View source for 1973 Chilean coup d'état

{{Short description|Overthrow of President Salvador Allende}}
{{Redirect|11 de Septiembre|the date|September 11}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = 1973 Chilean coup d'état
| partof            = the [[Cold War]] in South America
| image             = {{Photomontage
| photo1a           = Golpe de Estado 1973.jpg
| photo2a           = Sylvain Julienne durant le coup d’état au Chili en septembre 1973.jpg
| photo3a           = Chile- el pueblo vencera cropped.jpg
| photo3b           =
| photo4a           =
| photo4b           =
| spacing           = 1
| position          = center
| color_border      = white
| color             = white
| size              = 300
| foot_montage      = '''From top to bottom''': the bombing of [[La Moneda Palace|La Moneda]] on 11 September 1973, by the Chilean Armed Forces; a journalist and policemen during the coup; and detainees and torture victims being detained at the [[Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos|National Stadium]]}}
| image_size        = 
| caption           = 
| date              = 11 September 1973
| place             = [[Chile]]
| coordinates       = 
| map_type          = 
| latitude          = 
| longitude         = 
| map_size          = 
| map_caption       = 
| territory         = 
| action            = Armed forces put the country under military control. Little and unorganized civil resistance.
| result            = Coup successful
* [[Popular Unity (Chile)|Popular Unity]] government overthrown
* [[Death of Salvador Allende]]
* [[Government Junta of Chile (1973)|Military Junta Government]] led by General [[Augusto Pinochet]] assumed power
| combatant1        = '''{{flagicon|Chile}} [[Presidency of Salvador Allende|Chilean Government]]'''
* [[File:Unidad Popular 1973.svg|20px]] [[Popular Unity (Chile)|Popular Unity]]
* {{flagicon image|Socialist red flag.svg}} [[Group of Personal Friends|GAP]]
{{flagicon image|Flag of the MIR - Chile.svg}} [[Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)|Revolutionary Left Movement]]<br />Other working-class militants<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lawson |first=George |title=Negotiated revolutions: the Czech Republic, South Africa and Chile |publisher=Ashgate |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7546-4327-2 |series=ESRC, economic & social research council |location=Aldershot, Hants |page=182 |quote=The only armed resistance came in a handful of factories, the La Legua ''poblacion'' in Santiago and in isolated gunfights with MIR activists.}}</ref>
----'''Supported by:'''<br />{{flag|Cuba}}
| combatant1a       = 
| combatant2        = '''{{flagicon image|Roundel of Chile.svg}} [[Military of Chile|Chilean Armed Forces]]'''
* [[Chilean Army]]
* [[Chilean Navy]]
* [[Chilean Air Force]]
* [[Carabineros de Chile]]
----'''Supported by:'''<br />{{flag|United States}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=McSherry |first=J. Patrice |author-link=J. Patrice McSherry |title=State violence and genocide in Latin America: the Cold War years |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-415-66457-8 |editor-last=Esparza |editor-first=Marcia |series=Critical terrorism studies |location=London |page=107 |chapter= 5: 'Industrial repression' and Operation Condor in Latin America |editor-last2=Huttenbach |editor-first2=Henry R. |editor-last3=Feierstein |editor-first3=Daniel |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=acGNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA107}}</ref><ref name="p. 223">{{Cite book |last=Hixson |first=Walter L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DNId6HxkzQwC |title=The myth of American diplomacy: national identity and U.S. foreign policy |date=2008 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-11912-1 |location=New Haven |page=223}}</ref><br />{{flagicon|Brazil|1968}} [[Military dictatorship in Brazil|Brazil]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kornbluh |first1=Peter |title=Brazil Conspired with U.S. to Overthrow Allende |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB282/index.htm |website=National Security Archive |publisher=George Washington University |access-date=16 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708142510/https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB282/index.htm |archive-date=8 July 2018 |language=en}}</ref><br>{{flagicon|Canada}} [[Canada]]<ref>{{cite news |last=Engler |first=Yves |date=11 September 2018 |title=Remembering Canada's support for the right-wing coup in Chile |url=https://rabble.ca/general/remembering-canadas-support-right-wing-coup-chile/ |access-date=11 September 2023 |website=rabble.ca |language=en-US |archive-date=15 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231015021426/https://rabble.ca/general/remembering-canadas-support-right-wing-coup-chile/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://jacobin.com/2023/09/canada-chile-allende-pinochet-coup-trudeau-neoliberalism|title=Unmasking Canada's Role in the Chilean Coup|last1=Engler|first1=Yves|last2=Schalk|first2=Owen|date=10 September 2023|work=Jacobin|access-date=10 September 2023}}</ref><br>{{flagicon|Australia}} [[Australia]]<ref name="Daley">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/11/declassified-documents-show-australia-assisted-cia-in-coup-against-chiles-salvador-allende|title=Declassified documents show Australia assisted CIA in coup against Chile's Salvador Allende |last=Daley |first=Paul|date=10 September 2021|work=The Guardian|accessdate=10 September 2021}}</ref><br>{{flagicon|United Kingdom}} [[United Kingdom]]<ref name="mcevoy">{{cite news|url=https://declassifieduk.org/exclusive-secret-cables-reveal-britain-interfered-with-elections-in-chile/|title=Exclusive: Secret cables reveal Britain interfered with elections in Chile|last=McEvoy|first=John|date=22 September 2020|work=[[Declassified UK]]|access-date=17 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Curtis|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Curtis (British author)|date=September 4, 2023|title='Our major interest is copper': Britain backed Pinochet's bloody coup in Chile|url=https://declassifieduk.org/our-major-interest-is-copper-britain-backed-pinochets-bloody-coup-in-chile/|work=Declassified UK|location=London|access-date=September 11, 2023|archive-date=13 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230913001339/https://declassifieduk.org/our-major-interest-is-copper-britain-backed-pinochets-bloody-coup-in-chile/|url-status=live}}</ref><br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the National Party (Chile, 1966).svg}} [[National Party (Chile, 1966)|Nationals]]<br>{{flagicon image|Flag of the Christian Democrat Party of Chile.svg}} [[Christian Democratic Party (Chile)|Christian Democrats]] (parts)<br>{{flagicon image|Democracia Radical 1971.png}} [[Radical Democracy (Chile)|Radical Democrats]]
| combatant2a       = 
| polstrength1      = 
| polstrength2      = 
| commander1        = '''{{flagdeco|Chile}} [[Salvador Allende]]{{KIA|Death of Salvador Allende}}'''<br />{{flagdeco|Chile}} [[Max Marambio]]<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the MIR - Chile.svg}} [[Miguel Enríquez (politician)|Miguel Enríquez]]
| commander2        = '''{{flagdeco|Chile}} [[Augusto Pinochet]]'''<br />{{flagdeco|Chile}} [[José Toribio Merino|José Merino]]<br />{{flagdeco|Chile}} [[Gustavo Leigh]]<br />{{flagdeco|Chile}} [[César Mendoza]]
| strength1         = 
| strength2         = 
| casualties1       = 46 GAP killed
| casualties2       = 34 killed
| notes             = 
}}
{{Operation Condor}}

The '''1973 Chilean coup d'état''' ({{Langx|es|Golpe de Estado en Chile de 1973}}) was a [[military overthrow]] of the socialist [[president of Chile]] [[Salvador Allende]] and his [[Popular Unity (Chile)|Popular Unity]] coalition government.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Youssef|date=1994|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lTTTBv4UJ_kC|title=Radicals, Reformers, and Reactionaries: The Prisoner's Dilemma and the Collapse of Democracy in Latin America|location=Chicago|publisher=University of Chicago Press|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=lTTTBv4UJ_kC&pg=PA98 98]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=lTTTBv4UJ_kC&pg=PA118 118]|isbn=978-0-2261-1271-8|access-date=August 30, 2023|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="Busky 2000, pp. 195–196">{{cite book|last=Busky|first=Donald F.|date=<!--July 30,-->2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3joQKjDtn4wC|title=Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3joQKjDtn4wC&pg=PA195 195]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=3joQKjDtn4wC&pg=PA196 196]|isbn=978-0-275-96886-1|access-date=August 30, 2023|via=Google Books}}</ref> Allende, who has been described as the first [[Marxist]] to be democratically elected president in a Latin American [[liberal democracy]],<ref>{{cite magazine |date=September 24, 1973 |title=Chile: The Bloody End of a Marxist Dream |magazine=Time |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,907929-1,00.html |access-date=August 30, 2023 |issn=0040-781X |quote=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. |archive-date=30 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230830145956/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,907929-1,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Ross |first=Jen |date=December 12, 2006 |title=Controversial legacy of former Chilean dictator |work=Christian Science Monitor |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1212/p06s01-woam.html |url-status=live |access-date=August 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516194106/http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1211/p00s01-woam.html |archive-date=May 16, 2008 |issn=0882-7729 |quote=Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew Chile's democratically elected Communist 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.}}</ref> faced significant social unrest, political tension with the opposition-controlled [[National Congress of Chile]]. On 11 September 1973, a group of military officers, led by General [[Augusto Pinochet]], seized power in a coup, ending civilian rule.

Following the coup, a [[military junta]] was established, and suspended all political activities in Chile and suppressed left-wing movements, such as the [[Communist Party of Chile]] and the [[Socialist Party of Chile]], the [[Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)|Revolutionary Left Movement]] (MIR), and other [[communist]] and [[socialist]] parties. Pinochet swiftly consolidated power and was officially declared president of Chile in late 1974.<ref>{{cite book |author=Genaro Arriagada Herrera |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7F8VAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA36 |title=Pinochet: The Politics of Power |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-04-497061-3 |page=36}}</ref> The [[Nixon administration]], which had played a role in creating favorable conditions for the coup,<ref name="Winn 2010 270-271">{{cite book |last=Winn |first=Peter |url={{Google books|YJ7ZBGy0wsIC|page=270-271|plainurl=yes}} |title=A Century of Revolution |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2010 |editor-last=Grandin & Joseph |editor-first=Greg & Gilbert |pages=270–271}}</ref><ref>[[Peter Kornbluh]] (11 September 2013). ''[[The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability]]''. [[The New Press]]. {{ISBN|1595589120}}</ref><ref>Lubna Z. Qureshi. ''Nixon, Kissinger, and Allende: U.S. Involvement in the 1973 Coup in Chile.'' Lexington Books, 2009. {{ISBN|0739126563}}</ref> promptly recognized the junta government and supported its efforts to consolidate power.<ref name="NSA-2000-9-19">{{cite web |author=Peter Kornbluh |date=19 September 2000 |title=CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression: Report to Congress Reveals U.S. Accountability in Chile |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20000919/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061128142216/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20000919/ |archive-date=28 November 2006 |access-date=26 November 2006 |work=Chile Documentation Project |publisher=National Security Archive}}</ref>

Due to the coup's coincidental occurrence on the same date as the [[September 11 attacks|11 September 2001 attacks]] in the United States, it has sometimes been referred to as "the other 9/11".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Aguilera |first1=Pilar |title=Chile: The Other September 11 |last2=Fredes |first2=Ricardo |last3=Dorfman |first3=Ariel |publisher=Ocean Press |year=2003 |isbn=1-876175-50-8 |location=Melbourne |oclc=55665455}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=François |first=David |title=Chile 1973, the Other 9/11: The Downfall of Salvador Allende |publisher=Helion & Company |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-912174-95-9 |location=Solihull, West Midlands |oclc=1001447543}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Osborn |first=Catherine |date=10 September 2021 |title=The Other 9/11 |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/10/911-chile-1973-pinochet-allende-coup-constitution-constitutent-assembly/ |work=Foreign Policy |quote=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.'<br />'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.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title='The other 9/11': As US marks attack anniversary, another infamous milestone looms |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2023/09/09/911-chile-50th-anniversary-coup/70784405007/ |access-date=2023-09-13 |website=USA Today |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2023, declassified documents showed that Nixon, [[Henry Kissinger]], and the United States government, which had described Allende as a dangerous communist,<ref name="Busky 2000, pp. 195–196"/> were aware of the military's plans to overthrow Allende in the days before the coup d'état.<ref>{{cite web |date=November 3, 2020 |title=Allende and Chile: 'Bring Him Down' |publisher=National Security Archive |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-11-06/allende-inauguration-50th-anniversary |access-date=August 30, 2023 |via=The George Washington University |archive-date=30 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230830163805/https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-11-06/allende-inauguration-50th-anniversary |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=August 8, 2023 |title=Chile's Coup at 50: Kissinger Briefed Nixon on Failed 1970 CIA Plot to Block Allende Presidency |publisher= National Security Archive |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2023-08-08/chiles-coup-50-kissinger-briefed-nixon-failed-1970-cia-plot-block |access-date=August 30, 2023 |via=The George Washington University}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Wilkinson |first=Tracy |date=August 29, 2023 |title=Previously classified documents released by U.S. show knowledge of 1973 Chile coup |url=https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-08-29/us-releases-chile-coup-documents |access-date=August 30, 2023 |website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> According to historian Sebastián Hurtado Torres, there is no documentary evidence to support that the United States government acted actively in the coordination and execution of the coup actions by the Chilean Armed Forces, however, Richard Nixon's interest from the beginning was that the Allende government would not be consolidated.<ref name="Hurtado">{{cite web |author1=Juan Paulo Iglesias |title=Sebastián Hurtado, historiador: 'Estados Unidos no tuvo participación directa en el Golpe, pero sí quería que Allende cayera' |url=https://www.latercera.com/la-tercera-sabado/noticia/sebastian-hurtado-historiador-estados-unidos-no-tuvo-participacion-directa-en-el-golpe-pero-si-queria-que-allende-cayera/3UXITS4IUNB3RPPB57ILMYDO64/ |publisher=La Tercera |access-date=12 January 2025 |language=es |date=25 August 2023 |archive-date=12 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240912221446/https://www.latercera.com/la-tercera-sabado/noticia/sebastian-hurtado-historiador-estados-unidos-no-tuvo-participacion-directa-en-el-golpe-pero-si-queria-que-allende-cayera/3UXITS4IUNB3RPPB57ILMYDO64/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hurtado Torres |first1=Sebastián |title=Chile y Estados Unidos, 1964-1973. Una nueva mirada |journal=Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos |date=10 October 2016 |doi=10.4000/nuevomundo.69698 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/nuevomundo/69698 |language=es|doi-access=free}}</ref> Historian [[Peter Winn]] found "extensive evidence" of United States complicity in the coup.<ref name="Winn 2010 270-271"/>

