Allende's involvement inChilean politics spanned a period of nearly forty years, during which he held various positions includingsenator,deputy, andcabinet minister. As a life-long committed member of theSocialist Party of Chile, whose foundation he had actively contributed to, he unsuccessfully ran for the national presidency in the1952,1958, and1964 elections. In1970, he won the presidency as the candidate of thePopular Unity coalition in a close three-way race. He was elected in a run-off byCongress, as no candidate had gained a majority. In office, Allende pursued a policy he called "The Chilean Path to Socialism". Thecoalition government was far from unanimous. Allende said that he was committed to democracy and represented the more moderate faction of the Socialist Party, while the radical wing sought a more radical course. Instead, theCommunist Party of Chile favored a gradual and cautious approach that sought cooperation withChristian democrats,[7] which proved influential for theItalian Communist Party and theHistoric Compromise.[12]
As president, Allende sought to nationalize major industries, expand education, and improve the living standards of the working class. He clashed with the right-wing parties that controlled Congress and with the judiciary. On 11 September 1973, the military moved to oust Allende ina coup d'état supported by theCIA, which initially denied the allegations.[13][14] In 2000, the CIA admitted its role in the 1970 kidnapping of GeneralRené Schneider who had refused to use the army to stop Allende's inauguration.[15][16] Declassified documents released in 2023 showed that US presidentRichard Nixon, his national security advisorHenry Kissinger, and the United States government, which had branded Allende as a "dangerous" communist,[8] were aware of the military's plans to overthrow Allende's democratically elected government in the days before the coup d'état.[17] As troops surroundedLa Moneda Palace, Allende gave his last speech vowing not to resign.[18] Later that day, Allendedied by suicide in his office;[19][20][21] the exact circumstances of his death are still disputed.[22][B]
Salvador Allende Castro and Laura Gossens Uribe, the parents of Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende's birth certificate.
Allende was born on 26 June 1908[25] inSantiago.[26][27] He was the son of Salvador Allende Castro and Laura Gossens Uribe.Allende's family belonged to the Chileanupper middle class and had a long tradition of political involvement in progressive and liberal causes. His grandfather was a prominent physician and asocial reformist who founded one of the firstsecular schools in Chile.[28] Salvador Allende was ofBasque andBelgian descent.[29][30][31] In 1909, he moved with his family to the city ofTacna (then underChilean administration) until he returned to his country to live inIquique in 1916. In 1918, he studied at the National Institute of Santiago, and from 1919 to 1921, he studied at the Liceo de Valdivia. In 1922, he entered theEduardo de la Barra school at the age of 16, studying there until 1924.[32]
As a teenager, his main intellectual and political influence came from the shoe-makerJuan De Marchi, an Italian-bornanarchist.[28] In 1925, he attended themilitary service in the Cuirassier Regiment ofTacna.[32] Allende was a talented athlete in his youth, being a member of theEverton de Viña del Mar sports club (named after the more famous English football clubof the same name).[33] In 1926, at the age of 18, he studied medicine at theUniversity of Chile inSantiago and was elected President of the Student Center in 1927. In 1928, he entered theGrand Lodge of Chile and was elected vice president of the Federation of Students of theUniversity of Chile in 1929. In 1930, he became the representative of the students of the School of Medicine.[32]
During his time at medical school, Allende was influenced by ProfessorMax Westenhofer, a Germanpathologist who emphasized the social determinants of disease andsocial medicine.[34][35] In 1931, he was expelled from the university and relegated to the north. That same year, he retook his sixth year of medical school and graduated at age 23. In 1932, he began practicing as a physician and anatomo-pathologist in the morgue of the Van Buren Hospital. He became the union leader of theValparaíso doctors, becoming 1st Regional Secretary in Valparaíso. In 1935, at age 27, he was relegated to the city of Caldera for the second time and, in 1936, he founded the Popular Front in Valparaíso. In 1937, he was elected Deputy ofValparaíso andAconcagua and, in 1938, he served as Undersecretary General of theSocialist Party of Chile.[32]
In 1933, Allende co-founded withMarmaduque Grove and others a section of theSocialist Party of Chile inValparaíso[28] and became its chairman. He married Hortensia Bussi with whom he had three daughters. He was aFreemason, a member of the Lodge Progreso No. 4 in Valparaíso.[36] In 1933, he published his doctoral thesisHigiene Mental y Delincuencia (Crime and Mental Hygiene) in which he criticizedCesare Lombroso's proposals.[37]
1958 presidential campaign with a train with Allende's face called the "Victory Train"Salvador Allende in 1964Chilean workers marching in support of Allende in 1964
In 1938, Allende was in charge of the electoral campaign of thePopular Front headed byPedro Aguirre Cerda.[28] The Popular Front's slogan was "Bread, a Roof and Work!"[28] After its electoral victory, he becameMinister of Health in theReformist Popular Front government which was dominated by theRadicals.[28] While serving in that position, Allende was responsible for the passage of a wide range of progressive social reforms, including safety laws protecting workers in the factories, higher pensions for widows, maternity care, and free lunch programs for schoolchildren.[38]
Upon entering the government, Allende relinquished his congressional seat for Valparaíso, which he had won in 1937. Around that time, he wroteLa Realidad Médico Social de Chile (The Social and Medical Reality of Chile). AfterKristallnacht inNazi Germany, Allende was one of 76 members of the Congress who sent atelegram toAdolf Hitler denouncing the persecution ofJews.[39] Following President Aguirre Cerda's death in 1941, he was again elected deputy while the Popular Front was renamedDemocratic Alliance.
