1973 - What happened the 11 of september of 1973

[Subcomandante Marcos]

In Chile, in the 60's, a union was formed it was called the UP (Popular Union), it was a big political party that included socialist parties and communist parties all together in one huge party.

After the candidate, Salvador Allende, almost won in the 54' elections the CIA took card on the matter and spended about 50 million dollars just interfiring in the elctions, but in the 70 the overwhelming hunger for change was unstoppable and Salvador Allende was president. At this point the US had plans of killing him any way they could, first they cutted the supply of mechanical parts to Chile, they gave money to the Right, they introduced agents to the country amongst other things.

All of this concluded in september 11, a day that will live in infamy. This day the army organized a coup against the Socialist legal presidency, it began by bombarding the presidential palace and killing all inside, there stood Allende speaking thorugh Radio Magallanes to all the people of Chile telling them not to give up, not to surrender against this undemocratic betrayers, to continue the revolution, there he stood with his AK-7 rifle gievn by Fidel Castro, there he stood lifeless..

After this Pinochet, a facist, turned the country into a hell hole, hundreds were arrested, killed, humiliated, most of them are still missing, the army has done everything to prevent that the families find the thruth.

[Pete]

Did he kill himself, or was he assinated/murdered/KIA (pick your fav term)

[RedCeltic]

And I was 2...(3 in december..) lol...

Seriously, good post!

[Wenty]

one of many of the US's interventions in s.america.

[Reuben]

America has spent so longcrushing hope in Latin America, while th actions it has taken to protect its own interests have not been moderated by any sense of humanity.
In the same way they had no qualms about the bloody invasion of Guatemala when their democratically elected president decided to redistribute United Fruit company land or training contras against the sandanista government.

Has anyone here heard of Victor Jara the dissident guitarist who was brutally killed by pinochet.

[Conghaileach]

from CrazyPete:
Did he kill himself, or was he assinated/murdered/KIA (pick your fav term)

He was killed after trying to defend the Presidential Palace.

[Conghaileach]

from Reuben:
Has anyone here heard of Victor Jara the dissident guitarist who was brutally killed by pinochet.

He was one of the many executed in the football stadium-turned-concentration camp.

[glasgowche81]

excellent post. this is something i am very interested in uncovering. pinochet is maggie thatchers pal - we had years of her here in scotland, and like the chileans with pinochet, we never voted for her (although with differening circumstances).

some on the left take issue with allende's government because it never armed the trade unions when the coup was imminent, and used electoral means of getting to power. Some criticise his fateful decision to bring pinochet onto the cabinet in order to appease him.

No doubt Allende and the popular unity government made mistakes, but their intentions were noble. However it is clear to me that his government and the reforms it made had the mass support of the chilean working class. Allende for me is a true hero. Hopefully we in Scotland could someday be in a position of leading the working class to power.

[FabFabian]

Truely a very sad chapter in world history. It was made even more so, by Pinochet's buddies (yes u Maggot Scratcher et al) defending him. It is an absolute sin that this man and his cronies have never been made to answer for the destruction of a nation and its people. It is bad enough that you can have an absolute bastard rule your country, but to have this individual be supported and installed by another country (U.S.) makes it worse. It is situations like this that make me seriously wonder about the idea of justice. My justice would be for Pinochet and his henchmen to be locked in a room, with his victims and their families armed with electrified cattle prods and let them deal with them.

Stupid multimillionaire Peter Munk once said that Pinochet was the best thing to happen to Chile. This man has a cardiac centre in Toronto named after him.

[truthaddict11]

many american companies such as Pepsi-Cola and ITT supported the coup

[Sabocat]

And of course, Henry Kissinger should be tried for crimes against humanity for orchestrating this nightmare.

I won't be happy till that piece of garbage is swinging at the end of a rope.

[Aleksander Nordby]

die kissinger die die die!

[Aleksander Nordby]

die kissinger! die die die!

[Subcomandante Marcos]

I would like to add a few facts I forgat in the past post.

When Allende came to power he didnt win by a vast majority, he won by a 40% i think, and since then there was no second round, the decision needed to be aproved by the senate.

A few days before that happened the ultra-right movement "Patria y Libertad" killed General Scheinner because he supported the constitutional right and because he knew Allende would win.

After the aproval Allende became president of the republic of Chile. The demonstrations against him didnt wait, hundreds fleed the country (of course all the land owner and factory chiefs since everyone else was starving), the Democracia Cristiana and the Partido Nacional, the coalition of right, although the DC was not as extremist as the PN, organized ,together with El Mercurio and all of the corresponding companies who feared and equal distribution of the income, a boycott of the government.

This consisted of closing down factories, stopping comerce, fake publicity and of course the money from the US. This was fought with the Agriary Reform and the CORA was funded (Comision de Reforma Agraria), the AR took place, the workers realized that the factories could produce without the bosses and the taking of territories by extremist parties (left of course) who handed them to the poor was bread of every day, this was executed by the MIR (Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionario)

A lot happened on thos 3 years of socialism, of course i must add there was a severe crisis on the end of 72 and all along 73, the inflation was around a 500% and there was too much paper money, one of the biggest mistake of the UP. This is when the food shortage took place and the JAP was created, an institution who gave food to the most needy.

After that 11 of september the Estadio Nacional was used as a detention center, one of many across my country. Thousand died in what is called the Caravana de la Muerte.

The General Arreyano took off on a helicopter from Aerodromo Tobalaba and headed to all the main cities from Santiago to the north, Wherever he stopped he would go to the detention centers and kill all the people who were ilegally been arrested, about a 100 people died in less than a week.

Also the DINA was created (Departamento de Inteligencia Nacional), it was a kind of S.S. from the nazi era. It was a dark era and everyone was scared. Also in the 86 I think the regimen killed a sindicalist, Tucapel Gimenez and in the 82 the FPMR was created and on 88 dissolved into two parts, the FPMR who stilled remained as a violent wing of the PC, and the MPMR a more political party.

On 88 Elwin was elected president of Chile once again into democracy, but the ghost of Pinochet was far from gone, thousand mourned when Elwin read the list of the people who either died or dissapeared. Elwin was the same who in 73 signed along with many others supporting the coup.