] were deployed in the mountains of Neltume from June to November 1981,[58] where they destroyed two MIR bases, seizing large caches of munitions and killing a number of guerrillas.

In Latin America, this was carried out under Operation Condor, a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South American countries, assisted by a United States CIA communication base in Panama.

Other erstwhile victims included Christian Democrat Bernardo Leighton, who escaped an assassination attempt in Rome in 1975 by the Italian terrorist Stefano delle Chiaie; Carlos Altamirano, the leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, targeted for murder in 1975 by Pinochet, along with Volodia Teitelboim, member of the Communist Party; Pascal Allende, the nephew of Salvador Allende and president of the MIR, who escaped an assassination attempt in Costa Rica in March 1976; and US Congressman Edward Koch, who became aware in 2001 of relations between death threats and his denunciation of Operation Condor.

[76] The extensive cover-up efforts were codenamed “Operación Mascarada.”[76] It was also revealed that Townley, who was expelled from Chile to the United States in April 1978,[77] believed that Contreras and General Pedro Espinoza [es] of DINA were actually more likely to make an attempt on his life than Pinochet.

In August 1989, Marcelo Barrios Andres, a 21-year-old member of the FPMR (the armed wing of the PCC, created in 1983, which had attempted to assassinate Pinochet on 7 September 1986), was murdered by a group of military personnel who were supposed to arrest him on orders of Valparaíso's public prosecutor.

The Opposition, gathered into the Concertación de Partidos por el NO ("Coalition of Parties for NO"), organized a colorful and cheerful campaign under the slogan La alegría ya viene ("Joy is coming").

Some authors have speculated that Argentina might have won the war had the military felt able to employ the elite VIth and VIIIth Mountain Brigades, which remained sitting in the Andes guarding against possible Chilean incursions.

According to John Dinges, author of The Condor Years (The New Press 2003), documents released in 2015 revealed a CIA report dated 28 April 1978 that showed the agency by then had knowledge that Pinochet ordered the assassination of Orlando Letelier.

[132][133] Beatings with gun butts, fists and chains were routine; one technique known as "the telephone" involved the torturer slamming "his open hands hard and rhythmically against the ears of the victim", leaving the person deaf.

[136] In a final assessment of his legacy during his funeral, Belisario Velasco, Chile's interior minister at the time remarked that "Pinochet was a classic right-wing dictator who badly violated human rights and who became rich.

[138] Pinochet himself expressed his project in government as a national rebirth inspired by Diego Portales, a figure of the early republic:[139] [Democracy] will be born again purified from the vices and bad habits that ended up destroying our institutions. ...

[W]e are inspired in the Portalian spirit which has fused together the nation ...Lawyer Jaime Guzmán participated in the design of important speeches of Pinochet and provided frequent political and doctrinal advice and consultancy.

[147] Chadian dictator Hissène Habré, a Cold War ally of the West, has been characterized as "Africa's Pinochet" for ordering the torture and mass killing of political opponents during his reign, and for the decades long campaign to see him convicted of crimes against humanity.

[154] Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand.

In arguing their case, the prosecution presented a recent TV interview Pinochet had given to journalist Maria Elvira Salazar[178] for a Miami-based television network, which raised doubts about his alleged mental incapacity.

"[182] In January 2005, the Chilean Army accepted institutional responsibility for past human rights abuses[183] In 2006, Pinochet was indicted for kidnappings and torture at the Villa Grimaldi detention center by judge Alejandro Madrid (Guzmán's successor),[184] as well as for the 1995 assassination of the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios, himself involved in the Letelier case.

[199] In 2007, fifteen years of investigation led to the conclusion that the 1992 assassination of DINA Colonel Gerardo Huber was most probably related to various illegal arms traffic carried out, after Pinochet's resignation from power, by military circles very close to himself.

[201] In January 1992, Judge Hernán Correa de la Cerda wanted to hear testimony from Huber in this case, but the latter may have been silenced to avoid implicating Pinochet[200][202]—although the latter was no longer President, he remained at the time Commander-in-Chief of the Army.

Pinochet, who still benefited from a reputation of righteousness from his supporters, lost legitimacy when he was put under house arrest for tax fraud and passport forgery, following the publication by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of a report concerning the Riggs Bank in July 2004.

Socialist President Michelle Bachelet, whose father Alberto was temporarily imprisoned and tortured after the 1973 coup and died shortly afterwards from heart complications, said that it would be "a violation of [her] conscience" to attend a state funeral for Pinochet.

[217] Pinochet was portrayed by Jaime Vadell in the 2023 black comedy film El Conde directed by Pablo Larraín,[218] where he is depicted as a 250-year old French-born vampire who faked his death and is living in seclusion.