Augusto Pinochet — Le général qui a divisé un pays | Documentaire historique complet

On September 11, 1973, in less than seven hours, South America's oldest democracy ceased to exist. At the head of the army for only eighteen days was a fifty-seven-year-old general whose name was virtually unknown outside the barracks. He would go on to govern Chile for more than sixteen years. This documentary retraces, step by step, the complete trajectory of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte: from his humble childhood in the port of Valparaíso to his death in Santiago in December 2006. We follow the son of a port worker, a descendant of a Breton immigrant from Lamballe, rejected twice by the Military Academy before being admitted on his third attempt. We examine his forty-year career, marked by almost complete discretion, his marriage to Lucia Hiriart, which opened doors to the political elite, and the reputation as an apolitical officer that earned him the trust of Salvador Allende. The narrative places these events in their historical context: Chile's nitrate and copper mining era, the 1929 crisis that hit the country harder than almost any other, the assassination of General René Schneider in 1970, the Popular Unity government's experiment and its economic collapse, and the Cold War in Latin America. We then address, with the rigor the subject demands, the nature of the regime: the death squads, the national stadium transformed into a detention camp, the disappearance of singer Victor Jara, the creation of the political police, the interrogation centers, the actions of Cardinal Raúl Silva Henriquez and the Vicariate of Solidarity, and the exile of nearly 200,000 Chileans, several thousand of whom were welcomed in France. The figures cited come from the two official Chilean state commissions of inquiry, the Rettig and Valech reports, which were recognized by successive governments of both the left and the right. A significant portion of the documentary is devoted to political assassinations committed abroad—in Buenos Aires, Rome, and Washington—and to the cooperation between South American intelligence services revealed by the discovery, in Paraguay in 1992, of the so-called "terror archives." The documentary also dedicates considerable space to the economic revolution led by economists trained at the University of Chicago: Milton Friedman's visit in 1975, the shock therapy, privatizations, the creation of the funded pension system, the 1982 crisis, and the ongoing debate surrounding what has been called the Chilean miracle. Both perspectives, favorable and critical, are presented with their arguments and supporting data. Finally, we recount the end of the regime: the cult of personality, the 1980 Constitution, the protests of the 1980s, the "No" campaign and the plebiscite of October 5, 1988, the night the other commanders refused to cancel the vote, then the arrest in London in 1998, the landmark ruling by the House of Lords on the immunity of former heads of state, the French, Spanish, and Chilean legal proceedings, the revelation of hidden accounts abroad, and the funeral of a man whom his country never ceased to judge. The historically contested points—Pinochet's exact role in preparing the coup, the irregularities of the 1980 plebiscite, the chain of command for the crimes, the economic record—are presented with the various existing accounts, without taking sides. A biographical documentary of over an hour, written and narrated by Étienne Beaumont, for the series "Stories of Legends." ⚠️ Copyright Notice The entire script, narration, and editing of this video constitute an original work protected by copyright, the exclusive property of the Étienne Beaumont channel. Any reproduction, reuse, translation, partial or total republication, or distribution on another platform without prior written authorization is strictly prohibited and will be reported. Any archival material used is for historical illustration, informational, and educational purposes. If you enjoyed this work, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, and turn on notifications so you don't miss any upcoming profiles. #Pinochet #Chile #Documentary #20thCenturyHistory #ColdWar