The Political Constitution of the Republic of Chile of 1980 is the fundamental law in force in Chile. It was approved and promulgated under the military dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet, being ratified by the Chilean citizenry through a referendum on September 11, 1980, although being held under restrictions and without electoral registers. While 69% of the population was reported to have voted yes, the vote was questioned by hundreds of denunciations of irregularities and fraud. The constitutional text took effect, in a transitory regime, on March 11, 1981, and then entered into full force on March 11, 1990, with the return to electoral democracy. It was amended for the first time in 1989, and afterward in 1991, 1994, 1997, each year from 1999 to 2001, 2003, each year from 2007 to 2015, and each year from 2017 to 2021, with the last three amendments concerning the constituent process of 2020–2022. In September 2005, under Ricardo Lagos's presidency, a large amendment of the Constitution was approved by parliamentarians, removing from the text some of the less democratic dispositions coming from Pinochet's regime, such as senators-for-life and appointed senators, as well as the armed forces' warranty of the democratic regime.
Joaquín José Lavín Infante is a Chilean politician of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) party and former mayor of Las Condes, in the northeastern zone of Santiago. Formerly Lavín has also been mayor of Santiago, Minister of Education and Minister of Social Development. He ran for president twice in 1999 and 2005, losing both times. In 2021 he tried to run again, but this time he was defeated in a primary election by Sebastián Sichel. Besides his political involvement Lavín has been active in education in the University for Development, of which he was one of the founders and original owners, and as editor of the economics section in El Mercurio.
The Christian Democratic Party is a Christian democratic political party in Chile. There have been three Christian Democrat presidents in the past, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Patricio Aylwin, and Eduardo Frei Montalva.
The Socialist Party of Chile is a centre-left political party founded in 1933. Its historic leader was President of Chile Salvador Allende, who was deposed in a coup d'état by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973. The military junta immediately banned socialist, Marxist and other leftist political parties. Members of the Socialist party and other leftists were subject to violent suppression, including torture and murder, under the Pinochet dictatorship, and many went into exile. Twenty-seven years after the 1973 coup, Ricardo Lagos Escobar won the Presidency as the Socialist Party candidate in the 1999–2000 Chilean presidential election. Socialist Michelle Bachelet won the 2005–06 Chilean presidential election. She was the first female president of Chile and was succeeded by Sebastián Piñera in 2010. In the 2013 Chilean general election, she was again elected president, leaving office in 2018.
The Independent Democratic Union is a conservative and right-wing political party in Chile, founded in 1983. Its founder was the lawyer, politician and law professor Jaime Guzmán, a civilian allied with Augusto Pinochet. Guzmán was a senator from 1990 until his murder by communist guerrillas on April 1, 1991.
The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a military overthrow of the democratic socialist president of Chile Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity coalition government. Allende, who has been described as the first Marxist to be democratically elected president in a Latin American liberal democracy, faced significant social unrest, political tension with the opposition-controlled National Congress of Chile. On 11 September 1973, a group of military officers, led by General Augusto Pinochet, seized power in a coup, ending civilian rule.
The Santiago General Cemetery in Santiago, Chile, is one of the largest cemeteries in Latin America with an estimated two million burials. The cemetery was established in 1821 after Chile's independence when Bernardo O'Higgins inaugurated the Alameda de las Delicias along the old course of the Mapocho River. O'Higgins set aside more than 85 hectares of land for the foundation of what became a magnificent grounds filled with ornate mausoleums surrounded by palm and leaf trees set amidst lush gardens and numerous sculptures, which have been estimated be 237. The cemetery, which is located northwest of Cerro Blanco, serves as a true urban park for Santiago located in the municipality of Recoleta.
An authoritarian military dictatorship ruled Chile for seventeen years, between 11 September 1973 and 11 March 1990. The dictatorship was established after the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup d'état backed by the United States on 11 September 1973. During this time, the country was ruled by a military junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet. The military used the breakdown of democracy and the economic crisis that took place during Allende's presidency to justify its seizure of power. The dictatorship presented its mission as a "national reconstruction". The coup was the result of multiple forces, including pressure from conservative groups, certain political parties, union strikes and other domestic unrest, as well as international factors.
