Chile’s Pinochet Gives Up Post as Army Leader

Twenty-five years after taking power with a bloody military coup and eight years after stepping down as dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet retired as commander in chief of the army Tuesday, a historic act that advanced Chile’s democratic transition while revealing its limitations.

The 82-year-old Pinochet turned over the ceremonial sword of command to his successor, Gen. Ricardo Izurieta, on a day full of the military ritual and political passion that Pinochet still inspires despite democracy’s return in 1990.

While riot police clashed with anti-Pinochet protesters across town, making several dozen arrests, the chants of Pinochet partisans outside the military academy punctuated a ceremony inside marked by the Prussian-style, goose-stepping precision of the army that is one of South America’s strongest military machines.

Wearing a blue dress uniform and white gloves, Pinochet looked jowly and tired, marching with difficulty through a symbolic “avenue of history” formed by flag-bearers among the 3,000 soldiers on the parade ground. His speech slurred occasionally, but his farewell address defiantly defended his 17-year dictatorship, during which more than 3,000 Chileans died or disappeared and thousands more were tortured, exiled and imprisoned.

“The [military forces], obligated to defend the integrity of the fatherland, were forced to take action in extreme circumstances,” he said, reflecting on a 65-year military career. “[The military] assumed the leadership of the state . . . and the social, political and economic reconstruction of the country. The armed institutions can now say: Mission accomplished!”

Rather than retiring quietly, Pinochet will take a step that is opposed by many Chileans: He will be sworn in today as senator for life. He created that unelected post for himself with a dictatorship-era constitution that enables his right-wing minority to control the Senate and other institutions despite the electoral majority of the ruling center-left coalition. The legislative seat also ensures his immunity against recent attempts to prosecute him for crimes during his regime.

President Eduardo Frei, who attended the ceremony along with top government officials and South American army commanders, has downplayed Pinochet’s much-disputed new role. Frei says he must respect the constitution despite his opposition to its mandates, which he has challenged unsuccessfully.

But many leaders in Frei’s coalition have broken ranks, expressing outrage at the senatorial privileges granted to a general who once bombed the presidential palace and shut down Congress.

“He never won an election in his life,” said Sen. Jorge Lavandero, who was gravely wounded during an assassination attempt by Pinochet’s secret police. “We cannot feel comfortable with a dictator who was never elected sitting in the Senate. We have become a banana republic again. The world is going to laugh at us.”

Lavandero leads the Movement for National Dignity, which is gathering signatures in an uphill effort to hold a referendum to change the constitution. He cited polls indicating that about 70% of Chileans oppose Pinochet’s political activity, and he accused him of taking refuge in the Senate to avoid prosecution.

“Pinochet is more frightened now than the country was frightened when he was dictator,” Lavandero said.

The surrender of power by one of Latin America’s last military strongmen has unleashed a backlash that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. Pinochet faces three criminal lawsuits by relatives of his regime’s victims and an investigation in Spain into the deaths of Spanish citizens here. Legislators plan an impeachment bid and a probe of how he reputedly acquired numerous properties on a relatively modest salary.

Although the attacks are likely to be blocked by amnesty laws and the power of the right, they anger the Pinochet camp. Army generals last week designated him their “meritorious commander”--a symbolic emeritus status seen as a veiled threat to his enemies.

A Pinochet stalwart said the gesture was just an admonition.

“It was a warning to all of those who would humiliate or offend him that Mr. Augusto Pinochet is the emblematic figure of the Chilean army and that they will not accept this mistreatment,” said Jaime Bulnes, executive secretary of the Pinochet Foundation, which promotes the general’s image.

Except for internal combat during the coup, Chile has not fought a war since the 1880s. But the nation’s traditional insularity and current prosperity help explain why a fervent core of admirers echoes Pinochet’s unapologetic views. On Tuesday, the crowd applauded when he described how Chile reacted when other nations--including the United States--halted arms sales to the dictatorship.

“We found a definitive solution by creating a modest arms industry that covers the basic needs of the nation and grants certain tranquillity to the military command and the rest of the nation!” he said.

Later, he became emotional when he hailed five bodyguards who died when leftist guerrillas attacked his motorcade in 1986 and almost killed him. And his voice broke, his eyes teared, and he took several sips of water when he lauded his wife, Lucia, as “a true soldier’s wife.”

Ceremony and conflict alike are likely to continue today when Pinochet is sworn in as senator in the city of Valparaiso, seat of Congress. Thousands of protesters are expected to be on hand, along with a large deployment of police intended to avert clashes.

Despite the heat of the moment, most political observers believe that the aging Pinochet will fade as a political figure and that the violence of the past will not return. They predict that the military will enter a more apolitical era under Izurieta, 55, who was selected over several Pinochet proteges and has not been linked to human rights abuses.

Nonetheless, critics insist that Pinochet still embodies the forces that make Chile an incomplete, “guarded” democracy. And his defenders warn of ominous consequences if he is prosecuted or otherwise attacked.

“This would oblige us to demand a new military uprising, because we will not accept the trampling of the constitution,” said Hilda Wunderlich, waving a pro-Pinochet banner in the raucous crowd outside the military academy Tuesday. “With all the insults and the offenses, they oblige us to defend him. I think the army will defend its commander in chief.”