MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

One-third of Chileans okay with Pinochet overthrowing Allende

“Pinochet was a coward... never a statesman,” Boric argued

Over 30 % of Chile's population still approves of General Augusto Pinochet staging a military coup d'état nearly half a century ago to topple Socialist President Salvador Allende, according to a study by Market Opinion Research International (MORI) released in Santiago this week.

According to the CERC-Mori Political Barometer survey, 36% of Chilean citizens believe that Pinochet “liberated Chile from Marxism”, while 42% believe that the dictator destroyed democracy and 22% have no idea.

“No dictator in the contemporary West has a third of support 50 years after having carried out a coup d'état,” declared Marta Lagos, founder of MORI Chile.

According to the survey, in the last 10 years, the positive opinion of the dictator's regime began to grow steadily, after reaching one of its historic lows in 2013 when only 16% thought that Pinochet was right.

“Finally, we find a third period in the 2023 measurement, a decade later public opinion takes a shocking turnaround registering the lowest number of Chileans since 1995 who say that September 11 destroyed democracy with only 42% and 36% that it freed Chile from Marxism”, MORI Chile reported.

The report states that the survey was carried out in February and March of this year, “amid the fires and the political and security crisis that the country is experiencing, in addition to the negative consequences of the pandemic on the economy” and strong opposition to the Government of Gabriel Boric Font, who has an approval rating of 29%, as per a Cadem survey.

Boric insisted that Pinochet was “a corrupt and a thief ... and never a statesman.”

“Augusto Pinochet was a dictator, essentially anti-democratic, whose government killed, tortured, exiled, and made disappear those who thought differently. He was also corrupt and a thief,” he said on Twitter.

A “coward to the end [who] did everything in his power to evade justice.” he added.

Presidential Spokeswoman Camila Vallejo said she was “concerned” about the existence of denialism “50 years after the civil-military coup” that “violated human rights, that massacred part of our people and generated wounds to this day.”

Vallejo was referring to those “who have openly recognized themselves as Pinochet supporters,” namely the ultra-right Republican Party, the most voted list in the elections for constitutional councilors.