Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende in 1964.

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Salvador Allende Gossens (1908–1973) was a Chilean physician and politician who served as the democratically-elected President of Chile from 1970 until his death in 1973 when a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet overthrew his government.

Allende was one of the few Marxist leaders elected by democratic means,^[1] and was openly attempting to make Chile a socialist state.^[2] Despite his election victory being legit, if nowhere near a majority of the vote (his presidency was made possible by the support of the centrist but worker-friendly Christian Democratic Party in turn for concessions), Chile's right-wing sections immediately had a hissy fit from day one of his rule and already made a botched coup attempt even before he was sworn in as president by killing the national army's commander in chief^[2] and maintaining a considerable propaganda campaign funded by the CIA during the entirety of his short presidency.^[3] He palled about with the establishment communists of the era, for example by inviting Fidel Castro for a tour of Chile. Interestingly enough, his first name is the Spanish word for "savior."^[4]

Government and policies[edit]

Allende led a Popular Unity coalition government, which included various left-wing parties with shared socialist objectives, but it excluded parties of the far-left (such as the MIR-Chile) which advocated any form of armed struggle. However, Allende did call on the Chilean people to strengthen their grass-root social and workers' organizations and trade unions with the aim of getting them to support his government. Often these social "popular power" organizations were at odds with his socialist government, which had to balance itself between the demands of his supporters and the powerful lobby groups that opposed him.

The Soviet Union made repeated demands that he introduce more hard-line measures, which Allende was largely unwilling to do, insisting on what he called the "Chilean way to socialism"^[3] or the "peaceful way to socialism within pluralism."

Allende try to implement a command economy, nationalizing hundreds of companies in his country, including banks and the copper industry, but also very small business.^[5]:58 In order to finance the many social programs that his goverment tried to build, he believed in a rudimentary form of Modern Monetary Theory.^[5]:56

During his government, public deficit skyrocketed; the government declared a moratorium on its external debt, which implied no more external financing for Chile and seigniorage became a major source of financing the government.^[6]:212-14 As a result, inflation soared from 20% in 1971 to a staggering 352% in 1973, the highest in the world.^[7] Furthermore, the Chilen GDP grew by less than two percent during the three years of Allende's government,^[5]:59 while Latin America's GDP rose an incredible 23 percent between 1971 and 1973, its highest rate since at least 1961, the first year with reliable data for the entire region.^[8] Investment in equipment and machinery (especially in the nationalized manufacturing sector) all but disappeared, agricultural output collapsed, and a substantial trade deficit developed.^[5]:56 As a result of Allende’s policies, real wages also fell 35 percent below their 1970 levels.^[5]:64 The government was incapable of seeing its mistakes on fiscal and monetary policy, relying instead on price controls, that damaged the economy even further.^[5]:60 This all led to shortages, black markets, and rationing.^[9]:204

While it's probably impossible to deny Allende’s incompetence, the CIA was also working to destabilize his government, financing, for instance, a national strike or ganized by the trucking industry that resulted in even more shortages, while polarizing the country even more.^[5]:62

Coup[edit]

However, his record was not spotless, as shortly before the Pinochet coup the Chilean legislature passed a resolution accusing his administration of unconstitutional activities such as passing laws by decree, removing cabinet ministers from legislative oversight, harassing opposition media outlets, making illegal arrests, and torturing detainees.^{[citation needed]} Armed supporters of his government also roamed the country harassing and searching those they suspected of opposition. As well, foreign leftist guerrillas took up residence in Chile, using it as a base for their activities. The legislature also implored the Chilean military to "restore order" (i.e., remove Allende, as Chile did not have a formal means of impeaching a president at the time). They obliged on September 11, 1973, with Allende shooting himself^[1] (although there were claims that he was killed by the military, his suicide was later confirmed by the Chilean Supreme Court in 2011).^[10]

Aftermath[edit]

Pinochet went on to do everything they accused Allende of and more, dissolving the legislature, appointing all judges, authorizing trial (with death sentences) by military courts, killing around 3,000 Chileans in the next 17 years (most were "disappeared"), with thousands more imprisoned, tortured or fleeing the country.^[11] The Chicago Boys came back to overhaul the economy, which with the military junta in power was easier to do. Milton Friedman himself visited the country in 1975. These reforms have been maintained under the following democratic administrations, with the population overwhelming rejecting a new Constitution in a referendum in 2022.^[12]

Henry Kissinger didn't like Allende very much, either. Richard Nixon specifically told the CIA to do something to get him out of power.^{[citation needed]} The CIA, contrary to common myth, did not orchestrate the affair... but they did know it was happening and did nothing to stop it. They even worked with the new government after getting hard proof about how brutal it was!^[13]

See also[edit]

• Augusto Pinochet
• The Venus Project, which proposes an utopian society with elements strikingly similar to a system which has been partially implemented during Allende's time in office.
• Hugo Chávez, also a democratically elected Latin-American socialist who, contrary to Allende survived a coup attempt.
• Mohammad Mossadegh, He is the leader of another democratic regime that collapsed due to the American coup. However, Mossadegh was a left-liberal.
• Populism

References[edit]