The other 9/11: What happened in Chile on September 11, 1973

History is often shaped by a single consequential event, one that can alter the political trajectory of a country for generations. For Chile, September 11, 1973, remains one of the most consequential dates in its modern history.

On that day, Chile’s armed forces overthrew President Salvador Allende, bringing an abrupt end to the country’s democratic government and ushering in the 17-year military dictatorship of Army General Augusto Pinochet. What followed was a period marked by mass arrests and detentions, torture, political executions, disappearances and exile.

Also Read : Chile’s September 11

The coup came after years of deepening political polarisation and a severe economic crisis. By 1973, Chile was grappling with soaring inflation, shortages of essential goods, strikes and disruptions to transport and production. The country’s political institutions were increasingly paralysed, while sections of the military were becoming more openly involved in the political crisis.

Allende was elected President in 1970 after he clinched 36.6% votes in the nation’s elections, narrowly ahead of conservative candidate Jorge Alessandri. Because no candidate had won an outright majority, the Chilean Congress ultimately confirmed Allende as President.

However, his ascension to power through socialistic model of governance turned out to be a short-lived affair. At the same time, Washington viewed the emergence of a Socialist government in Chile with deep concern. The United States undertook covert efforts to weaken Allende and support opposition forces, adding an international dimension to an already profound domestic crisis.

Later, a series of political polarisations, economic crisis stemming from Allende’s nationalisation of corporations, and military involvements in key affairs, led to the forceful ouster of Allende’s government.

The fateful day: September 11, 1973

The military junta’s mysterious announcement of President Allende’s suicide, only a day after his capture in presidential palace La Moneda, remains one of the most chilling memories in the country’s history.

Allende began his day by travelling to La Moneda in Chile’s capital Santiago, unaware of the scale of the uprising against him. The army led by Pinochet threatened Allende to resign, but the latter refused. Allende had earlier challenged his opposition, stating, “Only dead will take me out of La Moneda”.

Defying the threats, . Allende made an announcement in his radio that he would remain in office to oppose the uprising of the “reactionary armed forces. The radio corporation said the military chiefs have given Allende an ultimatum till 9 P.M. to resign. Upon disregard of the deadline, anyone in the presidential palace would be forcefully evicted. The radio report indicated that the effective Government was in the hands of the armed forces and that the demand for Allende’s resignation was a matter of form.

The report of Allende’s suicide circulated after the armed forces stormed and captured La Moneda, the Presidential palace in a three-hour bombing and ground attack and announced the formation of a new Government to “remove the yoke of communism”.

This delivered a major setback to Allende’s Popular Unity Coalition, a group of socialist and left-wing parties. The military junta’s announcement had brought Chile into a grinding halt. The announcement stated, “The head of State’s death by suicide had been confirmed by the coroner and that a private funeral was held today at noon attended by members of Allende’s family”.

The Chilean armed forces under Pinochet warned that any acts of sabotage would be punished with the death penalty. On September 11, 1973, the broadcast media confirmed that all national and international communications have been ceased with immediate effect. The Chilean armed forces radio told all other stations to relay through the national radio station, and warned that it they did not interrupt their normal programmes to do this, force would be used.

Local media reports suggested during the early hours of the siege, Allende was abandoned by his guards, who surrendered before the military. Allende asked for a five-minute truce to surrender, but the military chiefs rejected. The chiefs of the armed forces did not wait for Allende to surrender.

Soon after the attack on the palace, they proclaimed “a new Government”, and imposed curfew. The military leaders blew up transmitters serving radio stations, which had been supporting Allende and cordoned off the headquarters of the Chilean Communist Party office. In a few days, the military banned the opposition news media, and imposed widespread control on several cities by the Navy.

