El Condé: Who was Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet?

The Chilean Netflix black comedy movie, El Condé puts a spotlight on the country’s tumultuous past with dictator Augusto Pinochet, with the added twists of gothic cinematography and a vampire. The movie does not divulge into what happened during Pinochet’s dictatorship thanks to the coup d’etat in 1973 against President Allende.

To better understand the satirical comedy of the black-and-white movie on Netflix, audiences need to know a bit about how Pinochet came into power, his allies, and his blood-soaked reign in Chile. South America’s longest and narrowest country, Chile, was in economic despair under socialist Allende.

In 1973, military general Pinochet stormed La Moneda (Presidential Office) with his soldiers in a coup d’etat against President Allende.

For the years that followed, Pinochet helped raise Chile’s economy but stained its citizens with violence, fear, and death. The man audiences meet in El Condé is only a sliver of representation of who Pinochet was in Chile. Here’s the truth behind the dictator.

El Condé: Where was Augusto Pinochet born?

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was born in Valparaiso, Chile on November 25, 1915.

In El Condé, Pinochet was given a fabricated backstory to help detail his vampire origins. He was a French orphan with the last name Pinoché and realized in adulthood that he was a vampire. To further the bizarreness, by the end of the movie, it was revealed his mother was actually British Prime Minister and vampire Margaret Thatcher. Her importance in real life will be later discussed when detailing Pinochet’s rise to power.

But the movie is not too far off. Pinochet’s father, Augusto Pinochet Vera, was a descendant of 18th-century French Breton. His mother, Avelina Ugarte Martínez, had Basque origins with her family residing in Chile since the 17th century. In 1931, Pinochet joined the Military School of Santiago and studied military geography. In the years that followed, he devoted his life to the military. By January 1971, Pinochet was titled the General Commander of the Santiago Army Garrison.

El Condé: Who was Pinochet’s wife Lucía?

Lucía Hiriart de Pinochet was formerly María Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez before marrying the future dictator in 1943.

A majority of Chileans have ill thoughts toward Lucía. Many believe she was the real thief during her husband’s dictatorship of Chile. While in Infantry School in 1943 as a lieutenant, Pinochet married Lucía. Some may say that Pinochet couldn’t have picked a more perfect wife, as she was from a wealthy and affluent family.

She was born on December 10, 1923 to Osvaldo Hiriart Corvalán and Lucía Rodríguez Auda de Hiriart. Corvalán was a lawyer and had political ties as a former Radical Party senator, and former Interior Minister of President Juan Antonio Ríos. Her mother was of Basque-French descent.

Her role during the dictatorship was divided. Some saw her as a woman devoted to her country’s people, and others saw her as a thief just as evil as her husband. According to The Guardian, Pinochet detailed in his memoir that Lucía was the one who convinced him to infiltrate La Moneda in a coup d’etat. El Condé does briefly touch upon it as true.

She had a massive sway of power in La Moneda after Pinochet gained power. There are many stories of her embezzling government money, and stealing from the rich and poor. She claimed her riches were hers and hers alone, and her right. Lucía never faced charges for her husband’s crimes. Only in 2005 she was sued by Chile and arrested in 2007 for embezzlement.

Lucía died in Santiago on December 16, 2021, due to heart failure and was survived by five children.

El Condé: How did Augusto Pinochet become dictator of Chile?

Having control of the Chilean military, coerced by his wife, and with the help of the United States, General Pinochet stormed La Moneda in 1973 in a coup d’etat.

Pinochet was determined to exterminate leftism and reassert free-market policies. Many Chileans remember the day La Moneda in Santiago was in utter chaos, smoke, and gunfire as the military infiltrated. At the time, President Allende was in his office. Knowing what was to come, he addressed Chile in a public speech. He vowed they would not take him from office.

Instead, President Allende took his own life. But there are many contradicting stories of what really happened, with some believing he was killed during the coup. Pinochet gained power and became president of Chile in 1974. During the first years, he succeeded in lowering the inflation rate and propelling Chile economically.

But he was known as a dictator for a reason. Much like El Condé, Pinochet was a ruthless killer. During his reign thousands of Chileans and possibly more disappeared from their homes and streets. There were harrowing stories of abuse and torture of pregnant women and anyone who opposed Pinochet.

The United States was said to have backed the coup while there was no direct evidence of their link to Pinochet. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was also an ally of Pinochet during his dictatorship and he often visited London. El Condé creates a satire around their relationship, with her revealed in the movie to have been his mother and a vampire.

El Condé: When did Augusto Pinochet die?

On December 3, 2006, Augusto Pinochet died of congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema and was given a military funeral.

Pinochet stayed in power from 1974 until 1990. In a 1988 plebiscite, a direct vote of the members of an electorate, 56% voted against Pinochet. He stayed in power until a new president was elected. According to Britannica, Pinochet was detained while in London in 1998. He was accused of the torture of Spanish citizens in Chile during his dictatorship. He was extradited but released due to being unfit to stand trial.

But it put a spotlight on the thousands of Chileans who disappeared and pushed the Chilean authorities to further investigate. In 2000, he was stripped of immunity. The charges were dropped in 2002 as he was mentally unfit to stand trial. By the end of 2004, a report was issued by the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture confirming thousands of cases of torture.

“In 2005 the Chilean Supreme Court voted to remove Pinochet’s immunity for illegal financial dealings as well as for a case involving the disappearance and execution of at least 119 political dissidents whose bodies were found in 1975 in neighboring Argentina,” according to Britannica.

He was fit to stand trial but died the following year before facing the charges of his crimes.

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