During the air raids and ground attacks preceding the coup, Allende delivered his final speech, expressing his determination to remain at [[Palacio de La Moneda (Chile)|Palacio de La Moneda]] and rejecting offers of safe passage for exile.<ref>{{cite web |title=Salvador Allende's Last Speech – Wikisource |url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende%27s_Last_Speech |access-date=19 November 2011 |via=[[Wikisource]] |archive-date=2 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302052507/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende%27s_Last_Speech |url-status=live }}</ref> Although he died in the palace,<ref>{{cite news |last=Gott |first=Richard |date=12 September 2009 |title=From the archive: Allende 'dead' as generals seize power |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2009/sep/12/from-the-guardian-archive |access-date=20 April 2010 |archive-date=1 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190901104311/https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2009/sep/12/from-the-guardian-archive |url-status=live }}</ref> the exact circumstances of [[Death of Salvador Allende|Allende's death]] are still disputed, but it is generally accepted as a suicide.<ref>{{cite news |last=Davison |first=Phil |date=20 June 2009 |title=Hortensia Bussi De Allende: Widow of Salvador Allende who helped lead opposition to Chile's military dictatorship |work=The Independent |location=London |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hortensia-bussi-de-allende-widow-of-salvador-allende-who-helped-lead-opposition-to-chiles-military-dictatorship-1710766.html |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |access-date=20 April 2010 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hortensia-bussi-de-allende-widow-of-salvador-allende-who-helped-lead-opposition-to-chiles-military-dictatorship-1710766.html |archive-date=1 May 2022}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Chile had previously been regarded as a symbol of democracy and political stability in South America, while other countries in the region suffered under military juntas and ''[[caudillismo]]''; the Chilean period prior to the coup is known as the [[Presidential Republic (1925–1973)]] era. At the time, Chile was a middle-class country,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lilley|first1= Sasha |last2=Schlotterbeck|first2= Marian |date=2020-09-04 |title=Salvador Allende's Brief Experiment in Radical Democracy in Chile Began 50 Years Ago Today |url=https://jacobin.com/2020/09/salvador-allende-chile-coup-pinochet |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=Jacobin }}</ref> with about 30% or 9 million Chileans being middle class.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nogee |first1=Joseph L. |last2=Sloan |first2=John W. |date=1979 |title=Allende's Chile and the Soviet Union: A Policy Lesson for Latin American Nations Seeking Autonomy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/165728 |journal=Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=339–368 |doi=10.2307/165728 |jstor=165728 |issn=0022-1937|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The collapse of Chilean democracy marked the end of a series of democratic governments that had held elections since 1932.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weimer |first=Tim |title=Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA |publisher=Doubleday |year=2007 |location=New York}}</ref>

Historian [[Peter Winn]] described the 1973 coup as one of the most violent events in Chilean history.<ref name="Winn 2010">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2010 |title=Furies of the Andes |encyclopedia=A Century of Revolution: Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Violence during Latin America's Long Cold War |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham, NC |url=http://read.dukeupress.edu/content/a-century-of-revolution |last=Winn |first=Peter |editor-last=Grandin & Joseph |editor-first=Greg & Gilbert |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YJ7ZBGy0wsIC&pg=PA259 259] |doi=10.1215/9780822392859 |isbn=978-0-8223-9285-9 |access-date=17 September 2015 |archive-date=7 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107055759/http://read.dukeupress.edu/content/a-century-of-revolution |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The coup led to a series of [[human rights abuses in Chile under Pinochet]], who initiated a brutal and long-lasting campaign of [[political suppression]] through torture, murder, and exile, which significantly weakened leftist opposition to the [[military dictatorship of Chile]] (1973–1990).<ref name="nsaebb33">{{cite web |author=Michael Evans |title=National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 33 |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB33/index.html |access-date=19 November 2011 |publisher=Gwu.edu |archive-date=19 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019205138/http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB33/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="torture">{{cite news |last=Collins |first=Stephen |date=16 December 2000 |title=Now open – Pinochet's torture chambers |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/722163/Now-open---Pinochets-torture-chambers.html |url-status=dead |access-date=20 April 2010 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120604004240/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/722163/Now-open---Pinochets-torture-chambers.html |archive-date=4 June 2012}}</ref> Nonetheless, Pinochet stepped down from power voluntarily after the internationally supported [[1989 Chilean constitutional referendum]] held under the military junta led to the peaceful [[Chilean transition to democracy]].

==Political background==
{{History of Chile}}
{{Main|Presidency of Salvador Allende}}
{{see also|Chile truckers' strike}}
Allende contested the [[1970 Chilean presidential election]] with [[Jorge Alessandri|Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez]] of the [[National Party (Chile, 1966)|National Party]] and [[Radomiro Tomic]] of the [[Christian Democratic Party (Chile)|Christian Democratic Party]]. Allende received 36.6% of the vote, while Alessandri was a very close second with 35.3%, and Tomic third with 28.1%,<ref name="Jobet">{{cite web|title=El Partido Socialista de Chile Tomo II|work=Julio César Jobet|language=es|url=http://es.geocities.com/omerocl/partidosoc2.pdf|page=120|access-date=5 June 2009|archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5kmbQgbhB?url=http://es.geocities.com/omerocl/partidosoc2.pdf|archive-date=25 October 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> in what was a close three-way election.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schweitzer |first=Oren |date=2023-03-18 |title=Chile's Attempt at Democratic Socialism Combined State Action and Bottom-Up Initiative |url=https://jacobin.com/2023/03/chile-salvador-allende-popular-unity-democratic-socialism-working-class-control-bottom-up-politics-state-action |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=Jacobin}}</ref> Although Allende received the highest number of votes, according to the Chilean constitution and since none of the candidates won by an absolute majority, the National Congress had to decide among the candidates.<ref name=N1>[[Dieter Nohlen|Nohlen, D]] (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook'', Vol. II, p. 259 {{ISBN|978-0-19-928358-3}}</ref>

The [[Chilean Constitution of 1925]] did not allow a person to be president for consecutive terms. The incumbent president, [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]], was therefore ineligible as a candidate. The [[CIA]]'s "Track I" operation was a plan to influence the Congress to choose Alessandri, who would resign after a short time in office, forcing a second election. Frei would then be eligible to run.<ref name=cia>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/chile/index.html|title=CIA Activities in Chile|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|quote=The political action program under consideration called for the Embassy and Station to influence the Chilean Congress as it took up the matter. This involved encouraging Congress to vote for Alessandri for President in spite of the fact Allende received a slightly higher popular vote. Allende's 36.3 percent of the vote on 4 September was a plurality, not the majority required by the Constitution to prevent Congressional reaffirmation of the victory. The Station and the Embassy, working through intermediaries, urged Frei to use his influence with Congress to convince non-leftist forces to vote for Alessandri. The scenario was to have Congress elect Alessandri as President; he would then resign, thereby allowing Frei to run as a candidate against Allende in a new election.|access-date=18 February 2013|archive-date=12 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612225422/https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/chile/index.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Alessandri announced on 9 September that if Congress chose him, he would resign. 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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Régis Debray |title=The Chilean Revolution: Conversations with Allende |publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |year=1972}}</ref> The U.S. feared the example of a "well-functioning socialist experiment" in the region and exerted diplomatic, economic, and covert pressure upon Chile's elected socialist government.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fRdTAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA14|title=Post-Ethical Society: The Iraq War, Abu Ghraib, and the Moral Failure of the Secular|first1=Douglas V.|last1=Porpora|first2=Alexander G.|last2=Nikolaev|first3=Julia Hagemann|last3=May|first4=Alexander|last4=Jenkins|year=2013|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-06252-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://santiagotimes.cl/2014/05/26/new-declassified-files-shed-light-us-role-ousting-allende/ |title=New declassified files shed light on US role in ousting Allende |access-date=7 October 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009185456/http://santiagotimes.cl/2014/05/26/new-declassified-files-shed-light-us-role-ousting-allende/ |archive-date=9 October 2016  }}</ref><ref name="CIA_website">Kristian C. Gustafson. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070613111726/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol47no3/article03.html "CIA Machinations in Chile in 1970: Reexamining the Record"], CIA, Center for the Study of Intelligence. Retrieved 21 August 2007.</ref> At the end of 1971, the Cuban Prime Minister [[Fidel Castro]] made [[Fidel Castro's state visit to Chile|a four-week state visit to Chile]], alarming American observers worried about the "Chilean Way to Socialism".<ref>[http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/1971/ "Castro speech database"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040530180004/http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/1971/ |date=30 May 2004 }}, University of Texas: English translations of Castro speeches based upon the records of the (United States) Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). See locations of speeches for November–December 1971. Retrieved 22 September 2006.</ref>

Allende presided over an increasingly unstable economy. A fiscal deficit of 3.5% in 1970 grew to 24% by 1973.<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal |last=Allende |first=Salvador |date=2021 |title='Last speech to Nation, 11 September 1973' (Chile, 1973) |url=https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350302587.0031 |journal=Aesthetics and Politics in the Global South |doi=10.5040/9781350302587.0031|isbn=978-1-350-30258-7 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1972, Economics Minister [[Pedro Vuskovic]] adopted [[monetary]] policies that increased the amount of circulating currency and devalued the [[Chilean escudo|escudo]]. That year, inflation increased by 225% and reached 606% by 1973. The high inflation in 1973 decreased wages by 38%.<ref name="auto"/><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Blejer |first=Mario |date=April 1981 |title=Strike Activity and Wage Determination under Rapid Inflation: The Chilean Case |journal=ILR Review |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=356–364 |doi=10.1177/001979398103400302 }}</ref> To combat this, Allende created the Committees of Supplies and Prices (Juntas de Abastecimiento y Precios (JAP)). JAP reopened private shops and requisitioned goods which had been slowly disappearing due to drops in production.<ref name="auto"/><ref name=":5" />

In October 1972, Chile suffered the first of many strikes. The Trucker's Strike that began on 1 October in Aysen province was a response to economic problems and rumors that transportation would be nationalized. Eight days later, the Confederation of Truckers, led by Leon Vilarín with the support of the guilds and possibly the CIA, called for an indefinite national strike, which inhibited the movement and distribution of goods that had already been struggling. Truckers then blocked all main roads on 12 October, creating a shortage of essential goods. Allende declared a state of emergency in response and the strike leaders were arrested. This would only provoke the Chilean population further and more strikes and protests ensued. The state of emergency also failed to reverse the strike or the economic crisis.<ref name=":4" />

Among the participants were small-scale businessmen, some professional unions, and student groups. Its leaders – Vilarín, [[Jaime Guzmán]], Rafael Cumsille, Guillermo Elton, Eduardo Arriagada – expected to depose the elected government. Other than damaging the national economy, the principal effect of the 24-day strike was drawing Army head, General [[Carlos Prats]], into the government as Interior Minister, an appeasement to the right wing.<ref name="Tercera_Problemas">{{cite web |title=Comienzan los problemas |url=http://www.latercera.cl/medio/articulo/0,0,38035857_178048856_151840537,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070802230054/http://www.latercera.cl/medio/articulo/0,0,38035857_178048856_151840537,00.html |archive-date=2007-08-02 |language=es}}, part of series "Icarito > Enciclopedia Virtual > Historia > Historia de Chile > Del gobierno militar a la democracia" on LaTercera.cl. Retrieved 22 September 2006.</ref> This replaced General [[René Schneider]], who had been assassinated (Schneider had been shot on 22 October 1970 by a group led by General [[Roberto Viaux]], whom the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] had not attempted to discourage, and died three days later.) General Prats supported the legalist [[Schneider Doctrine]] and refused military involvement in a [[coup d'état]] against President Allende.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2000/05/22/mun6.html |title=mun6 |publisher=Jornada.unam.mx |access-date=19 November 2011 |archive-date=22 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110422190743/http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2000/05/22/mun6.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Despite the declining economy, President Allende's [[Popular Unity (Chile)|Popular Unity]] coalition increased its vote to 43.2% in the [[1973 Chilean parliamentary election|March 1973 parliamentary elections]]; but, by then, the informal alliance between Popular Unity and the Christian Democrats ended.<ref>[http://countrystudies.us/chile/85.htm Development and Breakdown of Democracy, 1830–1973] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709014719/http://countrystudies.us/chile/85.htm |date=9 July 2011 }}, United States [[Library of Congress Country Studies]]: Chile. Undated; according to [http://countrystudies.us/chile/2.htm Preface] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927164451/http://countrystudies.us/chile/2.htm |date=27 September 2006 }}, "The body of the text reflects information available as of 31 March 1994." Accessed 22 September 2006.</ref> The Christian Democrats allied with the right-wing National Party, who were opposed to Allende's government; the two right-wing parties formed the [[Confederation of Democracy]] (CODE). The internecine parliamentary conflict between the legislature and the executive branch paralyzed the activities of government.<ref name="Se desata la crisis">{{cite web|url=http://www.latercera.cl/medio/articulo/0,0,38035857_178048856_151840547,00.html |title=Se desata la crisis |access-date=16 May 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109230054/http://www.latercera.cl/medio/articulo/0%2C0%2C38035857_178048856_151840547%2C00.html |archive-date=9 November 2007|language=es}}, part of series "Icarito > Enciclopedia Virtual > Historia > Historia de Chile > Del gobierno militar a la democracia" on LaTercera.cl. Retrieved 22 September 2006.</ref>

