Augusto Pinochet

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (November 25 1915 – December 10 2006) was a general and de facto head of state of Chile. He led a military junta to power in 1973 through a coup d'état, deposing the elected Socialist president Salvador Allende and establishing a military dictatorship.

As de facto head of state

• The country is safe, because we count with a good intelligence service. (September 1974)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• I will die. The person who succeeds me will also have to die. But elections, you won't have. (June 17, 1975)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• If senator Kennedy is elected President of the United States, the government of Chile will take appropriate measures. (September 11, 1979)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• Not a single leaf moves in this country if I'm not the one moving it. I want that to be clear! (October 1981)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• I devaluated the peso only looking at the poor. (June 29, 1982)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• This is not a 'dictadura,' but a 'dictablanda.' (September 1983, a play on the Spanish word for dictatorship, dura means tough, blanda means soft)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• My face is sour. Maybe that's why they say I'm a dictator. (April 24, 1986)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• My library is full with UN condemnations. (December 26, 1986)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• Nation is to make Chile a country or proprietors, not proletarians. (April 24, 1987)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• I'm looking at them from above, because God put me there. (July 1987)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• We practically wiped this nation clean of Marxists. (February 23, 1988)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• The rich people are the ones making money and you have to treat them well so they continue making more money. (May 26, 1988)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• Don't forget that in the history of the world, there was a plebiscite, in which Christ and Barabbas were being judged, and the people chose Barabbas. (October 25, 1988) http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=102077492
• I'm not someone who usually sends out threats. I warn only once. The day they touch one of my men, the rule of law is over. (April 17, 1989)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html

As army commander-in-chief

• What a wonderful space-saving measure! (September 1991, following the discovery of coffins containing two or three bodies at Patio 29)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• Who are we going to forgive? The ones who tried to killed us? The ones who tried to destroy the Fatherland? (September 11, 1994)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• The only solution to the issue of human rights is oblivion. (September 21, 1995)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• Rome cut the heads of Christians but they continued to reappear. Something similar occurs with Marxists. (November 10, 1995)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html
• Had I been a dictator, I would still be governing. (December 31, 1995)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html

As senator for life

• I was only an aspiring dictator. I was never a real dictator. (November 1998, during detention in London)http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20061210/pags/20061210221221.html

Attributed

• "Power must be vested in the armed forces, since only they have th organization and the means to fight Marxism."
  • Clive Foss, The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption, London: Quercus Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1905204965, p. 187

Unsourced

• Two-thousand is nothing. (July 1994, while comparing the population of Chile to the number of disappeared during his regime)
• Tell my friends to get me out of here. (October 27, 1998, nine days after being arrested in London)
• I don't remember, but it's not true. It's not true, and If it were true, I don't remember. (November 16, 2005, in response to the question of whether he as president was head of DINA)