1973 Chilean Coup

1973 CHILE COUP- THE KILLING OF A DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST ELECTION JIM MEYER AMST2011 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA [email protected] 10.4.2022 ABSTRACT It was 1973, Chile’s military forces staged a coup d’état against the Chilean government of President Salvador Allende, the first democratically elected Marxist and Socialist leader in Latin America. Allende withdrew with his supporters to La Moneda, the fortress-like presidential palace in Santiago, which was encircled by tanks and infantry and bombed by air force jets. Allende survived the aerial attack but then was found dead as troops stormed the burning palace, The United States and its Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had worked for three years, 1970-1973, to provoke a coup against Allende, who was regarded by the Nixon administration as a threat to democracy in Chile and Latin America. Ironically, the democratically elected Allende was succeeded by the brutal dictator General Augusto Pinochet, who ruled over Chile with an iron fist for the next 17 years torturing, killing and disappearing tens of thousands. One former Chilean soldier said he shot 10 people in the head and then blew up their bodies with dynamite. Another said his platoon drenched two teens with gasoline and set them on fire. Both confessions made publicly this year have shocked Chileans with details of crimes committed during the Andean nation's bloody 1973-1990 dictatorship. Human rights groups and families of victims believe they are a clear sign military pacts of silence that have hushed up many of the atrocities committed during the rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet may finally be unraveling. “Criminals can't take the guilt any longer," said Veronica de Negri, whose 19-year-old son, Rodrigo Rojas, was burned to death at a 1986 protest against Pinochet. "They're going to continue coming out. It's a domino effect. More and more will talk.” Chile dictator Augusto Pinochet regime atrocities spilling out as secrecy ends - CBS News PROLOGUE From 1970 to 1973, the United States government was enmeshed in overt and covert activities against the democratically elected government of Chile led by Marxist-Socialist Salvador Allende.  Eventually, Allende was overthrown in 1973 and replaced by General Augusto Pinochet.  The initial history of this period, recorded in the 1970s and early 1980s, told of a US government that exploited and abused its power and proved disloyal to its principles.  International feedback was universally negative.  This interpretation of events had negatively impacted the conduct and perception of American intelligence activities ever since. In the year 1973, when the Cold War was ongoing, a coup was staged against the democratically elected social government of Salvador Allende, which was broadly perceived to have been supported and financed by the US government in one of CIA's covert operations. It was no secret that the US did not favor a socialist-leaning Chilean government, which they believed would lead Chile to follow the footsteps of the Soviet Union and Cuba and thus the United States spent millions of dollars trying to keep Allende from power. William Colby—then Deputy Director, later Director, of the CIA—noted that “Nixon was furious” and was convinced that an Allende presidency would guarantee the spread of Cuban President Fidel Castro’s communist revolution to Chile and the rest of Latin America. William Colby and Peter Forbath, Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA (New York, NY:  Simon and Schuster, 1978), p. 303. He wanted to prevent Allende from being inaugurated.   On the evening of September 11, 1973, Coup Plotting in 1973.  Although CIA did not instigate the coup that ended Allende’s government on 11 September 1973, it was aware of coup-plotting by the military, had ongoing intelligence collection relationships with some plotters, and—because CIA did not discourage the takeover and had sought to instigate a coup in 1970—probably appeared to condone it.  There was no way that anyone, including CIA, could have known that Allende would refuse the putchists’ offer of safe passage out of the country and that instead—with La Monedam Palace under bombardment from tanks and airplanes and in flames—would give his own life. Allende’s government in Chile was deposed by the military. The presidential palace, La Moneda, was bombed significantly. Allende died that same evening; although his death was ruled as a suicide, it is widely contested. Allende’s surviving family was forced to go into hiding in Mexico for many years.  After the military installed themselves in power, General Augusto Pinochet, the commander-in-chief of the Army was made the president of the Latin American country, Chile. What followed in his 17 years of dictatorship was torture, murder, forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and gross human rights violations.  The 9/11 attacks in the USA killed close to 2,996 people and injured over 6,000 others. In stark comparison, Pinochet's dictatorship saw the torture of 40,000 Chileans, with an estimated 10,000-30,000 people being killed, including the head of the state. To suppress all political dissidence, the suspected ‘left-leaning’ individuals in Chile were killed and ‘strangely disappeared.’ The merciless Pinochet While some European government officials have supported bringing the former dictator to court, United States officials have remained mostly silent, suggesting cynicism about the Spanish court's power, worries about international tribunals aimed at former foreign rulers, and uncertainties over the implications for American leaders who might someday also be accused of similar acts in foreign countries. The secret files on the Pinochet regime are held by the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the State Department, the Pentagon, the National Security Council, the National Archives, the Presidential libraries of Gerald R Ford and Jimmy Carter, and other government agencies. According to Justice Department records, these files contain a history of human rights abuses and international terrorism.-style of torture was horrific with survivors telling how even pregnant women and children weren't safe. The Pinochet regime is also alleged to have housed Nazi war criminals including, SS Colonel Walter Rauff, creator of the gas chambers, and Josef Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death” for his lethal experiments on human subjects during the Holocaust. This continued up until the ballot of 1988 and subsequent elections in 1989 after which democracy was restored to Chile. However, human rights violations in Chile have been ignored and the doctors who supervised the gruesome torture of individuals today lead comfortable lives. Moreover, the ordeal changed the population and exacted feelings of distrust, terror, and fear from the state, which have gone unaddressed. INTRODUCTION In 1970, Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens, a physician and leftist, socialist politician, was democratically elected the President of Chile. Involved in political life for nearly 40 years, Allende adopted a policy of nationalization of industries, particularly the oil industry, and collectivization - measures that brought him on a collision path with the legislative and judicial branches of the government, and then the center-right majority of the Chilean Congress. Before long, calls were issued for his overthrow by force. September 11, 1973, the military supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) moved to oust Allende, and surrounded at the La Moneda Palace. After refusing a safe passage, Allende gave his farewell speech on live radio, and La Moneda was then subjected to air strikes and an assault by the Chilean Army. Following Allende's death, General Augusto Pinochet installed a military junta, thus ending almost four decades of uninterrupted democratic rule in the country. His repressive regime remained in power until 1990.  The  military rebellion in Chilethat deposed the Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende. On September 11, 1973, after a protracted period of social turbulence and political pressure between the opposition-controlled Congress, and the Socialist President, as well as economic war by the United States President Richard Nixon President Richard Nixon had ordered the CIA to “make the economy scream” in Chile to “prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him,” incited a major scandal in the mid-1970s, and an investigation by the U.S. Senate. Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973 a group of military officers led by General Augusto Pinochet seized power in a coup, ending civilian rule. The military established a  junta that suspended all political activity in Chile and repressed left-wing movements, especially communist and socialist parties and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). Pinochet rose to supreme power within a year of the coup and was formally declared President of Chile in late 1974. The Nixon administration, which had worked to create the conditions for the coup, Before the coup, as part of the disinformation campaign of the U.S. covert campaign against Allende, the CIA had fictitiously created documents “proving” that Allende was betraying Chilean military secrets to Cuba. These were circulated to apolitical army officers as part of a campaign to persuade them that Allende had to be removed and the army had to abandon its traditional constitutional neutrality. So did the diplomatic, financial, and logistical support that the U.S. government, led by Nixon, Kissinger gave the junta, with full knowledge of its counter-revolutionary violence and terror. Winn, Peter (2010). Grandin & Joseph, Greg & Gilbert (ed.). A Century of Revolution. Duke University Press. pp. 270–271. Newly declassified documents reveal the CIA’s attempts to prevent Chilean President Salvador Allende from coming to power in 1970 began earlier than had been previously revealed. A volume of 366 documents titled “Chile: 1969-1973” was released by the U.S. government’s Office of the Historian after 10 years sorting the reports. The release is the first of two volumes, the second will cover 1973 to 1976.This collection is the latest in tens of thousands of formerly classified documents regarding former U.S. President Richard Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger’s efforts to destabilize the