Augusto Pinochet Quotes

24 Sourced Quotes

The country is safe, because we have a good intelligence service.

Augusto Pinochet
I am going to die. The person who succeeds me also would die. But elections, you won't have.

Augusto Pinochet
I have lived with my conscience and my own memories for over quarter of a century since the events of 1973.… These are not easy reflections for me. But I am at peace with myself, and with the Chilean people, about what happened. I am clear in my mind that the return to Chile of true democracy, and from that the true freedom to which all individual people are entitled, could not have been achieved without the removal of the Marxist government.

Augusto Pinochet
I devalued the peso solely looking after the poor.

Augusto Pinochet
We practically wiped this nation clean of Marxists.

Augusto Pinochet
He could have a thousand faults, but I do not blame anyone in particular and I despise brutality with which the Nazis acted against Israelites; but the fault is not only of Hitler, but a group of high-ranked dignitaries.

Augusto Pinochet
Not a single leaf moves in this country if I'm not the one moving it. I want that to be clear!

Augusto Pinochet
Is it true what Contreras testified before the courts, that the president of the junta and later the president of the Republic was the direct head of DINA?
I don't remember, but it is not true. It is not true and if it was, I don't remember. Contreras liked to cajole, wrap around his boss. Contreras gave the orders. It was he who managed the institution.

Augusto Pinochet
Had I been a dictator, I would still be governing.

Augusto Pinochet
If Senator Kennedy is elected President of the United States, the government of Chile will take the necessary measures.

Augusto Pinochet
The freedoms which had been so hard won from colonial domination were being crushed by Soviet-inspired and funded military and political forces. Their clear intention was to deprive the people of their democratic freedoms. As history shows, this is what had happened in the Soviet Union and in Cuba, and continues to be the case in other parts of the world.

Augusto Pinochet
The only solution to the issue of human rights is oblivion.

Augusto Pinochet
Today, near the end of my days, I want to say that I harbor no rancor against anybody, that I love my fatherland above all and that I take political responsibility for everything that was done which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration.… I assume full political responsibility for what happened.

Augusto Pinochet
Rome cut off the heads of Christians and they continued to reappear one way or another. Something similar happens with Marxists.

Augusto Pinochet
This is not a dictadura [dictatorship/hard rule] but a dictablanda [soft rule].

Augusto Pinochet
To whom are we going to ask to be forgiven? To the one who tried to kill us? To the one who tried to destroy our country? To whom? They are the ones who must ask to be forgiven for everything they did before September 11.

Augusto Pinochet
Don't forget that in the history of the world, there was a plebiscite, in which Christ and Barabbas were being judged, and the people chose Barabbas.

Augusto Pinochet
I was only an aspiring dictator. I was never a real dictator.

Augusto Pinochet
I'm looking at them from above, because God put me there.

Augusto Pinochet
I have a sour face. Maybe that's why they say I'm a dictator.

Augusto Pinochet
The nation is trying to make Chile a country of proprietors, not of proletarians.

Augusto Pinochet
The rich people are those who create wealth, and you have to treat them well so they continue to give wealth.

Augusto Pinochet
I'm not someone who usually sends out threats. I warn only once. The day they touch one of my men, the rule of law is over.

Augusto Pinochet
The armed forces have acted today solely from the patriotic inspiration of saving the country from the tremendous chaos into which it was being plunged by the Marxist government of Salvador Allende.… The Junta will maintain judicial power and consultantship of the Comptroller. The Chambers will remain in recess until further orders. That is all.

Augusto Pinochet