Carlos Prats General Carlos Prats González ( February 24 , 1915 – September 30 , 1974 ) was a Chilean Army officer , a political figure , minister and Vice President of Chile during President Salvador Allende ' s government , and commander - in - chief of the Chilean Army . He went into voluntary exile in Argentina immediately after General Augusto Pinochet ' s September 11 , 1973 coup . The following year , he was assassinated in Buenos Aires , Argentina by a car bomb , revealed as committed by the DINA of Chile . Background . Carlos Prats González was born in Talcahuano in 1915 , the oldest son of Carlos Prats Risopatrón and Hilda González Suárez . He joined the Army in 1931 , and graduated at the top of his class . In 1935 , he was commissioned as an artillery officer . Three years later he became a Sub Lieutenant . Soon he returned to the Military Academy , this time as a teacher . He taught there and at the War Academy until 1954 . In 1944 , he married Sofia Cuthbert Chiarleoni , with whom he had three daughters . In 1954 , Prats González was promoted to Major , and sent to the military mission in the US , as adjunct military attaché , where he served until 1958 . That year he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel , and returned as teacher to the War Academy . In 1961 , he became commander of the Artillery Regiment Nº3 “ Chorrillos ” , and in 1963 , became commander of the Regiment Nº1 “ Tacna ” . In 1964 , he was promoted to Colonel and sent as military attaché to Argentina . He returned to Chile in 1967 as commander of the III Army Division . In 1968 he was promoted to Brigade General and Chief of the General Staff . The following year he was promoted to Division General . He was named Commander - in - chief on October 26 , 1970 , by President Eduardo Frei Montalva , following the assassination of his predecessor , General René Schneider a few days earlier , on October 22 . His reputation as a respected figure in the Army allayed all fears of a possible military intervention following the popular election of Salvador Allende , a socialist , to the presidency . Public role during the Allende years . General Prats became the head of the " constitutionalists " , all members of the armed forces who supported the Schneider Doctrine . With time , he became the Army ' s strongest supporter of President Allende , and was appointed as a member of his cabinet several times . Allende appointed him as vice - President in 1972 ( The Chilean Constitution does not have a standing vice - presidential office ; rather , the sitting Minister of the Interior , as the senior cabinet minister , is temporarily designated " vice president " only during the President ' s absence during formal State visits abroad ) . Carlos Prats ' reported allegiance to the Schneider Doctrine was considered weakened when he agreed to participate as a cabinet member in the Allende government . Many moderate , apolitical Army officers who supported Prats and believed in the Schneider Doctrine interpreted his joining the Allende government as a tacit endorsement of it . They thought this was a betrayal of General Schneider ' s staunch non - interference position . At the same time , among anti - Allende Army cadres , Prats allowed fellow officers to infer that , if the Allende government allowed the economic and political situation to become too chaotic , Prats might be convinced of the need for a coup d ' état . This strategy of trying to please both sides resulted in Prats losing the trust of all sides . Non - interventionist , apolitical officers believed Prats had become a willing tool of Allende . Anti - Allende officers believed Prats would not stand in the way of Allende using the Army to carry out his socialist policies of forced nationalization and economic redistribution . Prats maintained some standing in the Army and among the people because he was considered to be a measured , sober career officer who would not be pressured by the mob , nor forced into doing anything unconstitutional or rash . Alejandrina Cox incident . The Alejandrina Cox incident on 27 June 1973 , in which General Prats lost his temper at being insulted by persons in a nearby car and fired on it , caused him a huge loss in public reputation . Prats lost the respect of the Army officer corps who , regardless of their political beliefs , considered such a potentially fatal loss of control as unprofessional and dangerous . Tanquetazo . On June 29 , 1973 , Prats was the key player in putting down a minor coup attempt known as the " Tanquetazo " . This " putsch " was poorly organized but the military and others were disturbed by the unit ' s relative ease in reaching the gates of the presidential palace . The " Tanquetazo " failed and was suppressed , but the event showed that tactically , it would be relatively simple to stage a full - blown coup . Resignation . On August 22 , 1973 , the wives of Prats ' Generals and officers staged a rally in front of his home , calling him a coward for not restoring civil order in Chile . This event convinced Prats that he had lost support of his fellow officers . The next day he resigned his positions : both as Interior minister and as Commander in Chief of the Army . With only two other generals in favor of a constitutional solution to the political crisis , generals Mario Sepúlveda Squella and Guillermo Pickering ( both in key troop command positions ) , also presented their resignations in a show of support for him . General Augusto Pinochet , previously second in command and thought to be loyal to Allende , was appointed as Commander in Chief of the Army . General Pinochet took over the position on August 23 , 1973 . General Prats ' retirement removed the last real obstacle for a military coup , which took place three weeks later , on September 11 , 1973 . Immediately after the coup , on September 15 , 1973 , General Prats voluntarily went into exile with his wife in Argentina . Assassination . On September 30 , 1974 , in Buenos Aires , Prats and his wife Sofia were killed outside their apartment , by a radio - controlled car bomb . Debris reached the ninth - floor balcony of the building across the street . Later , it was learned that the assassination was planned by members of the Chilean secret police , DINA . It was committed by the American expatriate and Chilean citizen Michael Townley , who also committed the Orlando Letelier assassination in Washington , DC in 1976 . Following the September 11th coup of the year before , Carlos Prats from exile had made statements both public and private against the Junta and Pinochet . He had also signaled his willingness to assume the role of Commander in Chief of the Armed forces in exile , or the role of President for a shadow government or government - in - exile . Legal aftermath and investigations . The former leaders of DINA , including chief Manuel Contreras , ex - chief of operation and retired general Raúl Iturriaga , his brother Roger Iturriaga , and ex - brigadiers Pedro Espinoza and Jose Zara , have been charged in Chile with Prats ' assassination . The Chilean judge investigating the case , Alejandro Solis , exempted Gen . Pinochet from prosecution after the Chilean Supreme court rejected a demand to lift the ex - dictator ' s immunity in January 2005 . In Argentina , DINA ' s civil agent Enrique Arancibia was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for Prats ' murder . In 2000 SIDE agent Juan Martín Siga Correa was detained by Argentine justice on the orders of federal judge María Servini de Cubria . Martín Siga Correa was DINA ' s main connection with the SIDE and with Intelligence Battalion 601 , and was also a member of the Tacuara Nationalist Movement . In 2003 , Argentine federal judge María Servini de Cubria asked Chile for the extradition of Mariana Callejas , who was Michael Townley ' s wife , and Cristoph Willikie Fleent , a retired colonel from the Chilean army ; the three together were charged with this crime . But Chilean judge Nibaldo Segura from the Appeals court , refused extradition in July 2005 , arguing that they had already been prosecuted in Chile . Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie was reportedly also involved in the murder of General Carlos Prats . Along with fellow extremist Vincenzo Vinciguerra , Delle Chiaie testified in Rome in December 1995 before judge Servini that Enrique Arancibia Clavel ( a former Chilean secret police agent prosecuted for crimes against humanity in 2004 and Michael Townley were directly involved in this assassination . )