Hello and welcome to the witness podcast with me Mike Lanchin.

Today we go back to October of 1988

when for the first time ever

Chilions got the chance to vote on the 15-year military rule

of General Augusto Pinochet.

It was a clear yes or no referendum

to determine whether the 72-year-old dictator should stay in power.

I've been hearing from one of the people at the forefront of the no campaign. Chile. had never existed in Chile, but there was also a certain tension, the feeling that something

was going to happen, there were great expectations and a sort of nervous energy in the country.

For the very first time General Pinochet's military rule was on the line.

For his supporters, President Pinochet is a Latin American Charles de Gaulle, a strong man who came in to put his country back on its feet.

And now the dictator who had no compunction once about stamping out political opposition in the cruelest way is campaigning for the support of his people.

Our biggest worry was whether the results would be recognized.

Not whether we would win, because we were confident of that, but really because everything

was under the control of the military. Chilean advertising executive, executive Elginio Garcia, was just 20 years old. Aursia and the Chilean military took power in a violent coup in September of

1973. With the support of the American CIA, they had deposed the Marxist president Salvador Ayeende, whose short

rule had divided the country.

Eugenio and his family had been keen Ayanne supporters.

I remember on the day of the coup in 1973, seeing the bombers flying over the skies of Santiago over my home.

That was a very strong image for me.

It spelt the end of a tradition, like a break in the culture of our country.

The military drove Ayndi's socialist supporters out of all public bodies, the universities, the schools and small businesses. sympathizers fared worse, much worse. Tens of thousands of people were rounded up,

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