A cavalry officer by training, Izurieta was a captain at the time of the September 1973 coup against the government of Salvador Allende, but played on substantial role in the coup. During his career he served as a military professor, Director of the "Academia de Guerra del Ejército", and military attache to Israel and the United States. Thirty years' Pinochet's junior, Izurieta took command of the Chilean Army from Pinochet in March 1998 and was the senior military figure during the 1998-2000 Caso Pinochet, in which the former dictator was placed under house arrest in London under indictment by a Spanish judge. Izurieta met Pinochet's plane upon his return from London and embraced the aging dictator as he stood up from the wheelchair in which he had remained in London.