Allende was elected with less than 40% of the vote. He then proceeded to confiscate property and try to bring about a Castro style revolution to Chile and then the rest of South America. Being elected, of course, does not give one unlimited rights. Allende ignored congress and the supreme court. Both asked the military to restore order to Chile. Pinochet answered the call. He single handedly saved South America from communism and the likely millions of deaths that would have resulted. That he did so at a cost of roughly 2,000 communists dead is a testament to his humanity. After gaining power, he brought about free market reforms, and when the communist threat passed, he voluntarily stepped down and handed a democracy to the Chilean people.
 
Plus he left Chile a healthy capitalist economy. Neither all saint nor all sinner, Pinochet did handle the communists better than most and Chile is better off from his rule than it would have been from the same time under Allende, who planned to consolidate his marxist hold on the country and then to begin exporting it to the rest of South America. QDEP
Pinochet performed a service for humanity by taking no prisoners in his approach to communism.

Did some of his actions against the communists go overboard? Probably. But one must also weigh in the sheer barbarism and inhumanity that is inherent in communism.

Also remember that communism is responsible for close to 100 million deaths throughout the 20th century.

Fighting communism often requires harsh measures, unfortunately (at least for those communists caught in the crosshairs.) But these harsh measures staved off a totalitarian empire that could have decimated all of western civilization.

But the other choice would relegate civiliazation to famines, bloody purges, gulags, torture, mass executions, killing fields and death camps.

Anybody can read more about the genocide commited under communism in "The Black Book of Communism."

For details about the book, go to these links:

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/COUBLA.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Book_of_Communism

Thanks for this info. I heard of his death yesterday, and since they were spitting out his name as though it was vomit, I said alooud to my daughter, hmm, bet he was not half bad but we will never know the truth. Leave it to our bubble headed blonds in the media to hate someone who is anti-communist.
Some excellant books on Americanism are by Solonge Strong Hertz and available from the Remnant.
Also, Dr. Thomas Drolesky has wonderful articles with very exacting quotes from the days when popes were Catholic.