By Anthony Faiola
                  Washington Post Foreign Service
                  Tuesday, December 14, 1999; Page A36

                  SANTIAGO, Chile, Dec. 13—Joaquin Lavin, a 46-year-old U.S.-trained
                  economist and former supporter of onetime Chilean dictator Augusto
                  Pinochet, turned Sunday's presidential race into a closer contest than
                  expected by distancing himself from Pinochet's legacy.

                  His strong bid for president--which has forced a runoff next month with
                  Socialist Ricardo Lagos, the candidate of Chile's governing center-left
                  Concertacion coalition--brought back the right wing as a powerful political
                  force here. Analysts said Lavin's chances of winning the runoff are fairly
                  good--meaning that the right wing, long defined by Pinochet, could once
                  again be in power here just 10 years after his dictatorship ended. And this
                  time, it would be the people's choice.

                  In a country that still has nightmares about Pinochet's ruthless 17-year
                  regime, Lavin won strong support in large part because Pinochet is not
                  here, political experts said. The former dictator is under house arrest in
                  London fighting extradition to Spain, where a judge wants to put him on
                  trial in connection with the torture, killing and disappearance of opponents
                  during his rule.

                  In the two democratic elections since Pinochet stepped down in 1990,
                  Concertacion won easily--in part, analysts said, because Pinochet's
                  larger-than-life presence created the impression that voters were choosing
                  between democracy with Concertacion and a return to dictatorship with a
                  right wing still headed by Pinochet.

                  Now Pinochet's absence has given Lavin, who has largely disavowed
                  Pinochet, the space he needed to distinguish his right-wing coalition from
                  Pinochet's legacy. He has done that by positioning himself as a
                  "nonpolitical" candidate who, as he said Sunday night, wants to promote a
                  "new Chile where we no longer have divisions, where we no longer have a
                  right or a left."

                  "If Pinochet were here, he never would have permitted Lavin to go around
                  condemning him as Lavin has done," said Pepe Auth, a political analyst and
                  vice president of the Party for Democracy, a member of the ruling
                  coalition. "He's given Lavin this window by being out of sight. It's allowed
                  Lavin to shift to the center, dispel any association with the regime and issue
                  what has basically been a leftist and very populist discourse of support for
                  the poor and the justice system."

                  That strategy paid off for Lavin. Pollsters expected him to lose by 3 to 6
                  percentage points; instead, he won 47.52 percent of the vote, less than half
                  a percentage point behind Lagos Lagos. The runoff is set for Jan. 16.

                  Lagos, a moderate Socialist, an economist with a degree from Duke
                  University and a dissident during the Pinochet era, had been considered the
                  front-runner, but now he faces a formidable fight. His campaign has been
                  woefully run and is quickly running out of funds. Meanwhile, Lavin has
                  appropriated Lagos's message of economic equality and and brought it
                  new life.

                  That leaves Lagos with two big issues, democracy and human rights. He
                  has stressed the need to deepen Chile's young democracy, which is still
                  restricted by a system of appointed senators under the current
                  constitution--a charter drafted during the Pinochet era. He has also called
                  for broader investigations into crimes committed under Pinochet's rule,
                  during which more than 3,000 dissidents were killed or disappeared.

                  But no matter how intensely the world spotlight shines on Chile and
                  Pinochet's legacy, most people here do not want to face the past, analysts
                  say. "Justice is important. . . . I understand that there are family members
                  who are still suffering" because of the dictatorship, said laundress Maria
                  Eugenia Contreras, 34, who voted for Lavin. "But I think we need to look
                  ahead now, not behind. Lagos to me is the past. I don't want to go back to
                  that. Lavin is so young . . . and I really believe he's going to help the poor."

                  Yet analysts say it will be difficult for Lavin to carry out his bold promise of
                  change if he wins the presidency. Although he may believe in his more
                  liberal vision, his core support comes from a wealthy arch-conservative
                  class that still supports Pinochet and his ideals--which include intolerance,
                  a paternal attitude toward the poor and the protection of elite economic
                  interests.

                  "Lavin is all about marketing--he's about selling an image of what he knows
                  people want," said Ricardo Israel, director of the Center for Political
                  Studies at the University of Chile. "The people want change . . . but the
                  reality is the people funding Lavin don't share that position, and they are
                  going to make it very difficult for him to effect change."

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