Patricio Aylwin

Aylwin led Chile's elected government from March 1990 after the opposition's referendum campaign and the 1989 elections opened a route out of dictatorship. He established a truth commission to document killings and disappearances. Yet Pinochet remained army commander, and designated senators limited the elected majority's freedom to change the inherited system. Aylwin belongs here for governing through a real civilian transition whose negotiated restraints, especially around military power and accountability, remained substantial.