democratically-elected Marxist and their support for the military coup in 1973 that resulted in a 17-year dictatorship led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The United States feared Allende’s example would spark left-wing uprisings in the region and so pulled international loans from the country and ordered the CIA to help promote a coup. One of the documents, dated Aug. 19, 1970, proved the growing fear within the Nixon administration that Allende would win September elections and detailed a high-level interagency coordination committee known as the Special Review Group, led by Kissinger. The declassified minutes from the meeting proved Kissinger instructed then CIA director Richard Helms to create a plan to disrupt the election. “Kissinger said we should present to the president an action plan to prevent [the Chilean Congress from ratifying] an Allende victory … and noted that the president may decide to move even if we do not recommend it,” the document said. promptly recognized the junta government and supported it in consolidating power. After twenty-seven years (2000) of suppressing details about covert activities following the 1973 military coup in Chile, the CIA released a report acknowledging its close relations with General Augusto Pinochet’s violent regime. The report, “CIA Activities in Chile” laid bare for the first time that the head of the Chile’s feared secret police, DINA, was a paid CIA asset in 1975, and that CIA contacts continued with him long after he dispatched his agents to Washington D.C. to assassinate former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier. “CIA actively supported the military Junta after the overthrow of Allende,” the report states. “Many of Pinochet’s officers were involved in systematic and widespread human rights abuses...Some of these were contacts or agents of the CIA or US military.” During the air raids and ground attacks that preceded the coup, Allende gave his final speech, “…The people must defend themselves, but they must not sacrifice themselves. The people must not let themselves be destroyed or riddled with bullets, but they cannot be humiliated either. 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. Go forward knowing that, sooner rather than later, the great avenues will open again and free men will walk through them to construct a better society. Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers! These are my last words, and I am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain, I am certain that, at the very least, it will be a moral lesson that will punish felony, cowardice, and treason.” vowing to stay in the presidential palace and refusing offers of safe passage should he choose exile over confrontation. Salvador Allende died in the palace. Chile was in the grip of a military regime, with every indication early that morning that President Salvador Allende had been found dead after the presidential palace had been subjected to air and ground attacks. A military junta of senior officers demanded Allende's resignation, and when he refused the palace was attacked. The military said they had acted "to liberate the country from Marxism." In a final broadcast, Allende called on the workers to occupy the factories and to arm themselves, but apart from sporadic sniping in the center of Santiago, there appears to have been little organized resistance to the coup. Unconfirmed reports said that thousands of workers were marching on the city center. In New York, copper futures traded on the commodity exchange rose as the market reacted favorably to the news of Allende's downfall. In Paris, left-wing parties called for a protest march to the Chilean Embassy. Similar demonstrations are expected in London today. A Chilean reporter speaking by telephone to an Argentine radio station, said the President's death had been confirmed by a military spokesman. All radio stations supporting the Allende Government have been taken over, the headquarters of the Communist Party have been raided. The ground attack on the presidential palace was confined to light and heavy machine gun fire, but bombs dropped from the air set fire to part of the building.  Before the coup, Chile had been lauded as a example of democracy and political stability for decades, a period in which the rest of South America had been plagued by military juntas and caudillismo (a system of leadership and political power based on allegiance to a “strongman.” It emerged in Latin America.) The collapse of Chilean democracy ended a succession of democratic governments in Chile, which had held democratic elections since 1932. Historian Peter Winn characterized the 1973 coup as one of the most violent events in the history of Chile. A weak insurgent movement against the Pinochet regime was maintained inside Chile by elements sympathetic to the former Allende government. Due to occurring on the same date as the September 11 attacks in 2001, the coup has often been referred to as “the other 9/11.” Sept. 11 Is Also the Date of the 1973 U.S.-Backed Pinochet Coup in Chile (foreignpolicy.com) 1979-1973 ELECTIONS: THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM The 1970 Support for Coup in 1970.  