In pictures: General Augusto Pinochet

His approach to his opponents also hardened. Within weeks of the coup, Manuel Contreras – a personal friend – had set up the ferocious Dina secret police. The parliament was shut down and trade unions banned.

Chile also co-operated with several other South American dictatorships in Operation Condor – a pact to hunt down and kill left-wing opponents. But Gen Pinochet – pictured here in 1975 with Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer – later denied any knowledge of the pact.