Allende began to fear his opponents, convinced they were plotting his assassination. Using his daughter [[Beatriz Allende|Beatriz]] as a messenger, he explained the situation to [[Fidel Castro]]. Castro gave four pieces of advice: convince technicians to stay in Chile, sell only copper for US dollars, do not engage in extreme revolutionary acts which would give opponents an excuse to wreck or seize control of the economy, and maintain a proper relationship with the Chilean military until local militias could be established and consolidated. Allende attempted to follow Castro's advice, but the latter two recommendations proved difficult.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Adams|first1=Jerome R.|title=Liberators, patriots, and leaders of Latin America 32 biographies|date=2010|publisher=McFarland & Co.|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=978-0786455522|pages=213–214|edition=2nd}}</ref>

===Chilean military prior to the coup===
Prior to the coup, the Chilean military had undergone a process of de-politicization since the 1920s, when military officers had held cabinet positions. Subsequently, most military officers remained under-funded, having only subsistence salaries. Because of the low salaries, the military spent much time in military leisure-time facilities (e.g., [[country club]]s) where they met other officers and their families. The military remained apart from society and was to some degree an [[Endogamy|endogamous]] group as officers frequently married the sisters of their comrades or the daughters of high-ranked older officers. Many officers also had relatives in the military.<ref name=privada/> In 1969, elements of the military made their first act of rebellion in 40 years when they participated in the [[Tacnazo insurrection]]. The Tacnazo was not a proper coup, but a protest against under-funding.<ref>González 2013, p. 28.</ref> In retrospect General [[Carlos Prats]] considered that [[Christian Democratic Party (Chile)|Christian Democrats]] who were in power in 1969 committed the error of not taking the military's grievances seriously.<ref>González 2013, p. 29.</ref>

Throughout the 1960s, the governments of [[Ecuador]] ([[1963 Ecuadorian coup d'état|1963]]), [[Brazil]] ([[1964 Brazilian coup d'état|1964]]), [[Argentina]] ([[Argentine Revolution|1966]]), [[Peru]] ([[1968 Peruvian coup d'état|1968]]), and [[Bolivia]] ([[1969 Bolivian coup d'état|1969]]) were overthrown and replaced by military governments.<ref name=Gonzalez35>González 2013, p. 35.</ref> In June 1973, Uruguay [[1973 Uruguayan coup d'état|joined]] the coup d'état wave that swept through the region.<ref name=estado>{{Cite book |last = Lessa |first = Alfonso |title =  Estado de guerra – de la gestación del golpe del 73 a la caída de Bordaberry |year = 1996 |publisher = Editorial Fin de Siglo}}</ref> The poor conditions of the Chilean military contrasted with the change of fortune the military of neighboring countries experienced as they came to power in coups.<ref name=Gonzalez35/>

During the decades prior to the coup, the military became influenced by the United States' [[anti-communist]] [[ideology]] in the context of various cooperation programs, including the [[Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation|U.S. Army School of the Americas]].<ref name=privada>{{Citation
| editor-last  = Sagredo
| editor-first = Rafael
| editor2-last  = Gazmuri
| editor2-first = Cristián
| title = Historia de la vida privada en Chile
| volume = 3: El Chile contemporáneo. De 1925 a nuestros días
| publisher = Aguilar Chilena de Ediciones
| place = Santiago de Chile
| date = 2005
| edition = 4th
| isbn = 978-956-239-337-9
| language = es
}}</ref>

==Crisis==
{{See also|Tanquetazo}}

On 29 June 1973, Colonel [[Roberto Souper]] surrounded La Moneda presidential palace with his tank regiment and failed to depose the Allende Government.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://literature.rebelyouth.ca/educhile_1970s/tanquetazo.html |title=Second coup attempt: ''El Tanquetazo'' (the tank attack) |access-date=13 October 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041013002715/http://literature.rebelyouth.ca/educhile_1970s/tanquetazo.html |archive-date=13 October 2004}}, originally on RebelYouth.ca. Unsigned, but with citations. Archived on [[Internet Archive]] 13 October 2004.</ref> That failed ''coup d'état'' – known as the ''Tanquetazo'' tank putsch – had been organized by the nationalist "[[Fatherland and Liberty]]" paramilitary group.

In August 1973, a constitutional crisis occurred; the [[Supreme Court of Chile|Supreme Court]] publicly complained about the government's inability to enforce the law of the land. On 22 August, the Christian Democrats united with the National Party of the Chamber of Deputies accused the government of unconstitutional acts and called upon the military to enforce constitutional order.<ref>[[s:Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile's Democracy|English translation]] on Wikisource</ref><ref name="Se desata la crisis"/>

On August 21, both Tomé and Concepción saw large demonstrations, prompting the Chilean Army and Navy to occupy the two cities. The occupation lasted three weeks, culminating in the assault of the presidential palace, La Moneda, in Santiago.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schlotterbeck |first=Marian E. |url=https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520970175 |title=Beyond the Vanguard |date=2018-05-25 |publisher=University of California Press |doi=10.1525/9780520970175 |isbn=978-0-520-97017-5}}</ref>

For months, the government had feared calling upon the ''[[Carabineros de Chile|Carabineros]]'' national police, suspecting them of disloyalty. On 9 August, Allende appointed General Carlos Prats as Minister of Defense. He was forced to resign both as defense minister and as the Army commander-in-chief on 24 August 1973, embarrassed by the [[Alejandrina Cox incident]] and a public protest of the wives of his generals at his house. General Augusto Pinochet replaced him as Army commander-in-chief the same day.<ref name="Se desata la crisis"/> In late August 1973, 100,000{{disputed inline|date=September 2013}} Chilean women congregated at Plaza de la Constitución to protest against the government for the rising cost and increasing shortages of food and fuels, but they were dispersed with tear gas.<ref name="Dream">{{cite magazine |url=http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/C%20Disk/CIA%20Chile/Item%20030.pdf |title=The Bloody End of a Marxist Dream |magazine=Time |date=24 September 1973 |access-date=12 January 2014 |archive-date=13 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140113061108/http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/C%20Disk/CIA%20Chile/Item%20030.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Resolution by the Chamber of Deputies===
On 23 August 1973, with the support of the Christian Democrats and National Party members, the Chamber of Deputies passed 81–47 a resolution that asked "the President of the Republic, Ministers of State, and members of the Armed and Police Forces" 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".<ref name="Resolution">"el Presidente de la República y a los señores Ministros de Estado y miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas y del Cuerpo de Carabineros" [http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Acuerdo_de_la_C%C3%A1mara_de_Diputados_sobre_el_grave_quebrantamiento_del_orden_constitucional_y_legal_de_la_Rep%C3%BAblica Acuerdo de la Cámara de Diputados] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090901132229/http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Acuerdo_de_la_C%C3%A1mara_de_Diputados_sobre_el_grave_quebrantamiento_del_orden_constitucional_y_legal_de_la_Rep%C3%BAblica |date=1 September 2009 }}).</ref>

The resolution declared that the Allende 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", claiming it had made "violations of the Constitution ... a permanent system of conduct". Essentially, most of the accusations were about the government disregarding the separation of powers, and arrogating legislative and judicial prerogatives to the executive branch of government. Finally, the resolution condemned the "creation and development of government-protected armed groups, which ... are headed towards a confrontation with the armed forces". President Allende's efforts to re-organize the military and the police forces were characterised as "notorious attempts to use the armed and police forces for partisan ends, destroy their institutional hierarchy, and politically infiltrate their ranks".<ref name="Resolution"/>

It can be argued that the resolution called upon the armed forces to overthrow the government if it did not comply,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Agouborde |first=María Victoria |date=2023-08-23 |title=La Cámara de Diputados de Chile lee la resolución de 1973 que acusó de inconstitucional al Gobierno de Allende |url=https://elpais.com/chile/2023-08-23/la-camara-de-diputados-de-chile-lee-la-resolucion-de-1973-que-acuso-de-inconstitucional-al-gobierno-de-allende.html |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=El País Chile |language=es-CL |archive-date=30 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230830233441/https://elpais.com/chile/2023-08-23/la-camara-de-diputados-de-chile-lee-la-resolucion-de-1973-que-acuso-de-inconstitucional-al-gobierno-de-allende.html |url-status=live }}</ref> as follows: "To present the President of the Republic, Ministers of State, and members of the Armed and Police Forces with the grave breakdown of the legal and constitutional order ... it is their duty to put an immediate end to all situations herein referred to that breach the Constitution and the laws of the land with the aim of redirecting government activity toward the path of Law".<ref>[[s:Agreement of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile|English translation]] on Wikisource</ref> The resolution was later used by Pinochet as a way to justify the coup, which occurred two weeks later.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldberg |first=Peter A. |date=1975 |title=The Politics of the Allende Overthrow in Chile |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2148700 |journal=Political Science Quarterly |volume=90 |issue=1 |pages=93–116 |doi=10.2307/2148700 |jstor=2148700 |issn=0032-3195 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |access-date=30 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928080232/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2148700 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Salvador Allende's response===
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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Affairs |first=United States Congress House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Inter-American |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-20JAAAAIAAJ |title=United States and Chile During the Allende Years, 1970–1973: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives .... |date=1975 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-20JAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA393 393]}}</ref> 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 of [[abuse 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."<ref name="La respuesta del Presidente Allende">{{in lang|es}} [http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Manifiesto_al_pa%C3%ADs_de_Salvador_Allende,_respondiendo_al_acuerdo_de_la_camara_de_diputados La respuesta del Presidente Allende] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005091307/http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Manifiesto_al_pa%C3%ADs_de_Salvador_Allende%2C_respondiendo_al_acuerdo_de_la_camara_de_diputados |date=5 October 2009 }} on Wikisource. [[s:Salvador Allende's Last Speech|English translation]] on Wikisource. Retrieved 22 September 2006.</ref>

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.<ref name="La respuesta del Presidente Allende"/>

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.<ref name="La respuesta del Presidente Allende"/>

==Preparations==
In mid-July, a month before the resolution of the Chamber of Deputies, there was general agreement in the heart of the Army's high command on the desirability of terminating the Unidad Popular "experiment." How to do it was still nebulous. The constitutional generals, gathered around Army Commander-in-Chief General [[Carlos Prats]], were facing pressure from an increasingly hardline anti-Allende faction within the Army. Prats had coined the idea of an Allende–Armed Forces government, including a "political peace treaty" with the Christian Democrats and restricted participation of the [[Chilean Communist Party]] and a group of Socialists. Prats argued that "only thus will we prevent the extremist workers from rebelling." This idea had the support of Generals Joaquin Lagos Osorio, Herman Brady Roche, Washington Carrasco Fernandez, Hector Bravo Munoz, Mario Sepulveda Squella, Guillermo Pickering, and Orlando Urbina Herrera, but with variations. While Lagos Osorio and Urbina Herrera did not object to the Prats plan, the other five generals thought the Allende–Armed Forces government ought to be "transitional" and of "short duration," to prepare conditions for a "purely military government including the military police." The hardline faction, consisting of Generals Oscar Bonilla, [[Sergio Arellano Stark]], and Javier Palacios formed another group, joined by [[Augusto Pinochet]], which posited that the Allende–Armed Forces phase was not necessary.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.rrojasdatabank.info/murder50.htm | title=The murder of Allende and the end of the Chilean way to socialism | website=The Róbinson Rojas Archive }}</ref>

==American involvement==
{{See also|U.S. intervention in Chile#1973 coup}}
{{Covert United States involvement in regime change}}
{{quote box|width=25%|align=left|quote="Like [[Caesar (title)|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<ref>{{cite book|author1=Bill D. Moyers|author2=Henry Steele Commager|title=The secret government: the Constitution in crisis : with excerpts from 'An essay on Water-gate'|url=https://archive.org/details/secretgovernment00moye|url-access=registration |date=December 1990|publisher=Seven Locks Press|isbn=978-0-932020-85-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|title=The Secret Government – The Constitution In Crisis – Bill Moyers (PBS 1987)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eDTcGkOJj4| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211102/0eDTcGkOJj4| archive-date=2021-11-02 | url-status=live|medium=video}}{{cbignore}}</ref>}}

Many people in different parts of the world immediately suspected the U.S. of foul play. In early newspaper reports, the U.S. denied any involvement or previous knowledge of the coup.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BZGggv0hN9sC&dat=19730913&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|title=Estados Unidos niega en forma rotunda participación en golpe|date=13 September 1973|work=La Nación|via=Google Newspapers|archive-date=9 December 2020|access-date=1 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209212731/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BZGggv0hN9sC&dat=19730913&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Hostile Intent:U.S. Covert Operations in Chile, 1964–1974|last=Gustafson|first=Kristian|publisher=Potomac Books|year=2007|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=12, 203}}</ref> Prompted by an incriminating ''New York Times'' article, the U.S. Senate opened an investigation into U.S. interference in Chile.<ref name=":0" /> A report prepared by the [[United States Intelligence Community]] in 2000, at the direction of the [[National Intelligence Council]], that echoed the [[Church committee]], states that: {{blockquote|1=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{{snd}}because CIA did not discourage the takeover and had sought to instigate a coup in 1970{{snd}}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."<ref>
{{citation|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/chile/index.html|title=CIA Activities in Chile|date=18 September 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612225422/https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/chile/index.html|archive-date=12 June 2007|quote=To respond to Section 311 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (referred to hereafter as the Hinchey Amendment), the Intelligence Community (IC), led by the National Intelligence Council, reviewed [...]}}</ref> After a review of recordings of telephone conversations between Nixon and [[Henry Kissinger]], Robert Dallek concluded that both of them used the CIA to actively destabilize the Allende government. In one particular conversation about the news of Allende's overthrow, Kissinger complained about the lack of recognition of the American role in the overthrow of a "communist" government, upon which Nixon remarked, "Well, we didn't – as you know – our hand doesn't show on this one."<ref>
{{citation|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/arts/17iht-dallek.1.5318101.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all|title=Robert Dallek on Nixon and Kissinger|last=Shane|first=Scott|date=18 April 2007|work=The New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140114215904/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/arts/17iht-dallek.1.5318101.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all |archive-date=14 January 2014|quote=[...] 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.}}
</ref> 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."<ref name="CIA 2000_12">[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20000919/01-12.htm ''CIA 2000 report''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219200613/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20000919/01-12.htm |date=19 February 2015 }}, p. 12, [[National Security Archive]], George Washington University</ref>

