Chile’s Aylwin, first elected leader after Pinochet regime, dead at 97

Santiago (AFP) – Patricio Aylwin, who guided Chile back to democracy after General Augusto Pinochet’s iron-fisted rule ended, died Tuesday at the age of 97.

The government declared three days of national mourning and said a state funeral would be held for Aylwin, who took power in 1990 and served for four years as he oversaw Chile’s delicate transition back to civilian rule.

“Chile has lost a great defender of democracy,” President Michelle Bachelet said.

Aylwin died of natural causes, his family announced. 

The late Pinochet seized power in 1973 in a US-backed military coup and proceeded to launch a crackdown on leftist opponents both real and perceived. The regime is blamed for an estimated 3,200 deaths and the torture of some 38,000. 

Aylwin won the first elections held after Pinochet stepped down as head of state, although he remained in charge of the army.

Aylwin is well known in Chile for apologizing to relatives of victims of the regime. He did so in a speech to the nation as he presented the results of a truth commission’s probe of the regime, a year after he took power. Aylwin’s voice broke as he spoke to the people of Chile.

But Aylwin is also known for having once defended to foreign press Pinochet’s ouster of President Salvador Allende in the 1973 coup.

While in office Aylwin sought to stay on good terms with Pinochet, who still wielded enormous influence as army chief, and to open up Chile commercially and diplomatically after years of isolation.

During the dictatorship, it was Aylwin who in 1980 negotiated with Pinochet to win constitutional reforms that included a timetable for restoring democracy.

It was agreed there would be a plebiscite in 1988 on maintaining or ending military rule. Pinochet lost, and was forced to call elections in 1989.

Aylwin, a Christian Democrat taking part in a leftist coalition which had defeated the general in the plebiscite, won that vote.

Pinochet died in 2006.