MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chileans Mark End of Pinochet Rule

Chileans are celebrating the referendum that marked the beginning of the end of the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet 15 years ago.

The Chilean general seized power in a bloody 1973 coup. But his defeat in the Oct. 5, 1988 referendum ? a vote intended to extend his regime another eight years ? led to his downfall. Pinochet was forced to call an open election the next year in which he didn't run and his movement's candidate lost. Pinochet is now in his late 80s and ailing.

The government has organized celebration ceremonies Sunday, but has turned down requests by right-wing opposition politicians ? many of whom supported Pinochet ? to participate. The rightists say they also are part of the democracy restored by the vote.

"They were not the only ones that contributed to restoring democracy," said Sebastian Pinera, president of the opposition National Renewal Party. "The referendum marked reunification among all Chileans."

"The government is leaving out one half of Chile, which is also happy with democracy," Pinera added.

In the 1988 referendum, more than 7.4 million Chilean voted on one question: Should Pinochet remain in power? Fifty-five percent said no; 44.34 percent said yes.

"He ran against no one and placed second," read the headline of Fortin Mapocho, a now defunct anti-Pinochet daily, on the day after the referendum.

The vote took place in an atmosphere of fear and tension, under heavy military guard. Large portions of the country were blacked out for reasons never explained.

Three center-left civilian governments have been in power since, and they have maintained Pinochet's free-market policies. They made Chile's economy the most stable and successful in Latin America.

But the country's ruling alliance has begun to show some cracks and its leaders are warning that the division could bring a victory for the right-wing parties.

President Ricardo Lagos was forced to a runoff election in 2000 after a virtual tie to a candidate who supported the Pinochet regime.

"It is renovation or death for our coalition," warned Victor Barrueto, president of the Party for Democracy, a coalition member.

The rightist opposition is counting on the coalition's divisions to bring a change in power.

"After all, the only one who really unites them is Pinochet," Pablo Longueira, leader of the far-right Independent Democratic Union party.