{{quote box|width=25%|align=right|quote=Since Allende's inauguration, U.S. policy has been to maintain maximum covert pressure to prevent the Allende regime's consolidation. — [[William Colby]], September 16, 1973, in a memorandum to [[Henry Kissinger]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve16/d145|title=145. Memorandum From Director of Central Intelligence Colby to the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger)|last=Colby|first=W.E. |date=September 16, 1973  |website=[[Office of the Historian]] |publisher= |access-date=September 14, 2023 |quote=}}</ref>}}

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.<ref name="Winn 2010 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]].<ref name="The Pinochet File" /> 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]].<ref>[[Sun Axelsson|Axelsson, Sun]] ''Chili, le Dossier Noir. (Chile: The Black File)'' [[Paris]], [[France]]: [[Éditions Gallimard|Gallimard]], 1974, p. 87</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Memorandum for Mr. Henry Kissinger |publisher=United States Department of State |author=Ad Hoc Interagency Working Group on Chile |date=4 December 1970 |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch20-01.htm |access-date=10 December 2007 |archive-date=13 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110113110238/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch20-01.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 [[United States intervention in Chile#Track I|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 [[United States intervention in Chile#Track II|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 16 October 1970 stated:

{{Blockquote|text=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."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v21/d154|title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XXI, Chile, 1969–1973 – Office of the Historian|access-date=6 December 2020|archive-date=13 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200813115020/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v21/d154|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

[[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.<ref name="The Pinochet File">{{cite book|last=Kornbluh|first=Peter|title=The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability|year=2003|publisher=The New Press|location=New York|isbn=978-1-56584-936-5}}</ref> 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. By 1970, the U.S. manufacturing company [[ITT Corporation]] owned 70% of Chitelco (the Chilean Telephone Company), and also funded ''El Mercurio''. The CIA used ITT as a means of disguising the source of the illegitimate funding Allende's opponents received.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://foia.state.gov/Reports/HincheyReport.asp#17 |title=U.S. Dept. of State FOIA Electronic Reading Room – Hinchey Report (CIA Activities in Chile) |publisher=Foia.state.gov |access-date=19 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091020110606/http://foia.state.gov/Reports/HincheyReport.asp#17 |archive-date=20 October 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/world/edward-korry-81-is-dead-falsely-tied-to-chile-coup.html?pagewanted=1|work=The New York Times|title=Edward Korry, 81, Is Dead; Falsely Tied to Chile Coup|first=David|last=Stout|date=30 January 2003|access-date=20 April 2010|archive-date=12 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512023248/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/world/edward-korry-81-is-dead-falsely-tied-to-chile-coup.html?pagewanted=1|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/9/10/the_pinochet_file_how_us_politicians_banks_corporations_aided_chilean_coup_dictatorship The Pinochet File: How U.S. Politicians, Banks and Corporations Aided Chilean Coup, Dictatorship] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912170956/http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/9/10/the_pinochet_file_how_us_politicians_banks_corporations_aided_chilean_coup_dictatorship |date=12 September 2015 }}. ''[[Democracy Now!]]'' 10 September 2013.</ref> On 28 September 1973, the [[Weather Underground]] bombed ITT's headquarters in New York City in retaliation.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0815FA3554137A93CBAB1782D85F478785F9|work=The New York Times|date=29 September 1973|access-date=20 April 2010|title=I.T.T. Office Here Damaged by Bomb; Caller Linked Explosion at Latin-American Section to 'Crimes in Chile' I.T.T. Latin-American Office on Madison Ave. Damaged by Bomb Fire in Rome Office Bombing on the Coast Rally the Opponents|first=Paul L.|last=Montgomery|archive-date=12 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512100123/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0815FA3554137A93CBAB1782D85F478785F9|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ayers |first1=Bill |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X2OJhrWo6PcC&dq=itt+bomb+1973&pg=PT257 |title=Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground 1970–1974 |last2=Dohrn |first2=Bernardine |last3=Jones |first3=Jeff |date=2011 |publisher=Seven Stories Press |isbn=978-1-58322-965-1 |page=257 |language=en}}</ref>

According to an article written by lifelong CIA operative [[Jack Devine]], although it was widely reported that the CIA was directly involved in orchestrating and carrying out the coup, subsequently released sources suggest a much reduced role of the US government.<ref>Jack Devine & Peter Kornbluh, 'Showdown in Santiago: What Really Happened in Chile?', ''Foreign Affairs'' 93 (2014), 168–174.</ref>

==Military action==
{{more citations needed section|date=September 2018}}<!--first 3 paragraphs have no citations-->
By 6:00&nbsp;am on 11 September 1973, a date chosen to match a historical [[Government Junta of Chile (1924)|1924 coup]], 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 [[La Moneda Palace|presidential palace]] (La Moneda) with his bodyguards, the "[[Group of Personal Friends]]" (GAP).<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Ensalaco |first=Mark |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhg49 |title=Chile Under Pinochet: Recovering the Truth |date=2000 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |jstor=j.ctt3fhg49 |isbn=978-0-8122-3520-3 |archive-date=7 December 2024 |access-date=7 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241207121332/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhg49 |url-status=live }}</ref> By 8:00&nbsp;a.m., the Army had closed most radio and television stations in Santiago city, one of the first acts of the coup. By 8.30 a.m. both the carabineros and military broadcast their first edict, which would present a unified front that wanted Allende disposed. This edict declared that Allende would surrender his office to them and the carabineros and armed forces were a unified front that have tasked themselves with protecting Chile "from falling beneath the Marxist yoke."<ref name=":6"/> By 9 a.m. the only loyalist broadcast still in control of its station was Radio Magallens, operated by the Chilean Communist Party.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spener |first=David |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kft8ff |title=We Shall Not Be Moved/No nos moverán: Biography of a Song of Struggle |date=2016 |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=978-1-4399-1297-3 |pages=17–26 |jstor=j.ctt1kft8ff |archive-date=7 December 2024 |access-date=7 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241207203707/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kft8ff |url-status=live }}</ref> The Air Force bombed the remaining active stations and the President received incomplete information that convinced him that only a sector of the Navy conspired against him and his government.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Laborde |first=Antonia |date=2023-09-11 |title=Minuto a minuto: así fue el golpe militar del 11 de septiembre de 1973 en Chile |url=https://elpais.com/chile/2023-09-11/minuto-a-minuto-asi-fue-el-golpe-militar-del-11-de-septiembre-de-1973-en-chile.html |access-date=2023-09-12 |website=El País Chile |language=es-CL |archive-date=13 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230913055906/https://elpais.com/chile/2023-09-11/minuto-a-minuto-asi-fue-el-golpe-militar-del-11-de-septiembre-de-1973-en-chile.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

President Allende and Defense Minister [[Orlando Letelier]] were unable to communicate with military leaders. Orlando Letelier would be arrested by the military when he reached the Defense Ministry. Following this, he would be imprisoned, then exiled and assassinated in Washington D.C. on 21 September 1976.<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffitt {{!}} Forging Memory |url=https://www.forgingmemory.org/narrative/assassination-orlando-letelier-and-ronnie-moffitt |access-date=2024-12-07 |website=www.forgingmemory.org |language=en |archive-date=7 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241207234430/https://www.forgingmemory.org/narrative/assassination-orlando-letelier-and-ronnie-moffitt |url-status=live }}</ref> There is evidence that his assassination was ordered by Pinochet. 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), [[:es:José María Sepúlveda|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.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Steenland |first=Kyle |date=1974 |title=The Coup in Chile |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2633976 |journal=Latin American Perspectives |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=9–29 |doi=10.1177/0094582X7400100203 |issn=0094-582X |jstor=2633976 |archive-date=7 December 2024 |access-date=7 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241207225315/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2633976 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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&nbsp;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.<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last=Devine |first=Jack |date=2014 |title=What Really Happened in Chile: The CIA, the Coup Against Allende, and the Rise of Pinochet |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24483554 |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=93 |issue=4 |pages=26–35 |jstor=24483554 |issn=0015-7120 |archive-date=22 January 2021 |access-date=7 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122125013/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24483554 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":7" />

At approx. 9:00 the [[La Moneda Palace Guard|carabineros of the La Moneda]] left the building.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://diario.latercera.com/2013/09/07/01/contenido/reportajes/25-145786-9-el-balcon-del-adios.shtml
|title=El balcón del adiós &#124; Reportajes
|publisher=La Tercera Edición Impresa
|access-date=7 September 2013
|archive-date=29 April 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429004202/http://diario.latercera.com/2013/09/07/01/contenido/reportajes/25-145786-9-el-balcon-del-adios.shtml
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> By 9:00&nbsp;a.m., the armed forces controlled Chile, except for the city centre of the capital, Santiago. Originally, the military had planned to arrest Allende at his residence but he had made it to ''La Moneda,'' the presidential palace''.'' There, Allende refused to surrender, despite the military's declaring they would bomb the ''La Moneda'' if he resisted being deposed. The military would turn to negotiating with Allende where they would offer to fly him and his family out of Chile, which Allende would refuse.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Chile's Coup at 50 Countdown Toward a Coup {{!}} National Security Archive |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2023-09-08/chiles-coup-50-countdown-toward-coup |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=nsarchive.gwu.edu}}</ref> The Socialist Party along with his Cuban advisors 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. According to Tanya Harmer, Allende's refusal to lead an insurgency against the coup is evidence of his unrelenting desire to bring about change through non-violent methods.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Allende's Chile and the Inter-American Cold War|last=Harmer|first=Tanya|publisher=The University of North Carolina Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-8078-3495-4|editor-last=Odd Arne Westad|location=Chapel Hill|page=11}}</ref> The military attempted more negotiations with Allende, but the President refused to resign, citing his constitutional duty to remain in office. Finally, at 9:10 &nbsp;a.m., Allende gave a [[s:Salvador Allende's Last Speech|farewell speech]], telling the nation of the ''coup d'état'' and his refusal to resign his elected office under threat.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Allende Years and the Pinochet Coup, 1969–1973 |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/allende |website=Office of the Historian |access-date=31 October 2024 |archive-date=24 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324050938/https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/allende |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2" />

Leigh ordered the presidential palace bombed but was told the Air Force's [[Hawker Hunter]] jet aircraft would take forty minutes to arrive from their base at [[Concepción, Chile|Concepcion]]. 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.<ref>La misión era matar: el juicio a la caravana Pinochet–Arellano, By Jorge Escalante Hidalgo, p. 43, [[LOM Ediciones]], 2000</ref> 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&nbsp;pm.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FewtAAAAIBAJ&pg=7165,1410181&dq |title=Rome News Tribune |date=11 September 1973 |access-date=19 November 2011 |archive-date=20 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020172113/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FewtAAAAIBAJ&pg=7165,1410181&dq |url-status=live }}</ref> Allende's Cuban-trained guard would have had about 300 elite commando-trained GAP fighters at the time of the coup, according to a book of 2005 by [[Jonathan Haslam]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Jonathan Haslam|title=The Nixon Administration and the Death of Allende's Chile: A Case of Assisted Suicide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cBcDJ34AJGMC&pg=PA64|year=2005|publisher=Verso|isbn=978-1-84467-030-7|page=64}}</ref> but the use of brute military force, especially the use of Hawker Hunters, may have handicapped many GAP fighters from further action. Which was the case of some GAP members during the Hawker Hunters attack against Allende's residence in Tomás Moro.<ref name="ferrada-noli.blogspot.com">{{cite web |last=Carvallo |first=Mauricio |date=September 1999 |title=El Regreso de los GAP – La Vida por Salvador Allende |url=https://www.gap-chile.org/nuestros-martires/ |access-date=7 September 2023 |website=Salvador Allende GAP. Aporte a la memoria histórica. |publisher=Dispositivo de Seguridad del Presidente Salvador Allende}}</ref>

Allende would be found in his inner office dead, from a self inflicted bullet wound done between 2:00 and 2:30&nbsp;p.m.<ref name=":3" /> Prior to Allende's suicide, he addressed the nation one final time and stated hope for Chile in the future and wishing for the people to stay strong willed and overcome the darkness. In his own words he said: "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!"<ref>{{cite web |title=Document #28: 'Final Speech,' Salvador Allende (1973) |url=https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-10-chile/primary-documents-w-accompanying-discussion-questions/document-25-final-speech-by-salvador-allende-1973/ |website=Modern Latin America, 8th Edition Companion Website |publisher=Brown University Library |access-date=January 17, 2024 |archive-date=18 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118032519/https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-10-chile/primary-documents-w-accompanying-discussion-questions/document-25-final-speech-by-salvador-allende-1973/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Pinochet's rule would officially begin at 2:30&nbsp;p.m. 11 September 1973.<ref name=":8" />

==Casualties==
[[File:Chile- el pueblo vencera cropped.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The facilities of the [[Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos|National Stadium]] were used as a detention and torture center after the coup.]]
According to official reports prepared after the return of democracy, at La Moneda only two people died: President Allende and the journalist Augusto Olivares (both by suicide). Two more were injured, Antonio Aguirre and Osvaldo Ramos, both members of President Allende's entourage; they would later be allegedly kidnapped from the hospital and disappeared. In November 2006, the Associated Press noted that more than 15 [[bodyguard]]s and aides were taken from the palace during the coup and are still unaccounted for; in 2006 Augusto Pinochet [[Indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet|was indicted]] for two of their deaths.<ref>{{cite news |agency=[[Associated Press]] |website=[[Bostonherald.com]] |url=http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=169298 |title=Pinochet indicted for deaths of Allende bodyguards, put under house arrest |date=27 November 2006 |accessdate=11 December 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/01/chile-court-upholds-pinochet-bail-in.php |title=Chile court upholds Pinochet bail in one case, removes immunity in another |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307013833/http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/01/chile-court-upholds-pinochet-bail-in.php |archive-date=7 March 2008 |date=11 January 2006 |language=en |url-status=dead |website=jurist.law.pitt.edu}}</ref>

