The United States warned Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet against plans to use force to overturn a 1988 referendum that ended his military regime, according to declassified documents released here.
The documents’ publication comes as the movie “No,” about the ad campaign that propelled the Chilean opposition to victory in the referendum, is a favorite to win an Oscar on Sunday for Best Foreign Film.
The US documents released by the National Security Archive, a non-profit run by George Washington University, show that the Pinochet regime sensed it was going to lose the October 8, 1988 plebiscite and began plotting to override the outcome.
A Defense Intelligence Agency document on the eve of the referendum reported that Pinochet’s supporters were said to have “contingency plans to derail the plebiscite by encouraging and staging acts of violence.”
“They hope that such violence will elicit further reprisals by the radical opposition and begin a cycle of rioting and disorder.
“The plans call for government security forces to intervene forcefully and, citing damage to the electoral process and balloting facilities, to declare a state of emergency.
“At that point, the elections would be suspended, declared invalid, and postponed indefinitely,” the document said.
The United States had worked to undermine Salvador Allende, the Chilean president who was overthrown and died in the 1973 military coup that brought Pinochet to power.
But as it became clear Pinochet would not honor the referendum results, the Reagan administration began sending strongly worded messages to the regime, including through British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
US agents were authorized to warn Chilean officials that “implementation of such a plan would seriously damage relations with the United States and utterly destroy Chile’s reputation in the world.”
On the afternoon of the referendum, a US embassy cable reported that the regime was “sitting on voting results and releasing them very slowly, and this has sparked concern by the opposition, which continues to receive reports of a major victory.”
Another declassified cable said Pinochet met with the military junta with a document prepared for their signature.
“In the junta meeting, Pinochet was described as very angry and insistent that the junta must give him extraordinary powers to meet the crisis of the electoral defeat,” it said.
In the end, after several tense hours, the regime recognized that the “No” votes had won, marking the beginning of the end of the dictatorship, which passed into history March 11, 1990 with the return of democracy in Chile.
“Pinochet’s apparent choice not to implement contingency plans to overturn the plebiscite was likely influenced by junta importunings, publicity about the plan, and concern over the costs of acting contrary to the wishes of much of the military,” a report the day after the referendum said.
US pressed Pinochet to accept defeat: documents
