the 1973 Chilean coup d'état that overthrew Salvador Allende's left-wing government and instituted a 16-year-long right-wing military dictatorship that left more than 3,000 people dead or missing.[10]
The dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet ended in 1990 after it lost a referendum in 1988 and was succeeded by a centre-left coalition which ruled through four presidencies until 2010.
Chile is today one of South America's most stable and prosperous nations.[10] It leads Latin American nations in rankings of human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, state of peace, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption.[11] It also ranks high regionally in sustainability of the state, and democratic development.[12] Chile is a founding member of the United Nations, the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
Chile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chile prospers today BECAUSE they rolled back the right wings 'miracle'...
The main problem with that lame-ass theory is that they haven't rolled it back. Pinochet's reforms are still in place.
Sure they are
From an economic point of view, the era can be divided into two periods. The first, from 1973 to the Crisis of 1982, corresponds to the period when most of the reforms were implemented. The period ended with the international debt crisis and the collapse of the Chilean economy. At that point, unemployment was extremely high, above 20 percent, and a large proportion of the banking sector had become bankrupt. During that first period, an economic policy that emphasized export expansion was implemented. Some economists argue that the economic recovery of the second period, from 1982 to 1990, was due to an about-face turn around of Pinochet's free market policy and the fact that, in 1982, he nationalized many of the same industries that were nationalized under Allende
Valenzuela, Arturo (2002). A Nation of Enemies. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 197-8
One by one the economic crises of 1981 led to the replacement of all the Chicago Boys.
Pragmatic economists had to socialize the two biggest Chilean banks in 1982 and another seven collapsing banks in 1983. The Central Bank of Chile socialized much of the foreign debt.
Anil Hira, Ideas and Economic Policy in Latin America, Praeger Publishers, 1998
The public expenditure quota rose above 34%, even higher than during the presidency of socialist Salvador Allende. Critics mocked the situation as Chicago way to socialism
Robert G. Wesson: Politics, policies, and economic development in Latin America. Hoover Press, 1984
The percentage of Chilean population living in poverty had doubled from 1973 to 1990
lol
To save the nation's pension system, Pinochet nationalized banks and industry on a scale unimagined by Socialist Allende. The General expropriated at will, offering little or no compensation. While most of these businesses were eventually re-privatized, the state retained ownership of one industry: copper.
For nearly a century, copper has meant Chile and Chile copper. University of Montana metals expert Dr. Janet Finn notes, "It's absurd to describe a nation as a miracle of free enterprise when the engine of the economy remains in government hands." Copper has provided 30% to 70% of the nation's export earnings. This is the hard currency which has built today's Chile, the proceeds from the mines seized from Anaconda and Kennecott in 1973 - Allende's posthumous gift to his nation.
Greg Palast | Investigative Reporter