On the military side, there were 34 deaths: two army [[sergeant]]s, three army [[corporal]]s, four [[Private (rank)|army privates]], two navy lieutenants, one navy corporal, four naval cadets, three navy conscripts and 15 carabineros.<ref>{{cite web |title=Martires y Victimas de la Unidad Popular |first=Juan Alvaro |last=Arce |url=http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/1687/History_Chile_1970-73/martires.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091018192607/http://geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/1687/History_Chile_1970-73/martires.html |archive-date=18 October 2009 |url-status=dead |access-date=15 August 2009}}</ref> In mid-September, the Chilean military junta claimed its troops suffered another 16 dead and 100 injured by gunfire in mopping-up operations against Allende supporters, and Pinochet said: "sadly there are still some armed groups who insist on attacking, which means that the military rules of wartime apply to them."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nRMyAAAAIBAJ&pg=2709,16507&dq |title=Chile wars armed civilians |work=[[The Montreal Gazette]] |date=17 September 1973 |access-date=19 November 2011 |archive-date=28 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328073206/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nRMyAAAAIBAJ&pg=2709,16507&dq |url-status=live }}</ref> A press photographer also died in the crossfire while attempting to cover the event. On 23 October 1973, 23-year-old army corporal Benjamín Alfredo Jaramillo Ruz, who was serving with the ''Cazadores'', became the first fatal casualty of the counterinsurgency operations in the mountainous area of Alquihue in Valdivia after being shot by a sniper.<ref>Informe de la Comisión Nacional de Verdad y Reconciliación", Vol. I, p. 441, Santiago, Chile, 1991. (SM, V, Chro)</ref> The Chilean Army suffered 12 killed in various clashes with MIR guerrillas and GAP fighters in October 1973.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.despiertachile.cl/2001/agosto/hojasagosto/edicion2.htm |title=Mártires De Las Ff.Aa., De Orden Y Seguridad |date=11 April 2008 |access-date=19 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411012053/http://www.despiertachile.cl/2001/agosto/hojasagosto/edicion2.htm |archive-date=11 April 2008}}</ref>

While fatalities in the battle during the coup might have been relatively small, the Chilean security forces sustained 162 dead in the three following months as a result of continued resistance,<ref name="books.google.co.uk">{{cite book|author=Robert L. Scheina|title=Latin America's Wars Volume II: The Age of the Professional Soldier, 1900–2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FojnWy7_RN4C|date=2003|publisher=Potomac Books, Inc.|isbn=978-1-57488-452-4}}</ref> and tens of thousands of people were arrested during the coup and held in the National Stadium.<ref>{{cite report |first=Alex |last=Wilde |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030212124341/http://www.fordfound.org/publications/ff_report/view_ff_report_detail.cfm?report_index=384 |url=http://www.fordfound.org/publications/ff_report/view_ff_report_detail.cfm?report_index=384  |archive-date=2003-02-12 |title=In Chile, a New Generation Revisits Haunted Space |work=[[Ford Foundation]] Report |issue=Winter 2003 |accessdate=11 December 2006}}</ref> An estimated 40,000 Chileans were tortured under the Pinochet regime in the years following the coup.<ref>{{cite web |last=Fison |first=Maryrose |date=2013-09-12 |title=Chileans honor those tortured, killed after 1973 military coup |url=https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2013-sep-12-la-fg-wn-chile-military-coup-anniversary-20130912-story.html |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=Los Angeles Times }}</ref>

==Allende's death==
{{Main|Death of Salvador Allende}}
President Allende died in La Moneda during the coup. The junta officially declared that he committed suicide with a rifle given to him by Fidel Castro, two doctors from the infirmary of La Moneda stated that they witnessed the suicide,<ref>{{cite web |first=Ronald |last=Hilton |authorlink=Ronald Hilton |url=http://wais.stanford.edu/Chile/chile_conflict.html |title=Chile: The Continuing Historical Conflict |publisher=[[World Association of International Studies]] |date=22 December 1997 |accessdate=22 September 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061026205854/http://wais.stanford.edu/Chile/chile_conflict.html }}</ref> and an autopsy labelled Allende's death a suicide. Vice Admiral Patricio Carvajal, one of the primary instigators of the coup, claimed that "Allende committed suicide and is dead now."<ref>{{cite web |title=Patricio Carvajal Prado |date=2015 |website=Memoria Viva |url=https://www.memoriaviva.com/criminales/criminales_c/carvajal_prado_patricio.htm |access-date=11 August 2024 |archive-date=11 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240811183838/https://www.memoriaviva.com/criminales/criminales_c/carvajal_prado_patricio.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Patricio Guijon, one of the president's doctors, had testified to witnessing Allende shoot himself under the chin with the rifle while seated on a sofa.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Carroll |first1=Rory |title=Exhumation fails to end mystery over death of Salvador Allende |url=https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:531F-86C1-JCDH-0208-00000-00 |access-date=25 September 2018 |newspaper=The Observer |date=5 June 2011}}</ref>

At the time, few of Allende's supporters believed the explanation that Allende had killed himself.<ref>{{cite book |first=Róbinson |last=Rojas |url=http://www.rrojasdatabank.info/murder.htm |title=The murder of Allende and the end of the Chilean way to socialism |publisher=[[Harper and Row]], [[Fitzhenry & Whiteside]] |year=1975 |via=RRojasDatabank.info |archive-date=4 May 2009 |access-date=8 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504062514/http://www.rrojasdatabank.info/murder.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Allende's body was exhumed in May 2011. The exhumation was requested by members of the Allende family, including his daughter Isabel who viewed the question of her father's death as "an insult to scientific intelligence." A scientific autopsy was performed, and the autopsy team delivered a unanimous finding on 19 July 2011 that Allende committed suicide using an [[AK-47]] rifle.<ref name="ak-47">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/20/salvador-allende-committed-suicide-autopsy |title=Chilean president Salvador Allende committed suicide, autopsy confirms |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=2011-07-20 |archive-date=16 October 2015 |access-date=10 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016083124/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/20/salvador-allende-committed-suicide-autopsy |url-status=live }}</ref> The team was composed of international forensic experts to assure an independent evaluation.

However, on 31 May 2011, Chile's state television station reported that a top-secret military account of Allende's death had been discovered in the home of a former military justice official. The 300-page document was found only when the house was destroyed in the [[2010 Chile earthquake|2010 Chilean earthquake]]. After reviewing the report, two forensic experts told [[Televisión Nacional de Chile]] "that they are inclined to conclude that Allende was assassinated."<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://archive.boston.com/news/science/articles/2011/05/31/chile_tv_secret_report_suggests_allende_murdered/|title=Chile TV: Secret report suggests Allende murdered|last1=Vegara|first1=Eva|date=31 May 2011|work=[[The Boston Globe]]|access-date=2018-08-03 |publisher=[[Associated Press]] |last2=Warren|first2=Michael}}</ref> Two forensics experts said they believed he was shot with a small-calibre weapon prior to the AK-47. One expert, Luis Ravanal, noted the lack of blood on his collar, sweater and throat suggested someone else fired the AK-47 when he was already dead.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Carroll |first1=Rory |title=Exhumation fails to end mystery over death of Salvador Allende |url=https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:531F-86C1-JCDH-0208-00000-00 |access-date=26 September 2018 |newspaper=[[The Observer]] |date=5 June 2011}}</ref>

Allende's widow and family escaped the military government and were accepted for exile in Mexico, where they remained for 17 years.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BZGggv0hN9sC&dat=19730914&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|title=Mexico dio asilo a la viuda de Allende|date=14 September 1973|work=La Nacion|via=Google Newspapers|archive-date=19 December 2019|access-date=1 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191219212101/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BZGggv0hN9sC&dat=19730914&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/25/obituary-hortensia-bussi-de-allende|title=Hortensia Bussi de Allende|last=Gott|first=Richard|date=24 June 2009|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|access-date=2017-02-05|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308152242/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/25/obituary-hortensia-bussi-de-allende|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Aftermath==
===Installing a new regime===
{{Main|Government Junta of Chile (1973)}}
[[File:Chile Junta001.jpg|thumb|Original members of the [[Government Junta of Chile (1973)]]]]

On 13 September, the Junta dissolved Congress,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/chile/story/0,,1033575,00.html |title=Junta general names himself as new President of Chile |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=14 September 1973 |first=Richard |last=Gott |authorlink=Richard Gott}}</ref> outlawed the parties that had been part of the Popular Unity coalition, and all political activity was declared "in recess".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.economist.com/countries/Chile/profile.cfm?folder=History+in+brief |title=Economist.com – Country Briefings: Chile |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=2 July 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080702045239/http://www.economist.com/countries/Chile/profile.cfm?folder=History+in+brief |archive-date=2 July 2008}}</ref> The military government took control of all media, including the radio broadcasting that Allende attempted to use to give his final speech to the nation. It is not known how many Chileans actually heard the last words of Allende as he spoke them, but a transcript and audio of the speech survived the military government.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/allende/1973/september/11.htm|title=Salvador Allende: Last speech|website=www.marxists.org|access-date=2016-05-01|archive-date=8 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151008222411/https://www.marxists.org/archive/allende/1973/september/11.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=La Prensa Chilena En La Encrucijada: Entre La Voz Monocorde Y La Revolución Digital|last=M. Baltra|first=Lidia|publisher=[[LOM Ediciones]]|year=2012}}</ref> Chilean scholar Lidia M. Baltra details how the military took control of the media platforms and turned them into their own "propaganda machine".<ref name=":1" /> The only two newspapers that were allowed to continue publishing after the military takeover were ''El Mercurio'' and ''La Tercera de la Hora'', both of which were anti-Allende under his leadership.<ref name=":1" /> The dictatorship's silencing of the leftist point of view extended past the media and into "every discourse that expressed any resistance to the regime".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cucurella|first=Paula|date=2014|title=A Weak Force: On the Chilean Dictatorship and Visual Arts|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/article/539218|journal=The New Centennial Review|volume=14|issue=1|pages=99–127|doi=10.14321/crnewcentrevi.14.1.0099|s2cid=144977347|archive-date=24 June 2016|access-date=1 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624194739/http://muse.jhu.edu/article/539218|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> An example of this is the torturing and death of folk singer [[Víctor Jara]]. The military government detained Jara in the days following the coup. He, along with many other leftists, were held in Estadio Nacional, or the National Stadium of Chile in the capital of Santiago. Initially, the Junta tried to silence him by crushing his hands, but ultimately, he was murdered.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Murder of Chile: Eyewitness Accounts of the Coup, the Terror, and the Resistance Today |last=Chavkin|first=Samuel |publisher=Everest House Publishers|year=1973|location=New York |pages=208–236}}</ref> Immediately after the coup the military sought television host [[Don Francisco (television host)|Don Francisco]] to have him report on the events. Don Francisco declined the offer, encouraging the captain that had approached him to take the role of reporter himself.<ref>{{cite news |last=Contreras |first=Emilio |date=13 July 2017 |title=Don Francisco contó desconocido episodio vivido el día después al golpe de Estado de 1973 |url=http://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/espectaculos-y-tv/tv/2017/07/13/don-francisco-conto-desconocido-episodio-vivido-el-dia-despues-al-golpe-de-estado-de-1973.shtml |work=[[Radio Cooperativa]] |access-date=9 December 2017 |language=es |archive-date=10 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171210231933/http://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/espectaculos-y-tv/tv/2017/07/13/don-francisco-conto-desconocido-episodio-vivido-el-dia-despues-al-golpe-de-estado-de-1973.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

Initially, there were four leaders of the junta: In addition to General Augusto Pinochet, from the Army, there were General Gustavo Leigh Guzmán, of the Air Force; Admiral José Toribio Merino Castro, of the Navy (who replaced Constitutionalist Admiral [[:es:Raúl Montero Cornejo|Raúl Montero]]); and General Director [[César Mendoza|César Mendoza Durán]], of the National Police (''Carabineros de Chile'') (who replaced Constitutionalist General Director José María Sepúlveda). Coup leaders soon decided against a rotating presidency and named General Pinochet permanent head of the junta which would establish a 17-year-long civil-military dictatorship.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Faúndez Abarca |first1=Ximena |last2=Bravo Vidal |first2=Diego |last3=Gamboa Morales |first3=Dahiana |date=September 2023 |title=Women's Memories of the Day of the Chilean Coup in the City of Valparaíso |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08862605231168815 |journal=Journal of Interpersonal Violence |language=en |volume=38 |issue=17–18 |pages=9613–9640 |doi=10.1177/08862605231168815 |pmid=37162191 |issn=0886-2605|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite report |url=http://foia.state.gov/Reports/HincheyReport.asp#18
|title=Hinchey Report on CIA Activities in Chile |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091020110606/http://foia.state.gov/Reports/HincheyReport.asp#18 |archivedate=20 October 2009 |date=18 September 2000}}</ref>

