The 40th Anniversary of the Chilean coup d'état, on
the 11th September, 1973.
Salvador
Allende
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende
Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens, 26 June 1908 – 11
September 1973 was a Chilean physician and politician, known as the first
Marxist to become president of a Latin American country through open elections
Allende's involvement in Chilean political life spanned a
period of nearly forty years. As a member of the Socialist Party, he was a
senator, deputy and cabinet minister. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency
in the 1952, 1958, and 1964 elections. In 1970, he won the presidency in a
close three-way race, formally elected by Congress as no candidate had gained a
majority.
As president, Allende adopted a policy of nationalization of
industries and collectivization; due to these and other factors, increasingly
strained relations between him and the legislative and judicial branches of the
Chilean government (who did not share his enthusiasm for socialization of
Chile) eventually culminated in a declaration of a "constitutional
breakdown" by the parliament. On 11 September 1973 the military moved to
oust Allende in a coup d'état As troops surrounded La Moneda Palace, Allende
gave his last speech vowing not to resign. He committed suicide later that day.
Following Allende's deposition, army General Augusto
Pinochet declined to return authority to the civilian government; and Chile became
ruled by a military junta that was in power from 1973 to 1990, ending almost 48
years of Chilean democratic rule. The military junta that took over became
known for persecuting dissidents extensively.
President 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 . . .
Parliament 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 were obstructing
said means; having already paralyzed the State, they sought to destroy it. He
concluded by calling upon the workers, all democrats and patriots to join him
in defending the Chilean Constitution and the revolutionary process.
Military action
By 7:00 am on 11 September 1973, the Navy captured
Valparaíso, strategically stationing ships and marine infantry in the central
coast and closed radio and television networks. The Province Prefect informed
President Allende of the Navy's actions; immediately, the president went to the
presidential palace, La Moneda, with his bodyguards, the Grupo de Amigos
Personales (GAP) (Group of Personal Friends). By 8:00 am, the Army had closed
most radio and television stations in Santiago
city; the Air Force bombed the remaining active stations; the President
received incomplete information, and was convinced that only a sector of the
Navy conspired against him and his government.
President Allende and Defence minister Orlando Letelier were
unable to communicate with military leaders. Admiral Montero, the Navy's
commander and an Allende loyalist, was rendered incommunicado; his telephone
service was cut and his cars were sabotaged before the coup d’état, to ensure
he could not thwart the opposition. Leadership of the Navy was transferred to
José Toribio Merino, planner of the coup d’état and executive officer to Adm.
Montero. Augusto Pinochet, General of the Army, and Gustavo Leigh, General of
the Air Force, did not answer Allende's telephone calls to them. The General
Director of the Carabineros (uniformed police), José María Sepúlveda, and the
head of the Investigations Police (plain clothes detectives), Alfredo Joignant
answered Allende's calls and immediately went to the La Moneda presidential
palace. When Defence minister Letelier arrived at the Ministry of Defense,
controlled by Adm. Patricio Carvajal, he was arrested as the first prisoner of
the coup d’état.
Despite evidence that all branches of the Chilean armed
forces were involved in the coup, Allende hoped that some units remained loyal
to the government. Allende was convinced of Pinochet's loyalty, telling a
reporter that the coup d’état leaders must have imprisoned the general. Only at
8:30 am, when the armed forces declared their control of Chile and that Allende
was deposed, did the president grasp the magnitude of the military's rebellion.
Despite the lack of any military support, Allende refused to resign his office.
At approx. 9:00 the carabineros of the La Moneda left the
building. By 9:00 am, the armed forces controlled Chile, except for the city
centre of the capital, Santiago. Allende refused to surrender, despite the
military's declaring they would bomb the La Moneda presidential palace if he
resisted being deposed. The Socialist Party proposed to Allende that he escape
to the San Joaquín industrial zone in southern Santiago, to later re-group and
lead a counter-coup d’état; the president rejected the proposition. The
military rebels attempted negotiations with Allende, but the President refused
to resign, citing his constitutional duty to remain in office. Finally, Allende
gave a potent farewell speech, telling the nation of the coup d’état and his
refusal to resign his elected office under threat.
Annoyed with negotiating, Leigh ordered the presidential
palace bombed, but was told the Air Force's Hawker Hunter jet aircraft would
take forty minutes to arrive. Pinochet ordered an armoured and infantry force
under General Sergio Arellano to advance upon the La Moneda presidential
palace. When the troops moved forward, they were forced to retreat after coming
under fire from GAP snipers perched on rooftops. General Arellano called for
helicopter gunship support from the commander of the Chilean Army Puma
helicopter squadron and the troops were able to advance again. Chilean Air
Force aircraft soon arrived to provide close air support for the assault (by
bombing the Palace), but the defenders did not surrender until nearly 2:30 pm.
First reports said the 65-year-old president had died fighting troops, but
later police sources reported he had committed suicide.
