"General Augusto Pinochet remained the de facto dictator in Chile until 1988, when he acquiesced to pressure from the citizenry, the UN, and the Catholic church

"General Augusto Pinochet remained the de facto dictator in Chile until 1988, when he acquiesced to pressure from the citizenry, the UN, and the Catholic church to reform the constitution and hold a new presidential election. The Chilean people declined to re-elect him. He stepped down in 1990 and left the country" This is inaccurate. Pinochet had a new constitution written and it was passed on the 1980 national referendum (see http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plebiscito_nacional_de_Chile_de_1980 http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plebiscito_nacional_de_Chile_de...). The Chilean constitution of 1980 included a "transitional" amendment stating that, if passed, Pinochet would be president for the next 8 years after which another referendum would be called with the following options: - Yes: Pinochet would rule for yet another 8 years with the "junta" remaining as the legislature. - No: Pinochet would stay for 1 year after which a democratically elected president and congress will take over the executive and legislative branches of government. "NO" won that referendum (I was just old enough to vote NO). So Pinochet, respecting the terms of the Constitution he wrote, called for democratic elections for President and Congress. Also, Pinochet could not run for the 1989 presidential election because his own constitution prohibited consecutive presidential terms. One interesting note: Pinochet was so confident he would win the referendum they didn't think they would need a building for Congress. They had to rush design and construction of the Congress building to the point only the main chamber was completed on time for the new president's oath ceremony.