Patricio Aylwin obituary

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/24/patricio-aylwin-obituary

Version 0 of 1.

In 1988, the shock defeat of General Augusto Pinochet in a referendum on his rule of Chile opened the way to elections the following year. Patricio Aylwin, who has died aged 97, was thus inaugurated in 1990 as the country’s first civilian president since the overthrow and death of Salvador Allende in 1973.

It was Aylwin who led the transition of Chile back to full democratic rule during his four years in power, although many on the left criticised him for his cautious approach, and for allowing Pinochet and the armed forces to continue to exercise considerable influence.

A founding member of the Chilean Christian Democratic party in 1957, Aylwin had been opposed to the government of the socialist Allende in the early 1970s. In the weeks before the coup by Pinochet and the armed forces in September 1973, he declared that: “Faced with the choice between a Marxist dictatorship and a dictatorship of our armed forces, I would choose the latter.”

However, during his time as president, he set up the national commission for truth and reconciliation headed by the jurist Raúl Rettig to investigate the human rights abuses committed during the years of dictatorship. He formally apologised on behalf of the Chilean state to the relatives of all those who had been tortured and killed in what Aylwin called the “greatest tragedy” in the history of Chile.

Aylwin was born in the coastal resort of Viña del Mar, the son of Miguel Aylwin Gajardo, a prominent lawyer of mixed Basque and Irish origin, and his wife Laura Azócar Alvarez. He followed his father into the legal profession, graduating from the University of Chile in the capital, Santiago, in 1943 and becoming a professor of law there in 1946.

At the end of that decade he made his first foray into politics, as a member of the Falange Nacional, a rightwing grouping. Then in 1957 he helped found the Chilean Christian Democratic party, on the lines of the Italian party of that name, and soon became its president.

By 1971 he was the leader of the senate, and in this capacity frequently opposed the efforts of Allende’s government, elected the previous year, to bring about radical change in Chile.

Immediately after the coup of 1973, Aylwin declared that Allende’s government had been on the point of “installing a communist dictatorship by force”, and that what was needed was a short takeover of power by the Chilean military, followed by the installation of a centrist government.

However, Pinochet had other ideas, and when it became obvious he had no intention of relinquishing power, Aylwin, who never went into exile, became a leading member of those seeking a constitutional exit to rule by the armed forces. He was instrumental in the creation of the Group of 24 that brought together politicians of different persuasions, and eventually led to the Concertacíon de Partidos por la Democracia coalition that was to hold power from 1990 onwards.

In 1988 Aylwin was active in the campaign for the “no” vote in the plebiscite on the continuation of Pinochet in power, and when that campaign was successful, he became the Concertacíon’s candidate for the presidency. In the 1989 election he won more than 55% of the vote, and was inaugurated in March 1990.

His period in office saw Chile return to stability both economically and politically. But Pinochet remained head of the armed forces, and President Aylwin never felt in a strong enough position either to remove him or to change the constitution brought in under the general’s rule, or to end the amnesty that had been declared for members of the armed forces accused of human rights abuses. As a consequence, unlike in neighbouring Argentina, there were no trials of high-ranking members of the dictatorship.

Aylwin defended his attitude towards Pinochet, arguing that: “It was better for him to continue as commander-in-chief because this obliged him to stay within the constitutional framework he himself had created and so reduced the risk of any threat of a coup.”

After the end of his term as president in 1994, Aylwin was active in regional organisations such as the economic commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, but no longer played a prominent role in domestic politics. Announcing a state funeral for Aylwin, the current president, Michelle Bachelet, praised him as someone “who always put unity above differences, and enabled Chile to reconstruct a democratic country”.

A devout Catholic, in 1948 Aylwin married Leonor Oyarzún Ivanovic. She survives him, along with their three sons and two daughters.

• Patricio Aylwin Azócar, lawyer and politician, born 26 November 1918; died 19 April 2016