On September 11,
1973, just prior to the capture of the Palacio de La Moneda (the presidential
palace) by military units loyal to Pinochet, President Salvador Allende made
his famous farewell speech to Chileans on live radio (Radio Magallanes). The
president spoke of his love for Chile
and of his deep faith in its future. He also stated that, as he was committed
to Chile,
he would not take an easy way out or be used as a propaganda tool by those he
called "traitors" (accepting an offer of safe passage, like Carlos
Altamirano). The radio address was made while gunfire and explosions were
clearly audible in the background.
Shortly afterwards an official announcement declared that he
had gone to war with an AK-47 rifle. An autopsy also recorded his death as a
suicide.
Allende's weapon was purportedly given to him as a gift by
Fidel Castro. It bore a golden plate engraved: "To my good friend Salvador from Fidel, who
by different means tries to achieve the same goals"
Official version
At approximately 1:50 PM local time, President Allende
ordered the defenders of the La Moneda Palace to surrender. The defenders then
formed a line from the second floor, down the stairs and onto the Morande street
door. The president went along this queue, from the ground floor up the stairs,
shaking hands and thanking everyone personally for their support in that
difficult moment. After he finished, he directed himself toward the Independence salon,
located in the north-east side of the Palace's second floor.
At the same time, Dr. Patricio Guijón (a member of La
Moneda's infirmary staff) decided to return upstairs to recover his gas-mask as
a souvenir. He heard a noise, and opened the door of the Independence salon in time to see the
president shoot himself with his AK-47 assault rifle. From the other side of
the salon and through an open door Dr. José Quiroga, Arsenio Poupin, a member
of the cabinet, Enrique Huerta, a palace functionary, two detectives from the
Presidential security detail, and some GAPs (Presidential Security) were able
to see the moment of death, or arrive a few seconds afterwards, attracted by
the noise.
Witnesses
All sources seem to agree that at least the following
witnesses were present:
Dr. Patricio Guijón – member of the Presidential Medical
Staff – Survived
Dr. José Quiroga – member of the Presidential Medical Staff
– Survived
Arsenio Poupin Oissel – Presidential Assessor and member of
the cabinet – Executed a few days later
Enrique Huerta Corvalán – Palace Intendant – Executed a few
days later
David Garrido – Detective (Presidential Security Detail) –
Survived
Ricardo Pincheira – Detective (Presidential Security Detail)
– Survived
Pablo Manuel Zepeda Camillieri – GAP (Presidential Security)
– Survived
Of these witnesses, only Dr. Guijón spoke about the events
immediately after they happened, and was roundly vilified for doing so. Some
sources misattribute Guijón's declarations to "Allende's personal
doctor": Dr. Enrique Paris Roa, who was at La Moneda not on his
professional role but as a member of Allende's cabinet. He does not appear to
have made any such statement as he was executed shortly afterwards. The other
witnesses kept silent until after the restoration of democracy in Chile, as
they believed (according to their own statements) that to corroborate the
version of a suicide would in some measure downgrade Allende's sacrifice and
lend support to the military regime.
Of the two doctors from the Moneda Palace
infirmary who witnessed the suicide, Dr. Patricio Guijón made a statement at
the time. But Dr. José Quiroga only confirmed the details in 1999
Estadio Nacional de Chile after the coup
In the first months after the coup d’état, the military
killed thousands of Chilean Leftists, both real and suspected, or forced their
"disappearance". The military imprisoned 40,000 political enemies in
the National Stadium of Chile; among the tortured and killed desaparecidos (disappeared)
were the U.S.
citizens Charles Horman, and Frank Teruggi. In October 1973, the Chilean song-writer
Víctor Jara, and 70 other political killings were perpetrated by the death
squad, Caravan of Death (Caravana de la Muerte).
The government arrested some 130,000 people in a three-year
period; the dead and disappeared numbered thousands in the first months of the
military government. Those include the British physician Sheila Cassidy, who
survived to publicize to the UK
the human rights violations in Chile.
Among those detained was Alberto Bachelet (father of future Chilean President
Michelle Bachelet), an air force official; he was tortured and died on 12 March
1974, The right-wing newspaper, El Mercurio (The Mercury),reported that Mr
Bachelet died after a basketball game, citing his poor cardiac health. Michelle
Bachelet and her mother were imprisoned and tortured in the Villa Grimaldi
detention and torture centre on 10 January 1975.
After Gen. Pinochet lost the election in the 1988
plebiscite, the Rettig Commission, a multi-partisan truth commission, in 1991
reported the location of torture and detention centers, among others, Colonia
Dignidad, Esmeralda ship and Víctor Jara Stadium. Later, in November 2004, the
Valech Report confirmed the number as less than 3,000 killed, and reduced the
number of cases of forced disappearance; but some 28,000 people were arrested,
imprisoned, and tortured.
In El día decisivo (The Decisive Day), Pinochet recounts the
coup d’état, affirming he was the leading plotter. Pinochet said that he
co-ordinated from his army commander office the deposition of President
Salvador Allende. Recently, high military officials from the time[who?] said
Pinochet was at first a reluctant participant and followed the lead of Adm.
Merino and air force Gen. Leigh
photos
https://www.google.hr/search?q=salvador+allende&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=xScuUsenEs2Oswaap4D4BA&ved=0CD0QsAQ&biw=1024&bih=651