In 1983 and 1984, the Democratic Alliance took advantage of Pinochet’s permission for two mass demonstrations. If the "YES" won, Pinochet would have to implement the dispositions of the 1980 Constitution, mainly the call for general elections, while he would himself remain in power as president. HOUSE OF LORDS RULING ON PINOCHET: 'HISTORIC MILESTONE' Last Wednesday's ruling by Britain's House of Lords that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was not immune from prosecution on charges of genocide, torture and terrorism committed during his 17-year rule elicited substantial editorial comment overseas. The plebiscite was in October of ’88. In order to bolster the appearance of popular support, the regime called plebiscites, which it won, and organized its supporters for pro-government rallies.
After some hesitation in the days following the plebiscite Pinochet finally agreed to step down after elections when a top military commander publicly acknowledged the NO campaign’s victory and when other members of the military junta refused to support him any longer. The election count would be called off. If the "NO" won, Pinochet would remain President for another year, and a joint Presidential and legislative election would be held.The first country in the world to make that momentous break with the past—away from socialism and extreme state capitalism toward more market-oriented structures and policies—was not Deng Xiaoping’s China or Margaret Thatcher’s Britain in the late 1970s, Ronald Reagan’s United States in 1981, or any other country in Latin America or elsewhere. 4. With the violence of the armed resistance groups having failed and the continued protests lack of success in gaining democratic concessions, the campaigners’ next hope for a shift towards democracy came in the form of a state-sanctioned vote.Furthermore, as police forces removed themselves from acts of repression, the army took over the state sanctioned violence against opposition groups. Pinochet was trying to say, “After me, chaos” in the style of Louis XIV, “Aprés moi, le deluge.”But the TV showed a little after that, a half an hour or so later, were pictures of the other commanders of the Armed Forces, that is, the Air Force, the Carabineros, the Navy going toward the Presidential Palace and obviously a meeting of the junta with Pinochet. General Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (b.Valparaíso, on November 25, 1915–d. Late Chilean military leader Augusto Pinochet wanted to hold on to power when he lost a referendum on his rule in 1988, newly declassified documents in the US suggest.
In 2001 a Santiago appeals court voted in favour of suspending proceedings against him on the grounds that he was mentally unfit to stand trial, and in 2002 the Chilean Supreme Court ruled that proceedings against him be suspended for good. He was eventually accepted and he graduated in 1937 as an infantry officer. The Communist party believed that only armed conflict could end the dictatorship.