Among various causes of Pinochet 's decision to resume this procedure , the situation in the Soviet Union , where Mikhail Gorbachev had initiated the glasnost and the perestroika democratic reforms , which would finally lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and to the official end of the Cold War , is clearly an important factor . The Cold War had important consequences in South America , considered by the United States to be a full part of the Western Bloc , in contrast with the Eastern Bloc , a division born with the end of World War II and the Yalta Conference . Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the local implementation in several countries of Che Guevara 's foco theory , the US waged a war in South America against the " Communists subversives , " leading to support in Chile of the right-wing , which would culminate with the coup of 1973 in Chile . In a few years , all of South America was covered by similar military dictatorships , called '' juntas '' . In Paraguay , Alfredo Stroessner was in power since 1954 ; in Brazil , left-wing President João Goulart was overthrown by a military coup in 1964 ; in Bolivia , General Hugo Banzer overthrew leftist General Juan José Torres in 1971 ; in Uruguay , considered the " Switzerland " of South America , Juan María Bordaberry seized power in the June 27 , 1973 coup . A " Dirty War " was waged all over the continent , culminating with Operation Condor , an agreement between security services of the Southern Cone and other South American countries to repress and assassinate political opponents . Militaries also took power in Argentina in 1976 , and then supported the 1980 " Cocaine Coup " of Luis García Meza Tejada in Bolivia , before training the Contras in Nicaragua where the Sandinista National Liberation Front , headed by Daniel Ortega , had taken power in 1979 , as well as militaries in Guatemala and in El Salvador . In the 1980s , however , the situation progressively evolved in the world as in South America , despite a renewal of the Cold War from 1979 to 1985 , the year during which Gorbatchev replaced Konstantin Chernenko as leader of the USSR
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Chilean transition to democracy