Reporter’s account from ground zero

According to the Argentine news agency Telam, hundreds of people had sought asylum in various foreign embassies and there were more than 300 people on September 18, 1973, near Mexican Embassy for immediate asylum. In Valparaiso, 1,000 people had been arrested by the same date, according to the official figures. On orders of the junta leaders, the monument to the Cuban revolutionary leader, Che Guevara, was pulled down in the Chilean capital during the weekend, reports said.

Further, news reports stated that the the military junta was tracking down foreigners, and arrests were made daily and soldiers were continuing executions upon elaborate searches of homes and burning books and magazines. The Agriculture Minister in the Allende Government, Jalme Chonchol, had taken refuge in the Colombian Embassy, a Mexican news reporter said.

From allies to adversaries: The military’s betrayal

The military had remained outside Chilean politics since 1930. However, they became a key stakeholder in the nation’s decision making after the 64-year-old Allende’s victory in October 1970. After assuming power, Allende’s socialist policies of nationalising mines, banks, and large rural estates resulted in steep declines in production, shortages of consumer goods and explosive inflation. This sparked off general strikes in Santiago in 1972, crippling the movement in the city. This led Allende to call Pinochet to impose a state of emergency in the Capital City.

This was the first time most Chileans became aware of the tall, broad-shouldered army officer with a brush moustache on his unsmiling face. Pinochet imposed a curfew, ordered the arrest of several hundred demonstrators on both the Left and the Right and announced, “I will not tolerate agents of chaos no matter what their political ideology.”

His seemingly neutral stance convinced Allende that he was an officer who could be relied on to observe the Chilean military’s century-long tradition of loyalty to civilian government. In August 1973, he appointed Pinochet commander-in-chief of the army.

Less than three weeks later, the armed forces threw over the government. The presidential palace La Moneda was bombed and strafed by the air force. Tens of thousands of Allende sympathisers were rounded up and brutally interrogated. A majority of the killings took place in the first three months, long after resistance had ended.

U.S. and the coup

According to the documents released in the U.S., Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had pumped millions of dollars to the counter-revolutionaries to carry out their terrorist acts against the government. The then U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, had famously said that Chile should not be allowed to “go Marxist” just because its people were “irresponsible”.

The documents suggest that the CIA had provided the Chilean secret police under Pinochet with the names of “leftist subversives” and even American sympathisers of the Allende government based in the country. Many of those identified by the CIA joined the ranks of thousands of the “missing”. More than 4,000 Chileans were killed by the notorious secret police Dina. Another 70,000 were tortured and hundreds of thousands were exiled.

The U.S. Embassy in the Chilean capital, Santiago, was aware of the goings on. The main football stadium in the capital was turned into a temporary concentration camp and torture centre. Hundreds of people were shot dead with machine guns in the stadium itself.

Among the most famous of cases was that of Orlando Lettelier, Chile’s Ambassador to Washington during the Allende years. Lettelier was assassinated in a car bomb explosion on a busy Washington street in 1976. The guilty have not yet been brought to book. It is alleged that the CIA had a role in the elimination of Lettelier.

Pinochet’s trial

The son of a customs inspector, Pinochet was born into lower middle-class circumstances on November 25, 1915, in the Pacific port city of Valparaiso. He graduated from the military academy in Santiago in 1937 and rose steadily in the officer corps. He was a General, and only 55, when he was given the important post of commander of the Santiago army garrison in 1971.

In October 1998, while recuperating in a London clinic from a back operation, he was arrested by the British police in response to an application from a Spanish judge seeking the General’s extradition to Madrid to stand trial on charges of genocide, torture and kidnapping. A 16-month legal battle ensued, ending with a decision to send him back to Chile in March 2000 because his physical and mental ailments made him unfit to stand trial.

For the rest of his life, Pinochet had to fight off lawsuits and accept the humiliation of constant news reports about widespread brutality under his rule. In rare public remarks, he continued to insist that he enjoyed the wide support of Chileans. But polls indicated that well over half of his compatriots believed he should have been prosecuted for his human rights crimes.