CIA sought to instigate a coup to prevent Allende from taking office after he won a plurality in the 4 September election and before, as Constitutionally required because he did not win an absolute majority, the Chilean Congress reaffirmed his victory.  CIA was working with three different groups of plotters.  Presidential election with Rodriguez of the National Party and Tomic of the Christian Democratic Party. Allende received 36.6% of the vote. Rodriguez was a very close second with 35.3%, and Tomic third with 28.1%. Although Allende received the highest number of votes, according to the Chilean constitution and since none of the three candidates won by an absolute majority, the National Congress had to decide among the candidates. Allende signed a Statute of Constitutional Guarantees, which stated that he would follow the constitution during his presidency trying to shore up support for his candidacy. Congress then decided on Allende. Régis Debray (1972). The Chilean Revolution: Conversations with Allende. New York: Vintage Books. The U.S. feared the example of a “well-functioning socialist experiment” Post-Ethical Society: The Iraq War, Abu Ghraib, and the Moral Failure of the ... p. 14 By Douglas V. Porpora, Alexander G. Nikolaev, Julia. in the region and exerted diplomatic, economic, and covert pressure upon Chile's elected socialist government. At the end of 1971, the Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro made a 4-week state visit to Chile, alarming American observers worried about the “Chilean Way to Socialism.” The coup d'etat by General Augusto Pinochet in Chile on September 11, 1973 changed the history of socialism. Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity coalition had taken office promising a “Chilean Road to Socialism” based on democratic principles. The Chilean Road towards socialism has been a significant example and a cautionary account to left leaning political and social movements for the past 40 years in Latin America. The government introduced an agrarian reform program, conceding the right of workers to take over factories and run them collectively, took control of most of the country's banks, and expropriated multinational corporations like Kennecott and ITT, all within the context of the Chilean constitution. By spring of 1973, the informal alliance between Popular Unity and the Christian Democrats ended. The internal parliamentary conflict between the legislature and the executive branch paralyzed the activities of government. Adams, Jerome R. (2010). Liberators, patriots, and leaders of Latin America 32 biographies (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. pp. 213–214. ALLENDE RESPONDS TO THE CLAMOR On August 24 1973, President Allende responded, characterizing the Congress' declaration as “destined to damage the country's prestige abroad and create internal confusion,” predicting “It will facilitate the seditious intention of certain sectors.” He noted that the declaration had not obtained the two-thirds Senate majority “constitutionally required” to convict the president of abuse of power: essentially, 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.”  La respuesta del Presidente Allende on Wikisource. English translation on Wikisource. Retrieved 22 September 2006. Allende argued 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 civil war with a declaration “full of affirmations that had already been refuted before-hand” and which, in substance and process violated a dozen articles of the Constitution. He further argued that the legislature was usurping the government's executive function. 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.” Death of Salvadore Allende during US Sponsored Overthrow of Chile (americanussr.com) 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, all democrats and patriots" to join him in defending the Chilean Constitution and the “revolutionary process.” IBID UNITED STATES INVOLVEMENT IN THE COUP Like Caesar peering into the colonies from distant Rome, Nixon said the choice of government by the Chileans was unacceptable to the president of the United States. The attitude in the White House seemed to be, “If in the wake of Vietnam, I can no longer send in the Marines, then I will send in the CIA.”—Senator Frank Church, 1976 Different parts of the world immediately assumed the U.S. of foul play. In early newspaper reports, the U.S. denied any involvement or previous knowledge of the coup. Prompted by an incriminating New York Times article, the U.S. Senate opened an investigation into U.S. interference in Chile. A report prepared by the United States Intelligence Community in 2000, states that “...Although CIA did not instigate the coup that ended Allende's government on September 11, 1973, it was aware of coup-plotting by the military, had ongoing intelligence collection relationships with some plotters, and—because CIA did not discourage the takeover and had sought to instigate a coup in 1970—probably appeared to condone it.” The report stated that the CIA “actively supported the military Junta after the overthrow of Allende but did not assist Pinochet to assume the Presidency.” After a review of recordings of telephone conversations between Nixon and Henry Kissinger, indicated their use of the CIA to actively destabilize the Allende government. In one particular conversation about the news of Allende's overthrow, Nixon complained about the lack of recognition of the American role in the overthrow of a “communist” government, upon which Kissinger remarked, “Well, we didn't – as you know – our hand doesn't show on this one.”  