In 1945, Allende became senator for theValdivia,Llanquihue,Chiloé,Aisén, andMagallanes provinces; then forTarapacá andAntofagasta in 1953; forAconcagua andValparaíso in 1961; and once more for Chiloé, Aisén, and Magallanes in 1969. He became president of theChilean Senate in 1966. During the 1950s, Allende introduced legislation that established the Chilean national health service, the first program in the Americas to guarantee universal health care.[40]
His three unsuccessful bids for the presidency (in the1952,1958, and1964 elections) prompted Allende to joke that his epitaph would be "Here lies the next president of Chile." In 1952, as candidate for theFrente de Acción Popular (Popular Action Front, FRAP), he obtained only 5.4% of the votes, partly due to a division within socialist ranks over support forCarlos Ibáñez. In 1958, again as the FRAP candidate, Allende obtained 28.5% of the vote. This time, his defeat was attributed to votes lost to thepopulist Antonio Zamorano.[41] This explanation has been questioned by modern research that suggest Zamorano's votes came from across the political spectrum.[41]
Declassified documents show that from 1962 through 1964, theCIA spent a total of $2.6 million to finance the campaign ofEduardo Frei and $3 million in anti-Allende propaganda "to scare voters away from Allende's FRAP coalition". The CIA considered its role in the victory of Frei a great success.[42][43]
They argued that "the financial and organizational assistance given to Frei, the effort to keep Durán in the race, the propaganda campaign to denigrate Allende – were 'indispensable ingredients of Frei's success'", and they thought that his chances of winning and the good progress of his campaign would have been doubtful without the covert support of thegovernment of the United States.[44] Thus, in 1964 Allende lost once more as the FRAP candidate, polling 38.6% of the votes against 55.6% forChristian DemocratEduardo Frei. As it became clear that the election would be a race between Allende and Frei, the politicalright – which initially had backedRadical Julio Durán– settled for Frei as "the lesser evil".
Allende as presidential candidate in 1970Photo taken on 4 September 1970 at 00:57 by Paul Lowry
Allende was considered part of the moderate wing of the socialists, with support from the communists who favored taking power via parliamentary democracy; in contrast, the left-wing of thesocialists (led byCarlos Altamirano) and several other far-left parties called for violent insurrection. Some argue, however, that this was reversed at the end of his period in office.[45][C]
Allende won the 1970 Chilean presidential election as leader of theUnidad Popular ("Popular Unity") coalition. On 4 September 1970, he obtained a narrowplurality of 36.6% to 35.3% overJorge Alessandri, a former president, with 27.8% going to a third candidate,Radomiro Tomic of theChristian Democratic Party (PDC). According to the Chilean constitution of the time, if no presidential candidate obtained a majority of the popular vote, Congress would choose one of the two candidates with the highest number of votes as the winner. Tradition was for Congress to vote for the candidate with the highest popular vote, regardless of margin. Former president Jorge Alessandri had been elected in 1958 with a plurality of 31.6% over Allende's 28.85%.[47]
One month after the election, on 20 October, while the Senate had still to reach a decision and negotiations were actively in place between the Christian Democrats and the Popular Unity, GeneralRené Schneider, Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army, was shot resisting a kidnap attempt by a group led by GeneralRoberto Viaux. Hospitalized, he died of his wounds three days later on 23 October.[48] Schneider was a defender of the"constitutionalist" doctrine that the army's role is exclusively professional, its mission being to protect the country's sovereignty and not to interfere in politics.[49]
General Schneider's death was widely disapproved of and, for the time, ended military opposition to Allende,[50] whom the Congress finally chose on 24 October. On 26 October, PresidentEduardo Frei named GeneralCarlos Prats as commander in chief of the army to replace René Schneider.[51] Allende assumed the presidency on 3 November 1970 after signing aStatute of Constitutional Guarantees proposed by the Christian Democrats in return for their support in Congress. In an extensive interview withRégis Debray in 1972, Allende explained his reasons for agreeing to the guarantees.[52] Some critics[who?] have interpreted Allende's responses as an admission that signing theStatute was only a tactical move.[53]
In his speech to the Chilean legislature following his election, Allende made clear his intention to move Chile from a capitalist to a socialist society:
We are moving towards socialism, not from an academic love for a doctrinaire system, but encouraged by the strength of our people, who know that it is an inescapable demand if we are to overcome backwardness and who feel that a socialist regime is the only way available to modern nations who want to build rationally in freedom, independence and dignity. We are moving towards socialism because the people, through their vote, have freely rejected capitalism as a system which has resulted in a crudely unequal society, a society deformed by social injustice and degraded by the deterioration of the very foundations of human solidarity.[54]
Upon assuming the presidency, Allende began to carry out his platform of implementing asocialist program calledLa vía chilena al socialismo ("the Chilean path to socialism"). That includednationalization of large-scale industries (notablycopper mining and banking), government administration of the healthcare system and of the educational system (with the help of a United States educator, Jane A. Hobson-Gonzalez fromKokomo, Indiana), a free-milk program for schoolchildren and in shanty towns of Chile, and an expansion of the land seizure[55]andredistribution already begun under his predecessor PresidentEduardo Frei Montalva,[56][failed verification] who had nationalized between one-fifth and one-quarter of all the properties liable for takeover.[57]Allende also intended to improve the socio-economic welfare of Chile's poorest citizens;[58] a key element was to provide employment, either in the new nationalized enterprises or on public-work projects.[58]
The Allende government worked to transform Chilean popular culture through formal changes to school curriculum and through broader cultural education initiatives, such as state-sponsored music festivals and tours of Chilean folklorists andnueva canción musicians.[59]
Chile real wages between 1967 and 1977. Orange lines mark the beginning and end of Allende's presidency.[60]
Chilean presidents were allowed a maximum term of six years, which may explain Allende's haste to restructure the economy. Not only was a major restructuring program organized (theVuskovic plan), he also had to make it a success if a left-wing successor to Allende was going to be elected. In the first year of Allende's term, the short-term economic results of the economy ministerPedro Vuskovic's expansive monetary policy were highly favorable: 12% industrial growth and an 8.6% increase in GDP, accompanied by major declines in inflation (down from 34.9% to 22.1%) and unemployment (down to 3.8%). By 1972, theChilean escudo had an inflation rate of 140%. The average real GDP contracted between 1971 and 1973 at an annual rate of a 5.6% negative growth, and the government's fiscal deficit soared while foreign reserves declined.[61] Unemployment rates had dropped from 6.3% in 1970 to 3.5% in 1972 before dropping again in 1973 to the lowest ever recorded.[62]
The combination of inflation and price controls, together with the disappearance of basic commodities from supermarket shelves, led to the rise ofblack markets in rice, beans, sugar, and flour.[63] The Chilean economic situation was also somewhat exacerbated due to a US-backed campaign to fund workerstrikes in certain sectors of the economy.[64] The Allende government announced it would default ondebts owed to international creditors and foreign governments. Allende also froze all prices while raising salaries. His implementation of the policies was strongly opposed by landowners, employers, businessmen and transporters associations, and some civil servants and professional unions. The rightist opposition was led by theNational Party, theCatholic Church (which in 1973 was displeased with the direction of educational policy),[65] and eventually theChristian Democrats. There were growing tensions with foreignmultinational corporations and the government of the United States.
