A prominent backer of the 1973 military coup against elected President Salvador Allende said that General Augusto Pinochet betrayed those who supported the putsch out of patriotic sentiments. Roberto Thieme, a founder of the nationalist Homeland and Freedom movement, known as PyL, spoke out a week before the 40th anniversary of Allende's bloody ouster in an interview with Radio Cooperativa.
With President Sebastián Piñera signature at a ceremony in the Presidential Palace, Chile joined a community of nations in which all eligible voters are automatically registered to vote.