In the months that followed the coup, the ''junta'', with authoring work by historian [[Gonzalo Vial Correa|Gonzalo Vial]] and Admiral Patricio Carvajal, published a book titled ''El Libro Blanco del cambio de gobierno en Chile'' (commonly known as ''El Libro Blanco'', "The White Book of the Change of Government in Chile"), where they attempted to justify the coup by claiming that they were in fact anticipating a self-coup (the alleged ''[[Plan Zeta]]'', or Plan Z) that Allende's government or its associates were purportedly preparing. Historian [[Peter Winn]] states that the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] had an extensive part to play in fabricating the conspiracy and in selling it to the press, both in Chile and internationally.<ref name="Winn 2010 270-271"/> Although later discredited and officially recognized as the product of political propaganda,<ref name="Valech1">{{cite book |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050520040544/http://www.gobiernodechile.cl/comision_valech/pdf/Capitulo3.pdf |url=http://www.gobiernodechile.cl/comision_valech/pdf/Capitulo3.pdf |url-status=dead |title=Comisión Nacional sobre Prisión Política y Tortura |chapter=III Contexto |publisher=[[Government of Chile]] |archive-date=2005-05-20}}</ref> Gonzalo Vial has pointed to the similarities between the alleged Plan Z and other existing paramilitary plans of the Popular Unity parties in support of its legitimacy.<ref>{{cite news|last=Vial Correa|first=Gonzalo|title=Carlos Altamirano, el Plan Z y la 'Operación Blanqueo' |newspaper=La Segunda|date=23 September 2003}}</ref>

A document from September 13 shows that [[Jaime Guzmán]] was by then already tasked to study the creation of [[Chilean Constitution of 1980|a new constitution]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Los informes secretos de la CIA sobre Jaime Guzmán|url=https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2013/11/05/los-informes-secretos-de-la-cia-sobre-jaime-guzman/|last=Basso Prieto|first=Carlos|date=2013-11-05|access-date=2021-09-29|work=[[El Mostrador]]|archive-date=17 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017234219/https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2013/11/05/los-informes-secretos-de-la-cia-sobre-jaime-guzman/|url-status=live}}</ref> One of the first measures of the dictatorship was to set up a Secretaría Nacional de la Juventud (SNJ, National Youth Office). This was done on 28 October 1973, even before the Declaration of Principles of the junta made in March 1974. This was a way of mobilizing sympathetic elements of the civil society in support for the dictatorship.<ref name=Yanko2015>{{cite journal |last1=González |first1=Yanko |date=2015 |title=El 'Golpe Generacional' y la Secretaría Nacional de la Juventud: purga, disciplinamiento y resocialización de las identidades juveniles bajo Pinochet (1973–1980) |journal=[[Atenea]] |volume=512 |issue=512 |pages=87–111 |doi=10.4067/S0718-04622015000200006|language=es |trans-title=The "Generational Putsch" and the National youth Office: Purge, disciplining and resocialization of youth identities under Pinochet (1973–1980) |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Continued violence===
{{See also|Armed resistance in Chile (1973–1990)}}
[[File:Desaparecidos Chile 1973.JPG|thumb|Pictures of persons missing after the 1973 Chilean coup]]
In the first months after the ''coup d'état,'' the military killed thousands of Chilean leftists, both real and suspected, or forced their "[[forced disappearance|disappearance]]". The military imprisoned 40,000 political enemies in the [[Estadio Nacional de Chile|National Stadium of Chile]]; among the tortured and killed ''[[desaparecidos]]'' (disappeared) were the U.S. citizens [[Charles Horman]] and [[Frank Teruggi]].<ref name = nsaebb33/> In September 1973, the Chilean songwriter [[Víctor Jara]] was murdered, along with 70 other people in a series of killings perpetrated by the death squad [[Caravan of Death]] (''Caravana de la Muerte'').

The government arrested some 130,000 people in a three-year period;<ref name=torture/><ref>{{cite web |title=Chile Issues Report on Pinochet Torture &#124; Article from AP Online &#124; HighBeam Research |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-102284469.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512100125/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-102284469.html |archive-date=12 May 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=11 April 2009 }}</ref> the dead and disappeared numbered thousands in the first months of the military government. In Valparaiso, it is estimated that there were 6,918 victims of political capturing and torture.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Faúndez Abarca |first1=Ximena |last2=Bravo Vidal |first2=Diego |last3=Gamboa Morales |first3=Dahiana |date=2023-09-01 |title=Women's Memories of the Day of the Chilean Coup in the City of Valparaíso |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/08862605231168815 |journal=Journal of Interpersonal Violence |language=en |volume=38 |issue=17–18 |pages=9613–9640 |doi=10.1177/08862605231168815 |pmid=37162191 |issn=0886-2605 |archive-date=7 December 2024 |access-date=7 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241207094621/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/08862605231168815 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Those include the British physician [[Sheila Cassidy]], who survived to publicize in the UK the human rights violations in Chile.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/03/pinochet.chile13|work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |title=Right rejoices as general's foes vow to keep up fight|first=Ewen|last=MacAskill|date=3 March 2000|access-date=20 April 2010}}</ref> Among those detained was [[Alberto Bachelet]] (father of future Chilean President [[Michelle Bachelet]]), an [[Chilean Air Force|Air Force]] official; he was tortured and died on 12 March 1974,<ref name="pbs_president_elect">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/latin_america/jan-june06/chile_1-25.html |title=Chile's President-Elect |publisher=Pbs.org |access-date=19 November 2011 |archive-date=23 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223075259/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/latin_america/jan-june06/chile_1-25.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="alertnet_Bachelet">{{cite web |url=http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14386234.htm |title=Chile's Bachelet visits site of her own torture |publisher=Alertnet.org |date=6 November 2011 |access-date=19 November 2011 |archive-date=9 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109053725/http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14386234.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=13131 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20070807073814/http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=13131 |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 August 2007 |title=Chile: The Good Democracy? |publisher=Zmag.org |access-date=19 November 2011  }}</ref> the right-wing newspaper, ''[[El Mercurio]]'',<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite news |last=Pérez de Arce |first=Hermógenes |title=Michelle Bachelet, ¿quién es realmente usted? |work=[[El Mercurio]] |date=15 January 2006}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6052364.stm |title=Chile head revisits torture site |work=BBC News |date=15 October 2006 |access-date=19 November 2011 |archive-date=23 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110923120127/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6052364.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalpolicy.org/intljustice/wanted/2006/1027chargedgold.htm |title=Chile's Pinochet Charged for Torture, Probed over Gold |publisher=Globalpolicy.org |date=27 October 2006 |access-date=19 November 2011 |archive-date=22 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090422125712/http://www.globalpolicy.org///intljustice/wanted/2006/1027chargedgold.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/14/AR2006101401393.html |title=Chile Leader Visits Site of Her Torture |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=14 October 2006 |access-date=19 November 2011 |archive-date=7 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107051442/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/14/AR2006101401393.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-01-20-pinochet_x.htm |title=Pinochet stripped of immunity in torture, kidnapping cases |work=USA Today |date=20 January 2006 |access-date=19 November 2011}}</ref>

The newspaper ''[[La Tercera]]'' published on its front page a photograph showing prisoners at [[Quiriquina Island]] Camp who had been captured during the fighting in [[Concepción, Chile|Concepción]]. The photograph's caption stated that some of the detained were "local bosses of [[Popular Unity (Chile)|Unidad Popular]]" while others were "extremists who had attacked the armed forces with firearms". The photo was reproduced 2013 in [[The Indicter]],<ref name="wordpress1">{{cite web |last=Diario La Tercera |first=Chile |date=6 October 1973 |title=Los presos en la Quiriquina |url=https://theindicter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Los-presos-en-la-quiriquina.-Translated-caption-1536x1479.png |access-date=5 September 2023 |website=The Indicter |publication-place=Stockholm, Sweden |publication-date=13 October 2018}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> identifying among the 'local bosses' Fernando Alvarez, then Concepción Province's head authority appointed by Allende (executed one month thereafter); and among the fighting 'extremists', [[Marcello Ferrada de Noli]], one founder of [[Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)|MIR]] and then professor at the [[University of Concepción]].<ref name="personal-testimony"/>

This is consistent with reports in newspapers and broadcasts in Concepción about the activities of the Armed Forces, which mentioned clashes with "extremists" on several occasions from 11 to 14 September. Nocturnal skirmishes took place around the Hotel Alonso de Ercilla in Colo Colo and San Martín Street, one block away from the Army and military police administrative headquarters. A recently published testimony about the clashes in Concepción offers several plausible explanations for the reticence of witnesses to these actions.<ref>Ferrada de Noli Marcello (2021), Fighting Pinochet. Libertarian Books Europe, Stockholm / Bergamo. {{ISBN|978-91-88747-00-6}}. https://libertarianbooks.eu/2021/05/20/fighting-pinochet/ /  https://archive.org/details/fighting-pinochet/Fighting%20Pinochet%20/</ref><ref name="personal-testimony">{{cite news |last=Romelsjö |first=Anders |date=13 October 2018 |title=Personal testimony by a revolutionary professor on the military coup in Chile |work=[[The Indicter]] |location=Stockholm |url=https://theindicter.com/personal-testimony-by-a-revolutionary-professor-on-the-military-coup-in-chile-by-prof-anders-romelsjo/ |access-date=8 September 2023 |archive-date=25 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230925162802/https://theindicter.com/personal-testimony-by-a-revolutionary-professor-on-the-military-coup-in-chile-by-prof-anders-romelsjo/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Besides political leaders and participants, the coup also affected many everyday Chilean citizens. Pinochet and the military junta proclaimed that they were going to get rid of "the cancerous tumor," in reference to Chile's left.<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal |last=Simalchik |first=Joan |date=2006-12-01 |title=The Material Culture of Chilean Exile: A Transnational Dialogue |journal=Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees |language=en |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=95–105 |doi=10.25071/1920-7336.21358 |issn=1920-7336 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Thousands were killed, went missing, and were injured.  Thousands more emigrated or were exiled because of the political instability in their country, many relocated elsewhere.  Canada, among other countries, became a main point of refuge for many Chilean citizens.  Through an operation known as "Special Movement Chile", more than 7,000 Chileans were relocated to Canada in the months following 11 September 1973.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Foster|first1=John |last2=Carty|first2=Bob|title=Chile's 1973 Coup, 40 Years Later: Observances, Part 2 |url=http://opencanada.org/branch-news/chiles-1973-coup-40-years-later-observances-part-two/ |website=Opencanada.org|publisher=Canadian International Council|access-date=18 June 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627071325/http://opencanada.org/branch-news/chiles-1973-coup-40-years-later-observances-part-two/ |archive-date=27 June 2014}}</ref> These refugees are now known as [[Chilean Canadian]] people and have a population of over 38,000.<ref>{{Cite web|date=8 May 2013|title=2011 National Household Survey: Data tables|url=http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/dp-pd/dt-td/Rp-eng.cfm?TABID=2&LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=1118296&GK=0&GRP=0&PID=105396&PRID=0&PTYPE=105277&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2013&THEME=95&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&D1=0&D2=0&D3=0&D4=0&D5=0&D6=0|access-date=2017-02-05|website=Statistics Canada|language=en|archive-date=24 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224190955/https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/dp-pd/dt-td/Rp-eng.cfm?TABID=2&LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=1118296&GK=0&GRP=0&PID=105396&PRID=0&PTYPE=105277&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2013&THEME=95&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&D1=0&D2=0&D3=0&D4=0&D5=0&D6=0%20|url-status=live}}</ref> Chileans would find asylum in over 40 countries around the world.<ref name=":9" /> While the exact number is unknown it is estimated that at least 200,000 Chileans left Chile between 1973 and 1990, the largest flow of emigration in Chile's history.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Doña-Reveco |first=Cristián |date=September 2020 |title=Memories of Exile and Temporary Return: Chilean Exiles Remember Chile |journal=Latin Americanist |volume=64 |issue=3 |pages=334–355|doi=10.1353/tla.2020.0024 }}</ref>

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 (Imprisonment)|detention]] centers, among others, [[Colonia Dignidad]], the tall ship [[Esmeralda (BE-43)|''Esmeralda'']] and Víctor Jara Stadium. Later, in November 2004, the [[Valech Report]] confirmed the number as fewer than 3,000 killed and reduced the number of cases of forced disappearance; but some 28,000 people were arrested, imprisoned, and tortured. Sixty individuals died as a direct result of fighting on 11 September, although the [[Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)|MIR]] and GAP continued to fight the following day. It has been put forward that, in all, 46 of Allende's guard (the GAP, ''Grupo de Amigos Personales'') were killed, some of them in combat with the soldiers that took the Moneda.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/165/29585.html |title=Pinochet Stripped of Legal Immunity |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=11 January 2006 |publisher=Globalpolicy.org |access-date=19 November 2011 |archive-date=11 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111035015/http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/165/29585.html |url-status=live }}</ref> However, a report of 1999 published by an organization of ex-GAP which survived the events around the coup d'état, says that no one among the GAP members were killed in La Moneda combat. The source affirms that there were only 50 members of the GAP at that time, totally.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carvallo |first=Mauricio |date=September 1999 |title=El Regreso de los GAP – La Vida por Salvador Allende |url=https://www.gap-chile.org/nuestros-martires/ |access-date=7 September 2023 |archive-date=7 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230907213837/https://www.gap-chile.org/nuestros-martires/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The same information about the number of GAP members was later confirmed in an academic publication.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pérez |first=Cristián |date=2000 |title=Salvador Allende – Apuntes sobre su dispositivo de seguridad: El Grupo de Amigos Personales (GAP). |url=https://www.estudiospublicos.cl/index.php/cep/article/view/888/1581 |access-date=7 September 2023 |journal=Estudios Públicos |issue=79 |language=Spanish |archive-date=7 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230907225944/https://www.estudiospublicos.cl/index.php/cep/article/view/888/1581 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The U.S. view of the coup continues to spark controversy. Beginning in late 2014 in response to a request by Senate Armed Services Committee Chair [[Carl Levin]], [[United States Southern Command]] (USSOUTHCOM) [[William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies]] (CHDS), located at the [[National Defense University (Washington, D.C.)|National Defense University]] in Washington, D.C., has been under investigation by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General. Insider national security whistleblower complaints included that the Center knowingly protected a CHDS professor from Chile who was a former top advisor to Pinochet after belonging to the [[Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional]] / [[Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional|DINA]] state terrorist organization (whose attack against a former Chilean foreign minister in 1976 in Washington, D.C., resulted in two deaths, including that of an American). "Reports that NDU hired foreign military officers with histories of involvement in human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial killings of civilians, are stunning, and they are repulsive", said [[Patrick Leahy|Sen. Patrick Leahy]], D-Vermont, the author of the "Leahy Law" prohibiting U.S. assistance to military units and members of foreign security forces that violate human rights.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Martin Edwin |last=Andersen |url=https://www.academia.edu/25856284 |title=Unpunished U.S. Southern Command role in '09 Honduran military coup |date=24 May 2016 |website=[[Academia.edu]] |archive-date=28 March 2022 |access-date=4 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328073210/https://www.academia.edu/25856284 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first1=Marisa |last1=Taylor |first2=Kevin G. |last2=Hall |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article16508918.html |title=For years, Pentagon paid professor despite revoked visa and accusations of torture in Chile |date=27 March 2015 |work=[[Miami Herald]] |archive-date=13 September 2017 |access-date=4 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913205300/http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article16508918.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first1=Julia |last1=Hart |first2=R. Jeffrey |last2=Smith |date=March 31, 2015 |url=https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/03/11/16872/flagship-military-university-hired-foreign-officers-linked-human-rights-abuses |title=Flagship military university hired foreign officers linked to human rights abuses in Latin America |archive-date=6 October 2016 |access-date=4 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006102417/https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/03/11/16872/flagship-military-university-hired-foreign-officers-linked-human-rights-abuses |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |publisher=[[McClatchy Washington Bureau]] |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVJeYfOtMqw  |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/EVJeYfOtMqw |archive-date=2021-12-22 |url-status=live|title=Chilean 70's torture survivor seeks justice |date=12 March 2015 |via=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