Shane, Scott (18 April 2007), "Robert Dallek on Nixon and Kissinger", The New York Times, archived from the original on 14 January 2014, [...] phone call reacting to news of the 1973 coup in Chile [...] Kissinger grumbled [...] that American newspapers, 'instead of celebrating,' were 'bleeding because a pro-Communist government has been overthrown.' 'Isn't that something?' Nixon remarked. 'In the Eisenhower period, we would be heroes,' Kissinger said. 'Well, we didn't – as you know – our hand doesn't show on this one,' the president said.A later CIA report contended that US agents maintained close ties with the Chilean military to collect intelligence but no effort was made to assist them and “under no circumstances attempted to influence them.”  CIA 2000 report, p. 12, National Security Archive, George Washington University Historian Peter Winn found “extensive evidence” of United States complicity in the coup. He states that its covert support was crucial to engineering the coup, as well as for the consolidation of power by the Pinochet regime following the takeover. Winn documents an extensive CIA operation to fabricate reports of a coup against Allende, as justification for the imposition of military rule. Winn, Peter (2010). Grandin & Joseph, Greg & Gilbert (ed.). A Century of Revolution. Duke University Press. pp. 270–271. Peter Kornbluh asserts that the CIA destabilized Chile and helped create the conditions for the coup, citing documents declassified by the Clinton Administration.[54] Other authors point to the involvement of the Defense Intelligence Agency, agents of which allegedly secured the missiles used to bombard the La Moneda Palace.[55] The U.S. Government's hostility to the election of Allende in 1970 in Chile was substantiated in documents declassified during the Clinton administration, which show that CIA covert operatives were inserted in Chile in order to prevent a Marxist government from arising and for the purpose of spreading anti-Allende propaganda.  Ad Hoc Interagency Working Group on Chile (4 December 1970). "Memorandum for Mr. Henry Kissinger". United States Department of State. Retrieved 10 December 2007.As described in the Church Committee report, the CIA was involved in multiple plots designed to remove Allende and then let the Chileans vote in a new election where he would not be a candidate. The first, non-military, approach involved attempting a constitutional coup. This was known as the Track I approach, in which the CIA, with the approval of the 40 Committee, attempted to bribe the Chilean legislature, tried to influence public opinion against Allende, and provided funding to strikes designed to coerce him into resigning. It also attempted to get congress to confirm Jorge Alessandri as the winner of the presidential election. Alessandri, who was an accessory to the conspiracy, was ready to then resign and call for fresh elections. This approach completely failed in 1970 and was not attempted again. The other approach of the CIA in 1970 (but not later), also known as the Track II approach, was an attempt to encourage a military coup by creating a climate of crisis across the country. A CIA telegram sent to the Chile station on October 16, 1970, stated: “It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup. It would be much preferable to have this transpire prior to 24 October but efforts in this regard will continue vigorously beyond this date. We are to continue to generate maximum pressure toward this end utilizing every appropriate resource. It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG and American hand be well hidden.”  "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXI, Chile, 1969–1973 - Office of the Historian" False flag operatives contacted senior Chilean military officers and informed them that the U.S. would actively support a coup, but would revoke all military aid if such a coup did not happen.[54] In addition, the CIA gave extensive support for black propaganda against Allende, channeled mostly through El Mercurio. Financial assistance was also given to Allende's political opponents, and for organizing strikes and unrest to destabilize the government. V. CONCLUSION The 9/11 attacks in the USA killed close to 2,996 people and injured over 6,000 others. In stark comparison, Pinochet's dictatorship saw the torture of 40,000 Chileans, with an estimated 10,000-30,000 people being killed, including the head of the state. CHILE RECOMPENSE Chile officially recognized 9,800 more victims of its dictatorship, increasing the total number of people killed, tortured or imprisoned for political reasons to 40,018. Survivors of rights violations will get lifetime pensions of about $260 a month. Relatives of those killed receive more than three times that amount. In all, the government will need to increase its compensation to about $123 million a year. Victims also are entitled to health, education and housing benefits. 1973 CHILE COUP- 11 JIM MEYER AMST2011 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA