Forty one years after his death during the September 11, 1973 coup d’etat, Salvador Allende continues to be an extremely controversial figure in Chilean history. Some see him as a martyr who gave his life to bring necessary social reform to the Chilean multitudes, while others see him as a Communist radical who deserved to have been overthrown. The political upheaval that occurred in Chile during the time of his presidency and the military regime that followed was not only characterized by disagreement between the people of Chile, but also by the shockingly large involvement of the United States in Allende’s downfall. The CIA has historically been an organization known to become involved with other nations in order to covertly achieve the United State’s imperial interests. After Salvador Allende, a Marxist candidate came within three percent of winning the presidency in 1958, the United States focused on preventing the victory of left-wing ideologies in Chile, amidst the heat of the Cold War. Actions began in 1962, with great funds spent to support the conservative Christian Democratic Party (PDC) in its quest for voters. This party and other anti-left parties were supported and assisted towards strengthening their organization, effectiveness, and support towards United States objectives around the country. Around $20 million were put into the electoral process in Chile in order to prevent Allende’s victory in the upcoming 1964 election. Propaganda efforts preyed on the traditional religious customs that prevailed in Chile, scaring people away from communism through portraying it as a godless, atheist movement that supported atrocities. Hiding behind the mask of Catholic and Democratic Christian organizations, the CIA resorted to pamphlets, posters, and direct mailing campaigns. The agency heavily funded El Mercurio, a leading conservative newspaper to publish stories that would influence panic and turn people against socialism. In addition, radio advertisements sought to convince people that a vote for the left-wing would be a vote for Russian dominance, and a loss of everything holy and sacred to Chilean people. This campaign proved victorious, winning the PDC’s candidate, Eduardo Frei a 56% of the vote in the 1964 election against Allende. “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people.” stated Henry Kissinger, principal adviser to President Richard Nixon on matters of national security in June 1970, during a meeting in which Chile was discussed. The CIA’s efforts towards dissuading people from finding political answers within the left wing continued during Frei’s presidency. However, Marxist ideologies had not been extinguished, and Allende won the presidency in the September 1970 election with a plurality of the popular vote; 36.3%, to the dismay of the United States. President Nixon authorized the CIA a budget of $10 million, on September 15, to prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him from the presidency. Under this command, the CIA began intensifying their efforts, coming to contact with religious and bourgeois leaders that openly opposed Allende. The CIA agreed with the plot of some Chilean military officers to abduct and murder General Rene Schneider, the Chilean Army’s Commander during that month. The Commander’s respect for the Chilean Constitution would have been a roadblock to the eventual military movement to carry out a coup to prevent Allende from taking office. Furthermore, they encouraged ex president Eduardo Frei to contact the military to overthrow the military and prevent Allende from taking office, an action that Frei did not accept. As Allende prepared to begin his presidency, the United States threatened to cut off complete foreign assistance if Allende successfully took office. Rumors were spread through El Mercurio and student political organizations that Allende would nationalize all businesses and lead to an economic collapse, a campaign which successfully brought about a sense of financial panic and weakened Allende’s support within the nation before he had even come to office. Allende blamed capitalism for the economic turmoil that was plaguing the nation when he entered his presidency. Taking office, he let the Chilean public know of the sacrifice and work that would be required to construct a successful socialist government. By this time, however, the nation was not only divided into Left, Center, and Right winged politics, but into moderate and radical factions of each political ideology. Allende faced the opposition of a great majority of these groups, making him an enemy of the upper class as well as left wing radicals who expected more reforms. He instantly began his plan to bring welfare to the Chilean working class. Raising the minimum wage for blue collar workers by rates between 31%-41%, and 8%-10% for white collar workers, Allende began his experiment with Socialism, seeking to bring Chile out of dependency, underdevelopment, and social inequality. Food and housing assistance spending was greatly expanded in order to improve the conditions of the impoverished, and price controls were set on foods and luxury items. At the same time, the United States began to experiment with financial techniques to bring down Allende’s developing presidency. The United States removed nearly all assistance from the dependent Chilean economy. Loans from the US Export-Import Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank were non-existent. Public transportation, copper, steel, electricity, and petroleum industries suffered, as American suppliers refused to sell necessary parts. The shortages that came from this economic turmoil caused a massive uproar of discontent within the Chilean people. Extended strikes, which were financially supported by the CIA began occurring within the American corporations established in Chile, worked to further weaken the economy. This was a campaign meant to convince the Chilean people that socialism had failed, an experiment impossible to carry out in Chile. Hyperinflation and economic chaos led to resentment and hatred towards Allende. He argued that spending on nutrition and aid to the poor was necessary, as over 600,000 children had suffered from malnutrition in previous governments, to an extent that had left them mentally retarded. At least half of the Chilean population had suffered malnutrition prior to Allende’s nutrition programs, a situation overlooked and accepted, endured by peasants, farm workers, mining families, and the rural poor. “Allendistas” tried to keep order through volunteer work and continuing to help the nation’s disadvantaged, at the dismay of the rich. As Allende promoted mass social egalitarianism in decision making by allowing eighteen year olds and the illiterate to vote, the rich continued to fear the decisions of the proletariat. In one year, unemployment had fallen from 8.5% to 4.5%. Private copper industries had become nationalized; However, the