Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was born in the port city of Valparaiso in 1915, one of six children of a customs officer. He entered military school at 18, apparently encouraged by his mother, and over the following decades rose gradually through the ranks.In 1973, he was made commander-in-chief by President Salvador Allende (right), a Marxist elected three years earlier on a programme of radical social change. He was one of few high-ranking officers President Allende thought he could trust.
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