Allende undertook the pioneeringProject Cybersyn, a distributeddecision support system fordecentralized economic planning, developed by Britishcybernetics expertStafford Beer. Based on theexperimental viable system model and theneural network approach to organizational design, the Project consisted of four modules: a network oftelex machines (Cybernet) in all state-run enterprises that would transmit and receive information with the government inSantiago. Information from the field would be fed into statistical modeling software (Cyberstride) that would monitor production indicators, such as raw material supplies or high rates of worker absenteeism, in "almost" real time, alerting the workers in the first case and, in abnormal situations, if those parameters fell outside acceptable ranges by a very large degree, also the central government. The information would also be input into an economic simulation software (CHECO, forCHilean ECOnomic simulator) which featured aBayesian filtering and control setting that the government could use to forecast the possible outcome of economic decisions. Finally, a sophisticated operations room (Opsroom) would provide a space where managers could see relevant economic data, formulate feasible responses to emergencies, and transmit advice and directives to enterprises and factories in alarm situations by using the telex network.[66] In conjunction with the system, the Cybersyn development team also planned the Cyberfolk device system, a closed television circuit connected to an interactive apparatus that would enable the citizenry toactively participate in economic and political decision-making.[citation needed]
Allende raised wages on a number of occasions throughout 1970 and 1971, but the wage hikes were negated by ongoing inflation of Chile'sfiat currency. Although price rises had been high even under Frei (27% a year between 1967 and 1970), a basic basket of consumer goods rose by 120% from 190 to 421 escudos in one month alone, August 1972. From 1970 to 1972, while Allende was in government, exports fell 24% and imports rose 26%, with imports of food rising an estimated 149%.[67][incomplete short citation] Export income fell due to a hard-hit copper industry; the price of copper on international markets fell by almost a third, and post-nationalization copper production fell as well. Copper is Chile's single most important export, as more than half of Chile's export receipts were from that sole commodity.[68][incomplete short citation] The price of copper fell from a peak of $66 per ton in 1970 to only $48–49 in 1971 and 1972.[69][incomplete short citation] Chile was already dependent on food imports, and the decline in export earnings coincided with declines in domestic food production following Allende's agrarian reforms.[70]
The rate of inflation fell from 36.1% in 1970 to 22.1% in 1971, while averagereal wages rose by 22.3% during 1971.[D][71] Additionally, Allende government had reduced inflation to 14% in the first nine months of 1971.[72]
In 1971, Chile re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba, joining Mexico and Canada in rejecting a previously establishedOrganization of American States convention prohibiting governments in theWestern Hemisphere from establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba. Shortly afterward, Cuban presidentFidel Castro madea month-long visit to Chile. Originally, the visit was supposed to be one week; however, Castro enjoyed Chile and one week led to another. Despite his attitude of socialist solidarity, Castro was reportedly critical of Allende's policies. Castro was quoted as saying that "Marxism is a revolution of production", whereas "Allende's was a revolution of consumption."[73]
In October 1972, the first of what were to be a wave of strikes was led first by truckers, and later by small businessmen, some (mostly professional) unions and some student groups. Other than the inevitable damage to the economy, the chief effect of the 24-day strike was to induce Allende to bring the head of the army, generalCarlos Prats, into the government as Interior Minister.[63] Allende also instructed the government to commandeer trucks to keep the nation from coming to a halt. Government supporters also helped to mobilize trucks and buses, but violence served as a deterrent to full mobilization, even with police protection for the strike-breakers. Allende's actions were eventually declared unlawful by the Chilean appeals court and the government was ordered to return trucks to their owners.[74] Throughout his presidency, racial tensions between the poor descendants of indigenous people, who supported Allende's reforms, and the white elite increased.[75]
Throughout his presidency, Allende remained at odds with the Chilean Congress, which was dominated by the Christian Democratic Party. In 1964, Eduardo Frei had promised a "Revolution in Liberty", a middle-class revolution that was funded by the United States government'sAlliance for Progress.[76] Frei carried out a series of progressive reforms, includingland reform, an issue that had not been touched since Chile's independence in the early 19th century. According to historian Marian Schlotterbeck, this was "[John F.] Kennedy's vision –?stave off the threat of communist revolution by improving standards of living across the continent".[77] The Christian Democrats had campaigned on a socialist platform in the 1970 elections but drifted away from those positions during Allende's presidency, and accused Allende of leading Chile toward a Cuban-style dictatorship and sought to overturn many of his more radical policies. They eventually formed a coalition with theNational Party.[78]
Allende and his opponents in Congress repeatedly accused each other of undermining the Chilean Constitution and acting undemocratically. Allende's increasingly bold socialist policies (partly in response to pressure from some of the more radical members within his coalition), combined with his close contacts with Cuba, heightened fears in Washington. The Nixon administration continued exerting economic pressure on Chile via multilateral organizations and continued to back Allende's opponents in the Chilean Congress. Almost immediately after his election, Nixon directedCIA andUS State Department officials to "put pressure" on the Allende government.[79] His economic policies were used by economistsRudi Dornbusch andSebastián Edwards to coin the termmacroeconomic populism.[80] In 1972, Chile's inflation stood at 150%.[81]
Salvador Allende took office in a difficult international context. Chile was aligned with theUnited States in 1970. Elsewhere in Latin America,Brazil,Argentina andBolivia were ruled by conservative military dictatorships (soon to be joined byUruguay).Colombia had a liberal government andVenezuela, a democratic christian one, both elected by the people. Many inCuba,Peru andMexico viewed the Chilean socialist experiment with sympathy. Under Allende's presidency, Chile joined theNon-Aligned Movement.[82]
Chile, which until then had been fussy about ideological boundaries, diversified its diplomatic and trade relations, regardless of the internal political regime of each country. The government established diplomatic relations with Cuba,Guyana, seven African countries (Congo,Equatorial Guinea,Libya,Madagascar,Nigeria,Tanzania, andZaire), three European countries (Albania, East Germany and Hungary) and seven Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, North Korea, China, Mongolia, South Vietnam and North Vietnam).[82]
It tried to promote Latin American integration. At the 1971 Latin American Economic and Social Council, the Chilean representative Gonzalo Martner García formulated four major proposals, summarized by the historian Jorge Magasich: "1) to ask the United States for a moratorium on external debt for a decade in order to allocate these sums to development policies; 2) to create a Latin American central bank to "invest Latin America's reserves, 70% of which are in the United States", to receive "the region's deposits and assets" and to coordinate the operations of the central banks in order to protect the region from financial turbulence; 3) Promote the creation of a global technology fund for development, fed by compulsory contributions of licenses, industrial processes and other funds for research, so as to limit the abuses associated with technological property; 4) Create a Latin American organisation for the development of science and technology appropriate to the region."[82]
He began negotiations with Bolivia over the historical dispute between the two countries (Bolivia had lost access to the sea since theWar of the Pacific between 1879 and 1884) and welcomed Bolivia's maritime request. Nevertheless, relations became tense again following a coup d'état by Bolivian GeneralHugo Banzer in August 1971. At the same time, Chile granted asylum to thousands of political exiles from Latin American countries.[82]
Salvador Allende openly rejected the influence of theOrganization of American States (OAS), a body close to the United States government, and theGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which favored the interests of more developed countries. On the other hand, he was a fervent defender of theUnited Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which he considered to be more representative since it allowed economic and trade issues to be negotiated on an equal legal footing. In a speech to UNCTAD, he also warned of the policy of the United States, Japan and theEuropean Economic Community to progressively eliminate obstacles tofree trade. He said that "freeing up trade ... erases at a stroke the benefits that the Generalised System of Preferences brings to developing countries".[82]
Allende's Popular Unity government tried to maintain normal relations with the United States. When Chilenationalized its copper industry, the United States government cut off support and increased its support to the opposition. Forced to seek alternative sources of trade and finance, Chile gained commitments from theSoviet Union to invest some $400 million in Chile in the next six years. The United States Department of State put it at $115 million from Eastern Europe and $65 million from China, while Soviet and Chilean Popular Unity sources put it at total of $620 million from socialist countries. Much of the credit was never utilized, and the Soviets were not willing to subsidize Chile the same way they did for Cuba.[83]
Allende's government was disappointed that it received far less economic assistance from the Soviets than it hoped for. Trade between the two countries did not significantly increase and the credits were mainly linked to the purchase of Soviet equipment. Moreover, credits from the Soviet Union were much less than those provided to thePeople's Republic of China and countries of theEastern Bloc. When Allende visited the Soviet Union in late 1972 in search of more aid and additional lines of credit after three years, he was turned down.[84]
The United States opposition to Allende started several years before he was elected President of Chile. Declassified documents show that from 1962 to 1964, theCIA spent $3 million on anti-Allende propaganda "to scare voters away from Allende's FRAP coalition" and spent a total of $2.6 million to finance the presidential campaign ofEduardo Frei.[42][43]
The possibility of Allende winning Chile's 1970 election was deemed a disaster by theNixon administration that wanted to protect American geopolitical interests by preventing the spread of Communism during theCold War.[85] In September 1970, then United States presidentRichard Nixon informed the CIA that an Allende government in Chile would not be acceptable and authorized $10 million to stop Allende from coming to power or unseat him.[86] A CIA document declared, "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup."[87]Henry Kissinger's40 Committee and the CIA planned to impede Allende's investiture as President of Chile with covert efforts known as "Track I" and "Track II"; Track I sought to prevent Allende from assuming power via so-called "parliamentary trickery", while under the Track II initiative, the CIA tried to convince key Chilean military officers to carry out a coup.[86]
Some point to the involvement of theDefense Intelligence Agency agents that allegedly secured the missiles used to bombardLa Moneda Palace.[88] In fact, open US military aid to Chile continued during the Allende administration, and the national government was very much aware of that although there is no record that Allende himself believed that such assistance was anything but beneficial to Chile. DuringRichard Nixon's presidency, United States officials attempted to prevent Allende's election by financing political parties aligned with opposition candidateJorge Alessandri and supporting strikes in the mining and transportation sectors.[89] After the 1970 election, the Track I operation attempted to incite Chile's outgoing president,Eduardo Frei Montalva, to persuade his party (PDC) to vote in Congress for Alessandri.[90]
Under the plan, Alessandri would resign his office immediately after assuming it and call new elections. Eduardo Frei would then be constitutionally able to run again (since the Chilean Constitution did not allow a president to hold two consecutive terms, but allowed multiple non-consecutive ones), and presumably easily defeat Allende. The ChileanCongress instead chose Allende as president, on the condition that he would sign a "Statute of Constitutional Guarantees" affirming that he would respect and obey theChilean Constitution and that his reforms would not undermine any of its elements. Track II was aborted, as parallel initiatives already underway within the Chilean military rendered it moot.[91] During the second term of office ofDemocratic PresidentBill Clinton, the CIA acknowledged having played a role in Chilean politics before the coup, but its degree of involvement is debated. The CIA was notified by its Chilean contacts of the impending coup two days in advance but contends it "played no direct role in" the coup.[92]
Allende in 1972
Much of the internal opposition to Allende's policies came from the business sector, and recently released United States government documents confirm that the United States indirectly[64] funded the truck drivers' strike,[93] which exacerbated the already chaotic economic situation before the coup. The most prominent United States corporations in Chile before Allende's presidency were theAnaconda andKennecott copper companies andITT Corporation, International Telephone and Telegraph. Both copper corporations aimed to expand privatized copper production in the city ofSewell in the ChileanAndes, where the world's largest underground copper mine "El Teniente", was located.[94]
At the end of 1968, according toUnited States Department of Commerce data, United States corporate holdings in Chile amounted to $964 million. Anaconda and Kennecott accounted for 28% of United States holdings, but ITT had by far the largest holding of any single corporation, with an investment of $200 million in Chile.[94] In 1970, before Allende was elected, ITT owned 70% of Chitelco, the Chilean Telephone Company and fundedEl Mercurio, a Chilean right-wing newspaper. Documents released in 2000 by the CIA confirmed that before the elections of 1970, ITT gave $700,000 to Allende's conservative opponent, Jorge Alessandri, with help from the CIA on how to channel the money safely. ITT presidentHarold Geneen also offered $1 million to the CIA to help defeat Allende in the elections.[95]
After GeneralAugusto Pinochet assumed power, United States Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger told President Nixon that the United States "didn't do it" (referring to the coup) but "we helped them... created the conditions as great as possible".[96] Recent documents declassified under theClinton administration's Chile Declassification Project show that the United States government and the CIA sought to overthrow Allende in 1970 immediately before he took office ("Project FUBELT"). Many documents regarding the United States intervention in Chile remain classified. Those that have been declassified showed that Nixon, Kissinger, and the United States government were aware of the coup and the plans to overthrow Allende's democratically elected government.[97][98]
Political and moral support came mostly through the Communist Party and unions of the Soviet Union. For instance, Allende received theLenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1972. At the same time, there were some fundamental differences between Allende and Soviet political analysts, who believed that some violence or measures that those analysts "theoretically considered to be just", should have been used.[99] Declarations from KGB GeneralNikolai Leonov, former Deputy Chief of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, confirmed that the Soviet Union supported Allende's government economically, politically and militarily.[99] Leonov stated in an interview at theChilean Center of Public Studies (CEP) that the Soviet economic support included over $100 million in credit, three fishing ships (that distributed 17,000 tons of frozen fish to the population), factories (as help after the 1971 earthquake), 3,100 tractors, 74,000 tons of wheat and more than a million tins of condensed milk.[99] In mid-1973, the Soviets approved the delivery of weapons (artillery and tanks) to the Chilean Army. When news of an attempt from the Army to depose Allende through a coup d'état reached Soviet officials, the shipment was redirected to another country.[99]
Allende is mentioned in a book written by the official historian of the British IntelligenceMI5,Christopher Andrew.[100] According toSIS and Andrew, the book is based on the handwritten notes of KGB archivist defectorVasili Mitrokhin.[101] Andrew alleged that theKGB said that Allende "was made to understand the necessity of reorganizing Chile's army and intelligence services, and of setting up a relationship between Chile's and the USSR's intelligence services."[102] The Soviets observed closely whether the alternative form of socialism could work, and they did not interfere with the Chileans' decisions.Nikolai Leonov affirmed that whenever he tried to give advice to Latin American leaders, he was usually turned down by them, and he was told that they had their own understanding on how to conduct political business in their countries. Leonov added that the relationships of KGB agents with Latin American leaders did not involve intelligence because their intelligence target was the United States. Since many North Americans were living in the region, the Soviets were focusing in recruiting agents from the United States. Latin America was also a better region for KGB agents to get in touch with their informants from the CIA or other contacts from the United States than inside that country.[99]
Monument to Salvador Allende, Munchner Platz, Dresden
On 29 June 1973, ColonelRoberto Souper surrounded the presidential palace,La Moneda, with his tank regiment but failed to depose the government.[103] That failed coup d'état – known as theTanquetazo ("tank putsch") – organised by the nationalistPatria y Libertad paramilitary group, was followed by a general strike at the end of July that included the copper miners of El Teniente.[citation needed]
In August 1973, aconstitutional crisis occurred, and theSupreme Court of Chile publicly complained about the inability of the Allende government to enforce the law of the land. On 22 August, the Chamber of Deputies (with the Christian Democrats uniting with the National Party) accused the government of unconstitutional acts through Allende's refusal to promulgate constitutional amendments, already approved by the Chamber, which would have prevented his government from continuing his massivenationalization plan[104] and called upon the military to enforce constitutional order.[105]
For months, Allende had feared calling upon theCarabineros ("Carabineers", the national police force), suspecting them of disloyalty to his government. On 9 August, President Allende appointed GeneralCarlos Prats asMinister of Defence. On 24 August 1973, General Prats was forced to resign both as defense minister and as thecommander-in-chief of the army, embarrassed by both theAlejandrina Cox incident and a public protest in front of his house by the wives of his generals. GeneralAugusto Pinochet replaced him as Army commander-in-chief the same day.[105]
On 22 August 1973, the Christian Democrats and the National Party members of the Chamber of Deputies joined to vote 81 to 47 in favor of a resolution that made accusation of disregard by the government of the separation of powers and arrogating legislative and judicial prerogatives to the executive branch of government, among other alleged constitutional violations.[106] The resolution asked the authorities to "put an immediate end" to "breach[es of] the Constitution ... with the goal of redirecting government activity toward the path of law and ensuring the Constitutional order of our Nation, and the essential underpinnings of democratic co-existence among Chileans."[107] The resolution declared that Allende's government sought "to conquer absolute power with the obvious purpose of subjecting all citizens to the strictest political and economic control by the state ... [with] the goal of establishing ... a totalitarian system" and claimed that the government had made "violations of the Constitution ... a permanent system of conduct".[107]
Specifically, the government of Allende was accused ofruling by decree and thwarting the normal legislative system; refusing to enforce judicial decisions against its partisans; not carrying out sentences and judicial resolutions that contravened its objectives; ignoring the decrees of the independent General Comptroller's Office; sundry media offenses, including usurping control of the National Television Network and applying economic pressure against those media organizations that were not unconditional supporters of the government; allowing its supporters to assemble with arms, and preventing the same by its right-wing opponents; supporting more than 1,500 illegal takeovers of farms; illegal repression of theEl Teniente miners' strike; and illegally limiting emigration.[107] Finally, the resolution condemned the creation and development of government-protected socialist armed groups, which were said to be "headed towards a confrontation with the armed forces". President Allende's efforts to re-organize the military and the police forces were characterized as "notorious attempts to use the armed and police forces for partisan ends, destroy their institutional hierarchy, and politically infiltrate their ranks".[107]
The resolution was later used by Pinochet as a way to justify the coup, which occurred two weeks later.[108] On 24 August 1973, two days after the resolution, Allende responded. He accused the opposition of trying to incite a military coup by encouraging the armed forces to disobey civilian authorities.[109] He described the Congress's declaration as "destined to damage the country's prestige abroad and create internal confusion", and predicted: "It will facilitate the seditious intention of certain sectors." He observed that the declaration (passed 81–47 in the Chamber of Deputies) had not obtained the two-thirds Senate majority "constitutionally required" to convict the president ofabuse of power, thus the Congress was "invoking the intervention of the armed forces and of Order against a democratically-elected government" and "subordinat[ing] political representation of national sovereignty to the armed institutions, which neither can nor ought to assume either political functions or the representation of the popular will."[110]
Allende argued that he had obeyed constitutional means for including military men to the cabinet at the service of civic peace and national security, defending republican institutions against insurrection and terrorism. In contrast, he said that Congress was promoting a coup d’état or a civil war with a declaration full of affirmations that had already been refuted beforehand and which in substance and process (directly handing it to the ministers rather than directly handing it to the president) violated a dozen articles of the then-current constitution. He further argued that the legislature was usurping the government's executive function.[110]
Allende wrote: "Chilean democracy is a conquest by all of the people. It is neither the work nor the gift of the exploiting classes, and it will be defended by those who, with sacrifices accumulated over generations, have imposed it ... With a tranquil conscience ... I sustain that never before has Chile had a more democratic government than that over which I have the honor to preside ... I solemnly reiterate my decision to develop democracy and a state of law to their ultimate consequences...Congress has made itself a bastion against the transformations ... and has done everything it can to perturb the functioning of the finances and of the institutions, sterilizing all creative initiatives." Adding that economic and political means would be needed to relieve the country's current crisis, and that the Congress was obstructing said means; having already paralyzed the state, they sought to destroy it. He concluded by calling upon the workers and all democrats and patriots to join him in defending the Chilean constitution and the revolutionary process.[110]
In early September 1973, Allende floated the idea of resolving the constitutional crisis with aplebiscite.[E] His speech outlining such a solution was scheduled for Tuesday, 11 September but he was never able to deliver it. On that same day, the Chilean military under Pinochet, aided by the United States and itsCIA, staged acoup against Allende,[112] who was at the head of the first democratically elected Marxist government in Latin America.[113] HistorianPeter Winn described the 1973 coup as one of the most violent events in Chilean history.[114] It led to a series ofhuman rights abuses in Chile under Pinochet, who initiated a brutal and long-lasting campaign ofpolitical suppression through torture, murder, and exile, which significantly weakened leftist opposition to themilitary dictatorship of Chile, which ruled the country until 1990.[115][116] Due to the coup's occurrence on the same date as the11 September attacks in the United States, it has sometimes been referred to as "the other 9/11".[117][118][119]
"Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Keep in mind that, much sooner than later, the great avenues will again be opened through which will pass free men to construct a better society. Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!"
—President Allende's farewell speech, 11 September 1973.[18]
Just before the capture ofLa Moneda (the Presidential Palace), with gunfire and explosions clearly audible in the background, Allende gave his farewell speech to Chileans on live radio, speaking of himself in the past tense, of his love for Chile and of his deep faith in its future. He stated that his commitment to Chile did not allow him to take an easy way out, and he would not be used as a propaganda tool by those he called "traitors" (he refused an offer of safe passage).[120] Juan Seoane, Chief of President Allende's Bodyguard at the time of the events – and who was with Allende until moments before his death – declared in an interview reported by theUniversity of Chile:[121]
"Allende began to say goodbye to us one by one, he gave us a hug and told us ‘Thank you for everything, comrade, thank you for everything'”, and then he said that he was going to leave last. He walked to the end of the line with his AK, turned around behind a wall, and then he shouted, 'Allende doesn't surrender…!'. The shot was heard as fifteen meters from where we were". (Reports inEl Tiempo and other Latin-American media confirmed Allende´s last words).[122]
Shortly afterwards, the coup plotters announced that Allende had committed suicide. An official announcement declared that the weapon he had used was an automatic rifle. Before his death he had been photographed several times holding anAK-47, a gift fromFidel Castro.[123] He was found dead with that gun, according to contemporaneous statements made by officials in the Pinochet regime. In an interview withDavid Frost, the daughter of Allende's first cousin,Isabel Allende, said that, at a family lunch nine days before his death, Allende had said that he would either stay till the end of this term of presidency or he would be taken out feet first.[124] Lingering doubts regarding the manner of Allende's death persisted throughout the period of thePinochet regime. Many Chileans and independent observers refused to accept on faith the government's version of events amid speculation that Allende had been murdered by government agents. Pinochet had long left power and died when in 2011 a Chilean court opened a criminal investigation into the circumstances of Allende's death.[125][126]
Statue of Allende in front of thePalacio de la Moneda. A portion of the statue's drapery, shown worn as a cape, is the national flag of Chile.
