In October 1988, a national referendum was held to determine whether Augusto Pinochet should extend his rule for another eight years. The "No" side won with nearly 56% of the vote, a sound defeat for him.
Immediately afterwards, Pinochet convened his junta, requesting that they give him extraordinary powers, which he would use to have the military seize Santiago. This failed when General Fernando Matthei of the Air Force refused, saying that he would not agree to such a thing under any circumstances, leading to Pinochet losing his nerve.
This was not the first time that Pinochet had been at loggerheads with one of the members of his junta. Matthei's predecessor, Gustavo Leigh, had been something of a chief ideologue of the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende and the subsequent junta that was formed, emerging as the most hard-line, anti-Marxist member of the four-man junta. Yet, he was also something of a true believer in that he generally believed that the junta was only going to be a temporary measure, to pave the way for a return to (non-leftist) civilian rule afterwards. When it became increasingly clear that, having acquired a taste of absolute power, Pinochet was not going to relinquish it, the two were increasingly at odds until 1978, when Leigh was forced out and Matthei selected to replace him.
What if Pinochet thought that he could simply do to Matthei what he had done to Leigh ten years earlier, and decided to purge Matthei along with anyone else in the military who opposed him? How would things snowball from there?
Immediately afterwards, Pinochet convened his junta, requesting that they give him extraordinary powers, which he would use to have the military seize Santiago. This failed when General Fernando Matthei of the Air Force refused, saying that he would not agree to such a thing under any circumstances, leading to Pinochet losing his nerve.
This was not the first time that Pinochet had been at loggerheads with one of the members of his junta. Matthei's predecessor, Gustavo Leigh, had been something of a chief ideologue of the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende and the subsequent junta that was formed, emerging as the most hard-line, anti-Marxist member of the four-man junta. Yet, he was also something of a true believer in that he generally believed that the junta was only going to be a temporary measure, to pave the way for a return to (non-leftist) civilian rule afterwards. When it became increasingly clear that, having acquired a taste of absolute power, Pinochet was not going to relinquish it, the two were increasingly at odds until 1978, when Leigh was forced out and Matthei selected to replace him.
What if Pinochet thought that he could simply do to Matthei what he had done to Leigh ten years earlier, and decided to purge Matthei along with anyone else in the military who opposed him? How would things snowball from there?