Constitutionalist General Prats Forced to Resign — Pinochet Promoted

Wives of senior army officers publicly humiliate General Carlos Prats, the constitutionalist Army Commander, in a staged demonstration organized by coup plotters. Prats resigns, and Allende — tragically misreading Pinochet as a loyalist — appoints Augusto Pinochet as Commander-in-Chief. Prats later flees to Argentina, where DINA assassinates him and his wife with a car bomb in September 1974.