María Isabel Allende Bussi is a Chilean politician and the youngest daughter of former Chilean president Salvador Allende Gossens.
Jaime Jorge Guzmán Errázuriz was a Chilean constitutional law professor, politician, and founding member of the conservative Independent Democratic Union party. In the 1960s, he strongly opposed the University Reform movement and became an active organizer of the Gremialist movement. Guzmán vehemently opposed President Salvador Allende and later became a trusted advisor of General Augusto Pinochet and his dictatorship. As a professor of Constitutional Law, Guzmán played a significant role in drafting the 1980 Chilean Constitution. He briefly served as a senator during the transition to democracy before being assassinated in 1991 by members of the communist urban guerrilla organization group, the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (Autonomous).
The Government Junta of Chile was the military junta established to rule Chile during the military dictatorship that followed the overthrow of President Salvador Allende in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. The Government Junta was the executive and legislative branch of government until 17 December 1974, when Augusto Pinochet was formally declared President of Chile in late 1974. After that date, it functioned strictly as a legislative body until the return to democracy in 1990.
The National Party was a Chilean political party formed in 1966 by the union of the United Conservative Party, the Liberal Party and the National Action.
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean military officer who was the dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader of the military junta, which in 1974 declared him President of the Republic and thus the dictator of Chile; in 1980, a referendum approved a new constitution confirming him in the office, after which he served as de jure president from 1981 to 1990. His time in office remains the longest of any Chilean ruler.
Cristián Patricio Larroulet Vignau was the Minister General Secretariat of the Presidency of Chile under President Sebastián Piñera. He currently serves as the Head of Advisors to the Presidency of the Republic in the second administration of Sebastián Piñera.
The National Union Movement was a Chilean political party that supported the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, founded on 27 November 1983 by Andrés Allamand, Francisco Bulnes Sanfuentes, Pedro Ibáñez Ojeda and other former members and supporters of the National Party, the Radical Democracy and Christian Democrats expelled from the party. Many members of the National Union Movement occupied public offices and important positions during that regime. The referent defined itself as independent, conservative and liberal.
Chilean Venezuelans are Venezuelans of Chilean descent or Chileans who have obtained Venezuelan citizenship. This migratory flow was one of the main destinations for exiles from the Pinochet dictatorship, at which time approximately 80,000 people came to Venezuela, in addition to professional migrants motivated by the oil boom occurred between 1950 and 1980.
The Acto de Chacarillas was a ceremony performed on the summit of Cerro Chacarillas in Santiago, Chile on 9 July 1977 organized by the military dictatorship of Chile. It was organized by the Frente Juvenil de Unidad Nacional to commemorate its second anniversary and a new anniversary of the Battle of La Concepción.
Antonio Vodanovic is a Chilean television presenter known for being the presenter of Viña del Mar International Song Festival from 1976 to 2004. From the late 1970s to 1982 he was programming director of Televisión Nacional de Chile. In 1982 he renounced that position after an internal conflict in Televisión Nacional de Chile that emerged in the aftermath as consequence of the censorship of Holocaust. On one occasion Vodanovic publicly praised dictator Augusto Pinochet and his wife Lucia Hiriart, who were in the public, on behalf of "the Chilean youth". Vodanovic was present in the Acto de Chacarillas in 1977, a ritualized pro-Pinochet act reminiscent of Francoist Spain.
Juan Enrique Krauss Rusque is a Chilean lawyer and politician who has served as deputy, minister and ambassador of Chile in Spain, Ecuador and Czech Republic.
Pablo Rodríguez Grez is a Chilean politician and lawyer. He supported and was a former lawyer for Pinochet. He became known for his fascist ideals and for founding the Fatherland and Liberty movement, in which he had been accused of terrorist acts, in addition to collaborating with Pinochet's coup in 1973. He was also a candidate for the National Advance party for the presidency of Chile in 1989. He has been a teacher of Civil Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Chile since 1978 and is a partner at the law firm Rodríguez Vergara y Compañía.
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