Chile: Ending Augusta Pinochet´s Bloody Dictatorship at the Ballot Box

1988

Despite the violent nature of Auguste Pinochet´s regime in Chile, an opposition movement mobilized against the brutal dictatorship and on May 11, 1983, Santiago exploded in protest. The opposition organized one protest each month until Pinochet eventually deployed troops to the capital in order to end the protests, opening fire on the peaceful protestors.

For the next three years, resistance organizers pressed on relentlessly, engaging in non-violence training, public demonstrations, and grassroots protest, and employing tactics such as slowdowns, boycotts, and labor strikes. Creative strategies were employed?including banging pots and pans from windows, artistic protest and arts workshops, and singing in the streets?with remarkable success, prompting Pinochet to actually ban singing.

With an upcoming election in 1988, Genaro Arriagada mobilized the ?Command for No? movement, coordinating an army of volunteers to register voters and persuade citizens to participate despite the threat of detention and torture at the hands of the brutal regime. On the October 5, 1988, voters cast ballots to remove Pinochet from power, ending the reign of a violent dictatorship and restoring democracy to Chile after 15 years of authoritarian rule.