Following the old adage to keep one’s friends close and enemies closer, Chilean President Salvador Allende promoted his chief rival, Army Chief of Staff Augusto Pinochet to the position of Commander-in-Chief. And Pinochet responded by overthrowing Allende’s government. Pinochet’s military junta ruled for the better part of a decade without an official mandate from the citizens of the country, and by the end of the 1970s he decided to make a legal framework for his rule, creating a new constitution to replace the one drawn up in 1975.

On this day, September 11, in 1980 the Chilean people voted by a margin of 67% to 30% to approve the Pinochet-created constitution, thus legitimizing his rule.

The new constitution solidified the position of the military in all political decisions of the country, and made them almost completely immune from civilian control. Although he was initially received by many European nations as an equal head of state, by 1988 Pinochet was arrested for human rights violations committed under his regime.