Augusto Pinochet of Chile

Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s ruthless 17-year rule was an era of thousands of deaths, disappearances and acts of torture in Chile, a country that is still coming to terms with his legacy. After seizing control from a democratically elected president in a 1973 coup backed by the C.I.A., General Pinochet oversaw vast purges of academics and others of liberals.

He gave up the presidency in 1990 and became the head of the army, remaining a political force in Chile through the 1990s and extending his legal immunity by becoming a “senator for life” after he stepped down as head of the army.

But the human rights violations committed during his tenure were documented by the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, a nonpartisan group appointed by his successor that attributed at least 3,200 killings and disappearances to the general’s forces.

During a 1998 visit to Britain for back surgery, General Pinochet, then 82, was detained by the British authorities, who tried to extradite him to Spain to stand trial on charges of crimes against humanity. After a legal battle, he was allowed to return to Chile 16 months later, after being deemed too ill to stand trial.

On his return to Chile, he stepped down from his political post, and a Chilean court deemed him no longer immune from prosecution, raising hopes that his victims may finally see justice. General Pinochet spent the final years of his life in seclusion, fighting off repeated criminal charges, but never standing trial. When he died in 2006 at the age of 91, he had been indicted in three human rights cases and was under investigation in dozens more.