The ongoing criminal investigation led to a May 2011 court order that Allende's remains be exhumed and autopsied by an international team of experts.[127] Results of the autopsy were officially released in mid-July 2011. The team of experts concluded that the former president had shot himself with an AK-47 assault rifle.[128] In December 2011 the judge in charge of the investigation affirmed the experts' findings and ruled Allende's death a suicide.[129] On 11 September 2012, the 39th anniversary of Allende's death, a Chilean appeals court unanimously upheld the trial court's ruling, officially closing the case.[130]The Guardian reported that a scientific autopsy of the remains had confirmed that "Salvador Allende committed suicide during the 1973 coup that toppled his socialist government."[127] It went on to say:
British ballistics expert David Prayer said Allende died of two shots fired from an assault rifle that was held between his legs and under his chin and was set to fire automatically. The bullets blew out the top of his head and killed him instantly. The forensics team's conclusion was unanimous. Spanish expert Francisco Etxeberria said: "We have absolutely no doubt" that Allende committed suicide.[127]
Isabel Allende Bussi, the daughter of Allende and a member of theSenate of Chile told the BBC that: "The report conclusions are consistent with what we already believed. When faced with extreme circumstances, he made the decision of taking his own life, instead of being humiliated."[131] The definitive and unanimous results produced by the 2011 Chilean judicial investigation appear to have laid to rest decades of nagging suspicions that Allende might have been assassinated by the Chilean Armed Forces. Public acceptance of the suicide theory had already been growing for much of the previous decade. In a post-junta Chile where restrictions on free speech were steadily eroding, independent and seemingly reliable witnesses began to tell their stories to the news media and to human rights researchers. The cumulative weight of the facts reported by those witnesses provided enough support for many previously unconfirmed details relating to Allende's death.[132]
Memorials to Allende include a statue in front of thePalacio de la Moneda. The placement of the statue was controversial; it was placed facing the eastern edge of thePlaza de la Ciudadanía, a plaza which contains memorials to a number ofChilean statesmen. However, the statue is not located in the plaza, but rather on a surrounding sidewalk facing an entrance to the plaza. His tomb is a major tourist attraction. Allende is buried in thegeneral cemetery of Santiago.[134]
In 1984, a memorial stone dedicated to him was erected in the Gajnice neighbourhood ofZagreb.[136] There is a bronze bust of him accompanied by a memorial stone in theDonaupark inVienna.[137][138] In Istanbul, a statue of Allende can be found side by side withMustafa Kemal Atatürk inAtaşehir.[139]
The Malaysian rock bandMartin Vengadesan & The Stalemate Factor paid tribute with a folk song calledThe Final Hours Of Salvador Allende[146] which was released in 2018.
November 1973[147]USSR postage stamp. Probably the first Allende stamp, released after the coup.
One of the firstpostage stamps to commemorate Salvador Allende, released after the1973 coup in Chile, was theSoviet one. It was issued just two months after the event and had a circulation of 3.8 million. The issue was designed by the painter A. Kovrizhkin and bore the title "Salvador Allende, President of the Republic of Chile, Laureate of the Lenin Peace Prize, 1908 – 11.IX.1973".[148]
A stamp was released byMagyar Posta inHungary in 1974 shortly after the 11 September,1973 coup in Chile that ended the socialist government of Salvador Allende. The stamp bore an image of Allende that had become popular during his election campaign in 1970.[citation needed]
Two other stamps, both on the tenth anniversary of the coup, represent extreme reactions to the event.ScottCuba #2605 shows the burning presidential palace ofLa Moneda ("The Mint") and a picture of Allende. The caption refers to him as having "fallen in combat".[149]
In contrast,Chile, still under the military dictatorship of GeneralAugusto Pinochet at that time, issued ScottChile #656, labeled "Ten Years of Liberty," celebrating the decade since the fall of Allende and the rise of thejunta.[149]
Allende is seen as a significant historical figure in Chile. The formersocial-democratic presidentRicardo Lagos honored Allende as a humanist and a statesman.[133]
^The precise matter of Allende's death is a subject of controversy. After decades of suspicions that Allende might have been assassinated by the Chilean Armed Forces, a Chilean court in 2011 authorized the exhumation and autopsy of Allende's remains. A team of international experts examined the remains and concluded that Allende had shot himself with an AK-47 assault rifle.[23]
^The Communist Party belonged to the moderate wing of theUnidad Popular coalition, while Allende's Socialist Party was split between two factions; the moderate víapacífica and the radicalvía insurreccional.[46]
^Quote from p. 195 – "Looking at the traditional macroeconomic variables, the first year of the UP Government achieved relatively spectacular results for the Chilean economy (see tables 7.7 and 7.8)".
^Allende's personal adviser, Juan Garcés, escaped the siege on the Moneda Palace and fled to Europe, where he published testimonies about the last days of the administration: "On September 10, Allende had assembled his ministers in an extraordinary council to finalize the call announcing the plebiscite."[111]
^Patsouras, Louis (2005).Marx in Context. iUniverse. p. 265.In Chile, where a large socialist movement was in place for decades, a socialist, Salvadore Allende, led a popular front electoral coalition to victory in 1970.
^Medina, Eden (2014).Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile. MIT Press. p. 39.... in Allende's socialism.
^"Profile of Salvador Allende". BBC. 8 September 2003.Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved15 May 2009.Chile's Salvador Allende was murdered in a United States-backed coup on 11 September 1973 – three years earlier he had become Latin America's first democratically-elected Marxist president.
^"Chile: The Bloody End of a Marxist Dream".Time. 24 September 1973.ISSN0040-781X. Retrieved30 August 2023.Allende's downfall had implications that reached far beyond the borders of Chile. His had been the first democratically elected Marxist government in Latin America.
^Ross, Jen (12 December 2006)."Controversial legacy of former Chilean dictator".Christian Science Monitor.ISSN0882-7729.Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved30 August 2023.Gen. Capitalist Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew Chile's democratically elected socialist government in a 1973 coup and ruled for 17 years, died Sunday without ever having been condemned for the human rights abuses committed during his rule.
^"Chile: The Bloody End of a Marxist Dream".Time. 24 September 1973.Archived from the original on 25 March 2014. Retrieved5 August 2014. "Allende's downfall had implications that reached far beyond the borders of Chile. His had been the first democratically elected Marxist government in Latin America. ... Recently,Time Correspondent Rudolph Rauch visited a group of truckers camped near Santiago who were enjoying a lavish communal meal of steak, vegetables, wine and empanadas (meat pies). 'Where does the money for that come from?' he inquired. 'From the CIA,' the truckers answered laughingly. In Washington, the CIA denied the allegation."
^Winn, Peter (2010). "Furies of the Andes". In Grandin & Joseph, Greg & Gilbert (ed.).A Century of Revolution. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. pp. 239–275.
^Angell, Alan (1993). "Chile since 1958". In Bethell, Leslie (ed.).Chile since independence. Cambridge University Press. pp. 159–60, 167.ISBN0-521-43987-6.
^"Plan económico" (in Spanish). Medios Digitales de COPESA. Archived fromthe original on 7 March 2005. Retrieved20 February 2025.[...] se aceleró la reforma agraria expropiándose más de dos millones de hectáreas en 1971.
^Collier, Simon; Sater, William F. (18 October 2004) [1996]. "Revolution in liberty, 1964-70".A History of Chile, 1808-2002. Cambridge Latin American Studies, ISSN 0068-6689, volume 82 (2, revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 313–314.ISBN9780521534840. Retrieved13 February 2025.The reform law (Law 16.625) signed in July 1967 by Frey [...] made all farms of more than 80 'basic' [irrigated Central Valley land] hectares liable to expropriation, the owners being entitled to retain an 80-hectare 'reserve' and to compensation in the form of a small cash payment and long-term government bonds. [...] By the close of Frei's period, using the old and new laws, CORA [theChilean Agrarian Reform Corporation [es]] had expropriated more that 1,300 haciendas - between one fifth and one-quarter of all properties liable to takeover.
^abMoran, Theodore (1974).Multinational Corporations and the Politics of Dependence: CoppeEncyclopedic r in Chile. Princeton: Princeton University Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^ab(in Spanish)Se desata la crisisArchived 2 August 2007 at theWayback Machine, part of series "Icarito > Enciclopedia Virtual > Historia > Historia de Chile > Del gobierno militar a la democracia" on LaTercera.cl. Retrieved 22 September 2006.
^"Chile: The Bloody End of a Marxist Dream".Time. 24 September 1973.Archived from the original on 25 March 2014. Retrieved5 August 2014. 24 September 1973. "Allende's downfall had implications that reached far beyond the borders of Chile. His had been the first democratically elected Marxist government in Latin America..."
^Aguilera, Pilar; Fredes, Ricardo; Dorfman, Ariel (2003).Chile: The Other September 11. Melbourne: Ocean Press.ISBN1-876175-50-8.OCLC55665455.
^François, David (2018).Chile 1973, the Other 9/11: The Downfall of Salvador Allende. Solihull, West Midlands: Helion & Company.ISBN978-1-912174-95-9.OCLC1001447543.
^Osborn, Catherine (10 September 2021)."The Other 9/11".Foreign Policy.In the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States this month, a leading Chilean university, the University of Concepción, held a series of panel discussions on their legacy. The program referred to the events as 'the other Sept. 11.' 'Other' because, in Chile, Sept. 11 is best known as the date of the country's own national tragedy: the 1973 U.S.-backed coup against leftist President Salvador Allende that ushered in over 16 years of military rule.
^"Salvador-Allende-Denkmal" [Salvador Allende memorial].Vienna History Wiki. City of Vienna.Archived from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved22 September 2020.
^abJack Child, "The Politics and Semiotics of the Smallest Icons of Popular Culture: Latin American Postage Stamps",Latin American Research Review, Vol. 40, no. 1, February 2005.
Comite central del Partido comunista de Cuba: Comisión de orientación revolucionaria.Rencontre symbolique entre deux processus historiques [i.e., de Cuba et de Chile]. La Habana, Cuba: Éditions polituques, 1972.
Dorfman, Ariel, "Defending Allende",The New York Review of Books, vol. LXX, no. 14 (21 September 2023), pp. 73–77. "Ever since [Salvador Allende] had won the presidency [in 1970], forces from inside and outside [Chile] had been conspiring to destroy his attempt – the first in world history – to build asocialist state through nonviolent, democratic means." (p. 73.)
Luis Garrido Soto. 2015.La "vía chilena" al socialismo (1970–1973): Un itinerario geohistórico de la Unidad Popular en el sistema-mundo[1]. Santiago de Chile, Chile: Ediciones Universidad Alberto Hurtado.
Salvador Allende's "Last Words". Spanish text with English translation. The transcript of the last radio broadcast of Chilean President Salvador Allende, made on 11 September 1973, at 9:10 am. MP3 audio availablehereArchived 30 September 2009 at theWayback Machine.
Caso Pinochet. Nominally a page about the Pinochet case, the large collection of links includes Allende's dissertation and numerous documents (mostly PDFs) related to the dissertation and to the controversy about it, ranging from the Cesare Lombroso material discussed in Allende's dissertation to a collective telegram of protest overKristallnacht signed by Allende(in Spanish).
An Interview with Salvadore Allende: President of Chile, interviewed bySaul Landau, Dove Films, 1971, 32 min. (previously unreleased):
Video (Spanish with English subtitles) inEl Clarin de Chile. (Alternative locationat Google Video)
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