This was Chile's fifth presidential election since the end of the Pinochet era.

Any chronicle of the Pinochet era in Chile must come to terms with two key questions.

Commanders have rotated, and the most senior of the Pinochet era have retired.

Theater, however explicit, has never posed the same threat as film, even during the Pinochet era.

It is the first investigation of crimes against humanity in the death or disappearance of people during the Pinochet era.

Its purpose was officially defined as serving "the moral conscience of the nation" and establishing "the truth" about political killings in the Pinochet era.

During the general's rule, an amnesty had been declared for political crimes committed by the left and right in most of the Pinochet era.

It allowed a fearful nation to begin a national debate over the crimes of the Pinochet era.

An official report has said that more than 3,000 people were killed in the Pinochet era and that 1,000 have not been accounted for.

Several of its members have been judged under anti-terrorist laws left from the Pinochet era.