remembering the OTHER 9/11 (forty years ago today)
1973 Chilean coup d'état
1973 Chilean coup d'état
The Bombing of La Moneda on September 11, 1973 by the Junta's Armed Forces.
Date 11 September 1973
Location Chile
Result Unidad Popular government overthrown, Salvador Allende committed suicide, Military Junta Government assumed power
Belligerents
Chile Chilean Government
UXP Unidad Popular.png Unidad Popular
Chile Chilean Armed Forces
Chilean Army
Chilean Navy
Chilean Air Force
Carabineros de Chile
Supported by:
United States
CIA.svg Central Intelligence Agency
Commanders and leaders
Chile Salvador Allende Chile Augusto Pinochet
Chile José Toribio Merino
Chile Gustavo Leigh
Chile César Mendoza
The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a watershed event of the Cold War and the history of Chile. Following an extended period of social and political unrest between the conservative-dominated Congress of Chile and the elected socialist President Salvador Allende, including economic warfare ordered by President Richard Nixon, who infamously said, "Make the economy scream," Allende was overthrown in a coup d’état.
The U.S.-backed junta was composed of the heads of the Air Force, Navy, Carabineros (police force) and the Army, though Pinochet eventually arose to supreme power within a year after the coup, formally assuming the presidency in late 1974.[1] Pinochet later assumed power and ended Allende's elected Popular Unity government, instigating a campaign of terror on its supporters which included the murder of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier.[2][3] Before Pinochet's rule, Chile had for decades been hailed as a beacon of democracy and political stability in a South America plagued by military juntas and Caudillismo.
During the air raids and ground attacks that preceded the coup, Allende gave his last speech, in which he vowed to stay in the presidential palace, denouncing offers for safe passage should he choose exile over confrontation.[4] Direct witness accounts of his death agree that he committed suicide in the palace.[5][6] After the coup, the junta established a military dictatorship with support from the CIA and DIA, that ruled Chile until 1990; it was marked by numerous human rights violations. A weak insurgent movement against the Pinochet government was maintained inside Chile by elements sympathetic to the former Allende government, and a plebiscite in 1988 eventually removed Pinochet from power.
The United States played a role in the events, funding the conservative opposition and utilising the Central Intelligence Agency in sabotage campaigns to encourage a coup; subsequently supporting the Allende government's replacement with a military junta led by Army Commander-in-Chief Augusto Pinochet.[7]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
The other 9/11: Chile marks coup's 40th anniversary
http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/articles/2013/9/11/the-other-9-11-chilemarkscoupas40thanniversary/jcr:content/mainpar/adaptiveimage/src.adapt.960.high.1378897565019.jpg
An activist of Chilean Human Rights organization 'Detained and Disappeared People' looks at photos of victims at a ceremony at Villa Grimaldi, which was used as a detention and torture center during the dictatorship (1973-1990) of Augusto Pinochet, in Santiago, on September 10, 2013.Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images
Before the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States 12 years ago, that infamous date was synonymous with another assault against democracy: the military coup that toppled socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973 and installed a brutal 17-year dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet.
Chile commemorates the most tragic day of its modern history Wednesday, culminating a week of remembrances dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the coup.. . . .
"We have to remember," Piñera told local media outlets, "because when we forget, sometimes we commit the same mistakes."
More than 3,200 people were killed or disappeared by the Pinochet regime between 1973 and 1990. An additional 40,000 people survived political imprisonment and torture. At least 262 people have been sentenced for human rights violations in Chile, according to figures from Amnesty International.
Declassified documents show that the Central Intelligence Agency supported the military coup, with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger playing a key role in the military plot.
Piñera also criticized Chile's judicial system for being complacent about the dictatorship. Last week, Chile's supreme court, in an unprecedented statement, admitted neglect during Pinochet's rule. Supreme Court President Ruben Ballesteros said the court recognizes that "judges did not do enough during the time" and that the Supreme Court "did not exercise any leadership."
Former president Michelle Bachelet, who is running for a second term as president under the center-left New Majority party, on Monday visited Villa Grimaldi, perhaps the most notorious complex used by Pinochet's secret police to interrogate and torture political prisoners.
Bachelet and her mother, Angela Jeria, were tortured at the complex in the weeks following the coup.
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http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/11/the-other-9-11-chilemarkscoupas40thanniversary.html