[[Roberto Thieme]], the military leader of [[Fatherland and Liberty]], who was imprisoned on 11 September was shocked to hear about the degree of violence the coup was carried out with. Despite being an arduous opponent of Unidad Popular he had expected a cleaner coup.<ref>González 2013, p. 385.</ref>

===International reaction===
President of Argentina [[Juan Domingo Perón]] condemned the coup calling it a "fatality for the continent". Before the coup Perón had warned [[Tendencia Revolucionaria|the more radical of his followers]] to stay calm and "not do as Allende".<ref name=Ortega2014>{{cite journal |first=José|last=Ortega |url=http://www.encrucijadaamericana.cl/articulos/a6_n2/4_peron_y_chile.pdf|title=Perón y Chile |journal=Encucijada Americana |year=2014|volume=6 |issue=2 |page=67 |doi=10.53689/ea.v6i2.67 |s2cid=211276031 }}</ref> Argentine students protested the coup at the Chilean embassy in [[Buenos Aires]], where part of them chanted that they were "ready to cross the Andes" (''dispuestos a cruzar la cordillera'').<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl9n3X5AqIQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211102/Gl9n3X5AqIQ |archive-date=2021-11-02 |url-status=live |title=DiFilm – Protesta de estudiantes en la Embajada de Chile 1973|last=[[DiFilm]]|date=10 March 2014|publisher=[[DiFilm]]|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In [[Francoist Spain]] the coup came as a shock to the opposition many whom immediately identified the parallels between [[Francisco Franco]] and Pinochet and between the coup and the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref name=sociedadcivil>{{Cite journal |title=Relaciones hispano-chilenas durante la Transición española (1975-1982): sociedad civil y mecanismos de solidaridad |journal=Ayer |last=Feria Vázquez |first=Pedro |url=https://www.revistasmarcialpons.es/revistaayer/article/view/relaciones-hispano-chilenas-durante-la-transicion-espanola-1975-/972 |volume=126 |issue=2 |pages=271–299 |year=2022|language=es}}</ref> Since Spain was still under authoritarian rule the opposition was limited in its range of action.<ref name=sociedadcivil/> The [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party]] officially condemned the coup in its 1974 congress in France and ''[[Mundo Obrero]]'' of the [[Communist Party of Spain]] called for resistance against the new regime.<ref name=sociedadcivil/>

===Legal impact===
A number of cargo shipments involving trade with Cuba were affected by government policy decisions, and subsequently performance of the trade contracts underlying the shipping deliveries was made illegal under [[Cuban law]].<ref>Law No. 1256 of the Republic of Cuba</ref><ref name=todd>Todd, P. N., [https://web.archive.org/web/20140504220351/http://pntodd.users.netlink.co.uk/cases/cases_p/playa_l.htm Empresa Exportadora de Azucar v. Industria Azucarera Nacional S.A. (The Playa Larga and Marble Islands)], n.d., archived 4 May 2014, accessed 27 May 2021</ref> The Chilean company [[IANSA (company)|Iansa]] had purchased sugar from the Cuban business entity, Cubazukar, and several shipments were at different stages of the shipping and delivery process. The ships involved included:
* ''Playa Larga'' (delivery in Chile was underway but was not completed before the ship left)
* The ''Marble Island'' (the ship was ''en route'' for Chile but was diverted elsewhere)
* ''Aegis Fame'' (hire was cancelled before the cargo had been loaded).

The shipping contracts used [[Incoterms#CIF|c.i.f.]] trade terms. Iansa sued Cubazukar for non-delivery. The [[High Court of Justice|High Court]] (in England) ruled that IANSA was entitled to damages in respect of the undelivered balance of the ''Playa Larga'' cargo and to restitution of the price paid for the ''Marble Island'' cargo. Subsequent appeals by both parties were dismissed.<ref>[[Court of Appeal (England and Wales)|Court of Appeal]] (Civil Division), [https://vlex.co.uk/vid/empresa-exportadora-azucar-cubazucar-801997305 Empresa Exportadora de Azucar (Cubazucar) v Industria Azucarera Nacional SA (IANSA) (England, Court of Appeal, Civil Division.)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331063552/https://vlex.co.uk/vid/empresa-exportadora-azucar-cubazucar-801997305 |date=31 March 2023 }}, 2 Lloyd's Rep. 171, accessed 27 November 2022</ref> In regard to the ''Aegis Fame'' shipping, the contract was [[Frustration of purpose|frustrated]] and therefore Cubazukar were not in breach.<ref name=todd />

==Commemoration==
The commemoration of the coup is associated to competing narratives on its cause and effects.<ref name=Waldman2014/> The coup has been commemorated by detractors and supporters in various ways.

On 11 September 1975 Pinochet lit the [[Llama de la Libertad]] ({{lit|Flame of Liberty}}) to commemorate the coup. This flame was extinguished in 2004.<ref name=EMOLbachelet>{{cite web |url=http://www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/2003/10/08/125557/ministerio-de-defensa-pagara-el-gas-de-la-llama-de-la-libertad.html |title=Ministerio de Defensa pagará el gas de la llama de la libertad |website=Emol |date=8 October 2003 |publisher=[[El Mercurio]] |access-date=3 February 2016 |language=es |archive-date=10 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160210004542/http://www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/2003/10/08/125557/ministerio-de-defensa-pagara-el-gas-de-la-llama-de-la-libertad.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=abc>{{Cite web |url=http://archivo.abc.com.py/2004-10-19/articulos/140158/apagan-la-llama-eterna-de-la-libertad-encendida-por-pinochet |website=[[ABC Color]] |title=Apagan la 'Llama Eterna de la Libertad' encendida por Pinochet |date=19 October 2004 |access-date=22 February 2013 |language=es |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208050215/http://archivo.abc.com.py/2004-10-19/articulos/140158/apagan-la-llama-eterna-de-la-libertad-encendida-por-pinochet |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[:es:Avenida Nueva Providencia|Avenida Nueva Providencia]] in [[Providencia, Chile|Providencia]], Santiago, was renamed Avenida 11 de Septiembre in 1980.<ref name=24hrsMUNI>{{cite web|url = http://www.24horas.cl/nacional/comienza-cambio-de-senaletica-por-nueva-providencia-744252|title = Municipio cambia de señalética de avenida por 'Nueva Providencia'|date = 14 July 2013|access-date = 15 July 2013|website = 24 Horas|language = es|archive-date = 11 November 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141111212112/http://www.24horas.cl/nacional/comienza-cambio-de-senaletica-por-nueva-providencia-744252|url-status = live}}</ref> In the 30th anniversary of the coup President [[Ricardo Lagos]] inaugurated the Morandé 80 entrance to [[La Moneda]]. This entrance to the presidential palace had been erased during the repairs the dictatorship did to the building after the bombing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lanacion.cl/2003/09/11/la-moneda-abrio-su-puerta-a-la-memoria/ |title=La Moneda abrió su puerta a la memoria|last=Historico|access-date=24 July 2017|archive-date=1 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201043812/http://lanacion.cl/2003/09/11/la-moneda-abrio-su-puerta-a-la-memoria/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>

===40th anniversary===
The 40th anniversary of the coup in 2013 was particularly intense.<ref name=Waldman2014>{{cite journal |last1=Waldman |first1=Gilda |date=2014 |title=A cuarenta años del golpe militar en Chile. Reflexiones en torno a conmemoraciones y memorias |journal=Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales |volume=59 |issue=221 |pages=243–265 |doi=10.1016/S0185-1918(14)70823-2 |language=es|doi-access=free }}</ref> That year the name of Avenida 11 de Septiembre was reversed to the original Avenida Nueva Providencia.<ref name=24hrsMUNI/> The Association of Chilean Magistrates issued a public statement in early September 2013 recognizing the past unwillingness of judges to protect those persecuted by dictatorship.<ref name=Waldman2014/> On 11 September 2013 hundreds of Chileans posed as dead in the streets of Santiago in remembrance of the ones "disappeared" by the dictatorship.<ref name=Elpaisuy40/>

The centre-left opposition refused to attend the commemoration event organized by [[Sebastián Piñera]]'s right-wing government organizing instead a separate event.<ref name=Elpaisuy40/> [[Osvaldo Andrade]] of the [[Socialist Party of Chile|Socialist Party]] explained that attendance was not viable as Piñera's government was "packed with passive accomplices" of the dictatorship.<ref>{{cite news |date=1 September 2013 |title=Chile: oposición no asistirá al acto del Gobierno de conmemoración del golpe militar |url=https://www.americaeconomia.com/politica-sociedad/politica/chile-oposicion-no-asistira-al-acto-del-gobierno-de-conmemoracion-del-gol |work=América Economía |access-date=2 December 2017 |archive-date=December 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171210232053/https://www.americaeconomia.com/politica-sociedad/politica/chile-oposicion-no-asistira-al-acto-del-gobierno-de-conmemoracion-del-gol |url-status=dead }}</ref> Some right-wing politicians also declined the invitation.<ref name=planton>{{cite news |last=Barreno |first=Jorge |date=9 September 2013 |title=Plantón a Piñera en el acto de conmemoración del golpe militar |url=http://www.elmundo.es/america/2013/09/09/noticias/1378742753.html |access-date=3 December 2017 |work=El Mundo |language=es |archive-date=10 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171210123625/http://www.elmundo.es/america/2013/09/09/noticias/1378742753.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Presidential candidate [[Michelle Bachelet]] planned to spend the day visiting [[Museum of Memory and Human Rights]].<ref name=planton/> President Piñera held an unusual speech in which he denounced "passive accomplices" like news reporters who deliberately changed or omitted the truth and judges who rejected [[recurso de amparo|recursos de amparos]] that could have saved lives. People who knew things or could have known things but decided to stay quiet were also criticized as passive accomplices in Piñera's speech.<ref name=Waldman2014/>

A number of new films, theatre plays, and photography expositions were held to cast light on the abuses and censorship of the dictatorship.<ref name=Elpaisuy40>{{Cite web|url=http://www.elpais.com.uy/mundo/protesta-aniversario-golpe-chile.html|title=Protesta a 40 años del golpe en Chile|website=www.elpais.com.uy|access-date=23 July 2017|archive-date=29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729102613/http://www.elpais.com.uy/mundo/protesta-aniversario-golpe-chile.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The number of new books published on the subject in 2013 was such that it constituted an editorial boom.<ref name=Waldman2014/><ref name=Elpaisuy40/> The Museum of Memory and Human Rights also displayed a collection of declassified CIA, FBI, Defense Department, and White House records illustrating the U.S. role in the dictatorship and the coup.<ref>{{cite web|title=Chile: Secrets of State|editor=Peter Kornbluh|publisher=[[National Security Archive]]|url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2017-09-11/chile-secrets-state|access-date=6 August 2018|date=11 September 2017}}</ref> Conferences and seminars on the subject of coup were also held. Various series and interviews with politicians on the subject of the coup and the dictatorship were aired on Chilean TV in 2013.<ref name=Waldman2014/>

===50th anniversary===
[[File:Chileno afirma un afiche de Augusto Pinochet mientras en el fondo hay uno de Salvador Allende (cropped).jpg|thumb|Pro–Pinochet protester holding a sign with Pinochet's face that says "We want order" in May 2023. In the background, there is another sign with Allende's face.]]
Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the coup in 2023, the United States under the [[Biden administration]] declassified President Nixon's daily briefs related to Chile from 8 to 11 September 1973. The document for 8 September read: "A number of reports have been received... indicating the possibility of an early military coup. Navy men plotting to overthrow the government now claim army and air force support." It further noted that the far-right paramilitary group, Fatherland and Freedom "has been blocking roads and provoking clashes with the national police, adding to the tension caused by continuing strikes and opposition political moves. President Allende earlier this week said he believed the armed forces will ask for his resignation if he does not change his economic and political policies."<ref>{{cite news |date=11 September 2023 |title=50 Years After the Coup in Chile, the U.S. Has Finally Declassified Documents Relating to Its Role |last=Johnson |first=Jake |url=https://inthesetimes.com/article/chile-coup-1973-pinochet-allende-documents-declassified |access-date=11 September 2023 |website=In These Times |language=en |archive-date=13 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230913075128/https://inthesetimes.com/article/chile-coup-1973-pinochet-allende-documents-declassified |url-status=live }}</ref>

The week before the anniversary, Chilean President [[Gabriel Boric]], along with all four living former presidents{{snd}}[[Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle]], [[Ricardo Lagos]], [[Michelle Bachelet]], and [[Sebastian Piñera]]{{snd}}signed an declaration titled "Commitment: For Democracy, Forever", stating that it should "confront the challenges of democracy with more democracy" and it should defend and promote human rights.<ref>{{cite web |date=September 9, 2023 |title=Gabriel Boric y cuatro ex presidentes firmaron un 'compromiso por la democracia' a 50 años del golpe en Chile |url=https://www.clarin.com/mundo/gabriel-boric-ex-presidentes-firmaron-compromiso-democracia-50-anos-golpe-chile_0_cQANRxgNxF.html |access-date=September 9, 2023 |website=Clarín |archive-date=8 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230908184216/https://www.clarin.com/mundo/gabriel-boric-ex-presidentes-firmaron-compromiso-democracia-50-anos-golpe-chile_0_cQANRxgNxF.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=September 9, 2023 |title=Boric y cuatro expresidentes chilenos firman una carta conjunta por los 50 años del golpe de Pinochet |url=https://www.lanacion.com.ar/el-mundo/boric-y-cuatro-expresidentes-chilenos-firman-una-carta-conjunta-por-los-50-anos-del-golpe-de-nid07092023/ |access-date=September 7, 2023 |website=La Nacíon (Argentina) |archive-date=8 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230908184215/https://www.lanacion.com.ar/el-mundo/boric-y-cuatro-expresidentes-chilenos-firman-una-carta-conjunta-por-los-50-anos-del-golpe-de-nid07092023/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The right-wing opposition called it "biased" and refused to sign it.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/09/08/politically-divided-chile-commemorates-50th-anniversary-of-military-coup_6130027_4.html|title=Politically divided Chile commemorates 50th anniversary of military coup|first=Flora|last=Genoux|location=Buenos Aires|date=8 September 2023|work=Le Monde|archive-date=9 September 2023|access-date=8 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230909083233/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/09/08/politically-divided-chile-commemorates-50th-anniversary-of-military-coup_6130027_4.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On the day of the anniversary, Boric, Bachelet, and many world leaders, including Mexico's [[Andrés Manuel López Obrador]], Portugal's [[António Costa]], Colombia's [[Gustavo Petro]], Bolivia's [[Luis Arce]], and Uruguay's [[Luis Lacalle Pou]] attended a commemoration in La Moneda presidential palace to commemorate the coup and its aftermath. Others who attended were former Uruguayan president [[José Mujica]] and lead [[Rage Against the Machine]] guitarist [[Tom Morello]], who said that the United States "shares responsibility" for the coup.<ref>{{cite news |date=11 September 2023 |title=A 50 años del golpe de Estado en Chile, mandatarios y personalidades de todo el mundo se reúnen en La Moneda para los actos de homenaje |url=https://www.clarin.com/mundo/50-anos-golpe-chile-mandatarios-personalidades-mundo-reunen-moneda-actos-homenaje_0_e7Xc593j3x.html |access-date=12 September 2023 |website=Clarín |archive-date=12 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912030751/https://www.clarin.com/mundo/50-anos-golpe-chile-mandatarios-personalidades-mundo-reunen-moneda-actos-homenaje_0_e7Xc593j3x.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Mango |first=Agustín |date=11 September 2023 |title=Tom Morello goes to Chile for 50th anniversary of Pinochet coup |url=https://buenosairesherald.com/world/latin-america/tom-morello-goes-to-chile-for-50th-anniversary-of-pinochet-coup |access-date=13 September 2023 |website=Buenos Aires Herald |language=en-US |archive-date=12 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912195250/https://buenosairesherald.com/world/latin-america/tom-morello-goes-to-chile-for-50th-anniversary-of-pinochet-coup |url-status=live }}</ref>

At the commemoration, Boric said:<ref>{{cite news |last1=Vergara |first1=Eva |last2=Politi |first2=Daniel |publisher=Associated Press |date=11 September 2023 |title=Chile president defends democracy 50 years after coup ushered in brutal dictatorship |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/chile-president-defends-democracy-50-years-after-coup-ushered-in-brutal-dictatorship |access-date=13 September 2023 |website=PBS NewsHour |language=en-us |archive-date=12 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912201249/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/chile-president-defends-democracy-50-years-after-coup-ushered-in-brutal-dictatorship |url-status=live }}</ref>

<blockquote>A coup d'état or the violation of the human rights of those who think differently is never justifiable. It is crucial to clearly state that the coup d'état cannot be separated from what came afterward. Human-rights violations of Chilean men and women began right from the moment of the coup [...] It was a dictatorship until the end [...] Reconciliation is not achieved through neutrality or distance but by unequivocally standing with those who were victims of the horror. Reconciliation, dear compatriots, does not involve attempting to equate the responsibilities between victims and perpetrators.</blockquote>

Surveys showed that 60% of Chileans surveyed were not interested in the commemoration,<ref>{{cite web |date=September 11, 2023 |title=Chile president defends democracy 50 years after coup ushered in brutal military dictatorship |url=https://apnews.com/article/chile-coup-anniversary-pinochet-allende-boric-c00adad8026a5dc54f2834ef9c31fb8a |access-date=September 12, 2023 |website=Associated Press}}</ref> while another poll claimed that nearly 40% believed Pinochet "modernised" the country. Other data found that more than a third of Chileans believed the coup was justified.<ref>{{cite web |date=September 11, 2023 |title=A half-century after Gen. Augusto Pinochet's coup, some in Chile remember the dictatorship fondly |url=https://apnews.com/article/chile-pinochet-dictatorship-5d500715f016804990d0898ff6d89907 |access-date=September 12, 2023 |website=Associated Press |archive-date=12 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912173232/https://apnews.com/article/chile-pinochet-dictatorship-5d500715f016804990d0898ff6d89907 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=September 11, 2023 |title=A divided Chile marks 50 years since Pinochet's bloody military coup |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/divided-chile-marks-50-years-since-pinochets-bloody-military-coup-2023-09-11/ |access-date=September 12, 2023 |website=Reuters |archive-date=12 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912082901/https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/divided-chile-marks-50-years-since-pinochets-bloody-military-coup-2023-09-11/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[1970 Chilean presidential election]]
* ''[[Allende en su laberinto]]''
* [[Cuban packages]] – arms smuggling from Cuba
* [[Operation Condor]]
* [[Operation Toucan (KGB)|Operation TOUCAN (KGB)]] – secret KGB operations in Chile
* [[Patio 29]]
* [[Project FUBELT]] – secret CIA operations to unseat Allende.
* [[René Schneider]]
* [[Rettig Report]]
* [[United States intervention in Chile]]
* [[Valech Report]]
* [[United States involvement in regime change in Latin America]]

=== Films and documentaries ===
* ''[[Bear Story]]''
* [[Bestia (2021 film)|''Bestia'']]
* ''[[:de:Der Übergang (Film)|The Border Crossing: Der Übergang, a DEFA drama]]''
* ''[[Chicago Boys (film)|Chicago Boys]]''
* [[Colonia (film)|''Colonia'']]
* [[:es:Ecos del desierto|''Ecos del Desierto'']]
* [[:es:Héroes invisibles|''Invisible Heroes'']]
* ''[[Machuca]]''
* [[Missing (1982 film)|''Missing'' (1982 film)]]
* ''[[Nae Pasaran|¡Nae pasaran!]]''
* ''[[No (2012 film)|No]]''
* ''[[ReMastered: Massacre at the Stadium]]''
* ''[[The Battle of Chile]]''
* ''[[The Black Pimpernel]]''
* ''[[The House of the Spirits]]''

{{clear}}

== Further reading ==
* [[Jonathan Haslam]]: [[The Nixon Administration and the Death of Allende's Chile]] (2005)

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
* {{Cite book |last=Bawden |first=John R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELScDAAAQBAJ |title=The Pinochet generation: the Chilean military in the twentieth century |date=2016 |publisher=[[The University of Alabama Press]] |isbn=978-0-8173-1928-1 |location=Tuscaloosa}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Collier |first1=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lx8iIxafDVYC |title=A history of Chile, 1808–1994 |last2=Sater |first2=William F. |date=1996 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-56827-2}}
* {{Cite book |last=Faúndez |first=Julio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZ4_EAAAQBAJ |title=Marxism and democracy in Chile: from 1932 to the fall of Allende |date=1988 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-04024-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Camus |first=Ignacio González |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3doDwAAQBAJ |title=El día en que murió Allende |publisher=[[Centre for Social Studies|CESOC]] |year=1988 |isbn=978-9-563-24196-9 |location=Santiago |language=es |trans-title=The day that Allende Died}}
* {{Cite book |last=González |first=Mónica |author-link=Mónica González (journalist) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9gZNDwAAQBAJ |title=La conjura: los mil y un dias del golpe |date=2012 |publisher=[[Universidad Diego Portales|Ediciones Universidad Diego Portales]] |isbn=978-956-324-134-1 |series=Periodismo de Investigación |location=Santiago de Chile |language=es |trans-title=The conspiracy: the thousand and one days of the coup}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hoogvelt |first=Ankie M. M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WCFHEAAAQBAJ |title=Globalization and the Postcolonial World: The New Political Economy of Development |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-137-06331-1 |orig-date=1997}}
* {{Cite web |last=Karamessines |first=Thomas |date=1970 |title=Operating guidance cable on coup plotting in Chile |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch05-01.htm |website=[[United States National Security Council]] |publication-place=Washington}}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Kirkpatrick |first=Jeane |author-link=Jeane Kirkpatrick |date=November 1979 |title=Dictatorships and Double Standards |title-link=Dictatorships and Double Standards |magazine=[[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]] |pages=34–45 |volume=68 |issue=5}}
* {{Cite web |last=Kissinger |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Kissinger |date=November 9, 1970 |title=National Security Decision 93: Policy Towards Chile |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch09-01.htm |website=[[United States National Security Council]] |publication-place=Washington}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kornbluh |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Kornbluh |title=The Pinochet file: a declassified dossier on atrocity and accountability |title-link=The Pinochet File |date=2003 |publisher=[[The New Press]] |isbn=978-1-56584-586-2 |location=New York}}
* {{Cite web |last=Norton-Taylor |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Norton-Taylor |date=July 8, 1999 |title=Truth will out: Unearthing the declassified documents in America which give the lie to Lady Thatcher's outburst |url=https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,3604,289701,00.html |website=[[The Guardian]]}}
* {{Cite book |last=Nove |first=Alec |author-link=Alexander Nove |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWn4BbCEH6gC |title=Socialism, Economics and Development |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-136-58266-0}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Petras |first1=James F. |author-link=James Petras |title=How Allende fell: a study in U.S.–Chilean relations |last2=Morley |first2=Morris H. |date=1974 |publisher=[[Spokesman Books]] |isbn=978-0-85124-090-9 |location=Nottingham}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sigmund |first=Paul E. |title=Development and cultural change: cross-cultural perspectives |date=1986 |publisher=[[Paragon House]] |isbn=978-0-89226-041-6 |editor-last=Kim |editor-first=Ilpyong J. |edition=2nd |series=An Icus Book Science and values series |location=New York |pages=159–178 |chapter= 6: Development Strategies in Chile, 1964–1983: The Lessons of Failure}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Valenzuela |first1=J. Samuel |title=Development and underdevelopment: the political economy of inequality |last2=Valenzuela |first2=Arturo |date=1993 |publisher=[[L. Rienner Publishers]] |isbn=978-1-55587-400-1 |editor-last=Seligson |editor-first=Mitchell A. |pages=203–216 |chapter=Modernisation and Dependency: Alternative Perspectives in the Study of Latin-American Underdervelopment |editor-last2=Passé-Smith |editor-first2=John T.}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|Intelligence Memorandum: Allende's Chile: The Widening Supply-Demand Gap}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041207045359/http://www.salvador-allende.cl/Cronologia/cronologia.htm Cronología], Salvador-Allende.cl, originally published in ''Archivo Salvador Allende'', number 14. An extensive Spanish-language site providing a day-by-day chronology of the Allende era. This is clearly a partisan, pro-Allende source, but the research and detail are enormous. {{in lang|es}}
* [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/latin_america/chile.htm National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project] which provides documents obtained from FOIA requests regarding U.S. involvement in Chile, beginning with attempts to promote a coup in 1970 and continuing through U.S. support for Pinochet
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090911173014/http://foia.state.gov/Reports/ChurchReport.asp US Dept. of State FOIA Church Report (Covert Action in Chile)]
* [http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/15/another_9_11_anniversary_september_11 11 September 1973, When US-Backed Pinochet Forces Took Power in Chile] – video report by ''[[Democracy Now!]]''
* Miliband, Ralph (11 September 2015). [https://web.archive.org/web/20160107182758/https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/chile-coup-santiago-allende-social-democracy-september-11/ The Coup in Chile]. ''[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]]''.
{{Spoken Wikipedia|En-1973ChileanCoup-article.ogg|date=2017-11-27}}

{{1973 Chilean coup d'état}}
{{Cold War}}
{{Augusto Pinochet}}
{{Americas coup d'état}}
{{United States intervention in Latin America}}
{{Chile topics}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chilean Coup d'etat}}
[[Category:1973 in Chile|Coup d'etat]]
[[Category:1970s coups d'état|Chilean Coup D'etat]]
[[Category:1970s in Santiago, Chile]]
[[Category:Central Intelligence Agency operations]]
[[Category:Chile–United States relations]]
[[Category:Cold War in Latin America]]
[[Category:Cold War conflicts]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1973|Chilean Coup D'etat]]
[[Category:Counter-revolution]]
[[Category:Dirty wars]]
[[Category:False flag operations]]
[[Category:Labor disputes in Chile]]
[[Category:Last stands]]
[[Category:Henry Kissinger]]
[[Category:Military coups in Chile]]
[[Category:Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990)]]
[[Category:Presidency of Salvador Allende]]
[[Category:September 1973 in South America]]
[[Category:United States involvement in regime change]]