fall of copper prices massively affected the earnings from foreign trade, and combined with the already existing economic turmoil, bad weather conditions that had lessened the national food production, and the immense opposition against Allende contributed to the overall chaos that stood throughout the nation. As Allende’s presidency continued to dwindle in popularity, the military, led by General Agusto Pinochet planned their takeover into power. The United States was generous in offering military assistance, training Chilean military officials in Panama and in the United States.The CIA received intelligence reports and knowingly accepted the coup planned for September 11th, 1973, chosen on a date which carried with it a history of revolts towards the government. Tanks rolled over Santiago and the rest of Chile, proclaiming the victory of the military and the fall of Socialism. Doors were broken down, followed by the filling up of stadiums as torture chambers and prisons for the supporters of the fallen Marxist leader. The bourgeois toasted with glasses champagne to Pinochet’s first public appearance as dictator, on which he stated; “The armed forces have acted today solely from the patriotic inspiration of saving the country from tremendous chaos into which it was being plunged by the Marxist government of Salvador Allende.” Pinochet continued, then, in an air of patriotic inspiration, to rule the nation as dictator until 1990, controlling the nation through instigating fear and abusing human rights. The poor once again became powerless, and left-leaning citizens were captured by the military. Over 27,000 were tortured during the years directly following the coup, over 3,000 were killed, and a countless number, estimated around, 6,000 completely disappeared. Concentration camps, torture chambers, death, and exile awaited those who dared speak out or threaten the military Junta. This was the upper class’s long awaited “return to normalcy”. A shocking 80% of Chileans report that they saw the coup as a rescue operation from a chaotic and dysfunctional presidency on the day that it occurred. The nation was closed off from the outside world for a week. Allende’s death on that fateful day was suspiciously declared a suicide, by the shot of a rifle awarded to the President by the Communist leader Fidel Castro, confirmed by Dr. Patricio Guijon, a doctor that served on President Allende’s medical staff team. The CIA then became in large part uninvolved. Their work in ousting the democratically elected Marxist from power was complete. Small propaganda projects remained, meant to create a positive standing in the world for the military Junta. They remained informed about military activities, including “Operation Condor”, a system of intelligence sharing by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile, meant to track and kill political opponents. The approximated 40% (of the enfranchised and considered middle and upper class) that continued to support Pinochet through the 70’s and 80’s, even after witnessing the atrocities carried out by the military, defended these actions, holding that Pinochet was leading a war against Communism in which the unfortunate was inevitable. As he finally brought the nation to Democracy in 1990, remaining the military’s commander-in-chief until 1998, a large portion of the upper class decided that bygones should be bygones, and that the past could be left behind. In 1974, the United States’ President Gerald Ford stated that the actions of the United States had been “in the best interest of the people in Chile and certainly in our own best interest. To help and assist the preservation of opposition newspapers and electronic media to preserve opposition political parties.” A published CIA study dated September 7th, 1970, only 3 days after Allende’s victorious election stated that the U.S had no vital interests within Chile other than the tangible economic losses which would occur from Allende’s nationalization of copper-mining companies, and that the world balance of military power would be unaltered by Allende’s Government. This report did, however, conclude that a Marxist victory would carry significant political and psychological costs. Hemispheric cohesion regarding ideal government would be threatened, as other nations may have followed Chile’s example. A socialist success could encourage more nations to turn to left-wing politics, and to seek alternatives to the U.S. capitalist model. A charismatic leader who wanted to bring change and equality to his people through a democratically won presidency did not fit the profile of a “Communist” that the United States worked so hard to uphold during the Cold War. An elected Marxist President placed at risk the fear of Communism that the United States was trying to enforce throughout Latin America. Whether or not Allende’s experiment with Socialism in Chile could have worked to bring the country equality, had the United States not intervened is a mystery that seventeen years of dictatorship and terror have buried. Twenty-three years into a Democracy, the inequality that remains in Chile is extremely visible, though the nation’s rapid development conceals it on a global level. The actions of the CIA and the United States seem almost relatively reasonable, taking into consideration all the other interventions that occurred during the ideological battle between Communism and Capitalism, as the strategizing and dehumanizing that characterizes the foreign affairs of Imperialist nations. The actions of the Chilean bourgeoisie and military, however, against the possibility of a more just and egalitarian nation for their own people display an enormous sense of selfishness, as well as disregard for the nation’s well being. In his last radio speech, given moments before his death from the burning government palace, President Allende said to his nation “I address the youth, those who sang and gave us their joy and their spirit of struggle. I address the man of Chile, the worker, the farmer, the intellectual, those who will be persecuted, because in our country fascism has been already present for many hours—in terrorist attacks, blowing up the bridges, cutting the railroad tracks, destroying the oil and gas pipelines, in the face of the silence of those who had the obligation to protect them. They were committed. History will judge them.” As time progresses, and the perpetrators of crimes against humanity during the Chilean dictatorship are exposed and punished for their countless crimes, one can only hope that such tragedies and abuses towards the well being and progress of a nation will never again be tolerated, and that such actions will truly be judged by history in a way that they may never be repeated. ugh im a nerd sorry: read it or dont youll never learn about this in school
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 22:51:27 +0000
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