To understand better

In the late 1950s, liberalism and communism fight in a cold war. Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger, two American economists, dream of an ultra liberal system, free from any associations or trade unions. Chile, a thin and long land isolated by crazy natural borders, could be a good place to test those ideas. From 1957, the best Chilean students are invited to Milton Friedman’s school in USA. They are called the "Chicago boys".

But in the late 1960s, a big part of chilean people feel more concerned about socialism than liberalism. The lands of the country belong to a minority of powerful men, and the workers, helped by the students, demand territories. Salvador Allende is elected president in 1970 in a popular jubilation. He wants to build a new society, based on democracy. 

Chile was divided in two parts : the momios (on the right) and the upelientos (on the left). Each part had guns : the powerful men defend their privileges with bullets while the MIR, an extreme left party founded by associations and students, train an army to defend their cause.

September 11 of 1973, a putsch overthrow socialism. The presidential palace is bombed, the members of the government are arrested and Allende died. The general Pinochet, trained at the School of the Americas (in the American zone of Panama) take the power and starts the longest dictatorship in Latin America. Torture becomes an institution to repress the dispute and the economy is managed by the Chicago boys.