Failure to address the economic and social increases and increasing political awareness of the less-affluent population, as well as indirect intervention and economic funding to the main political groups by the CIA, as part of the Cold War, led to a political polarization under Socialist President Salvador Allende. This in turn resulted in the 1973 coup d'état and the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, whose subsequent 17-year regime was responsible for numerous human rights violations and deep market-oriented economic reforms that modernized Chile and improved the population's quality of life. In 1990, Chile made a peaceful transition to democracy, initiating a succession of democratic governments.