The Committee of Cooperation for Peace in Chile, September 1973–November 1975

Abstract

The Chilean armed forces’ seizure of institutional control of their country on 11 September 1973 took the form of a military occupation, including the removal of all incumbents from strategic posts, from the President of the Republic to heads of local neighbourhood committees. The official figure for numbers killed as a result of political violence between September and December 1973 is 1213.¹ The military junta invested executive power in itself by Decree Law (DL) I.² General Pinochet was its president by virtue of his position as commander-in-chief of the army, the most senior service in the military hierarchy. The Congress and Constitutional Tribunal were dissolved, and the electoral register incinerated.³ All political parties were declared in recess; those of the UP were declared illegal, their property confiscated, and orders issued that their political leaders should surrender themselves to the new authorities.⁴ In short order governmental positions were distributed among officers of the different services, according to a quota system. This was accompanied by a larger process of designating military personnel to other posts in the state and civil society such as mayors, university rectors and ambassadors.⁵