Video: 'CIA, Chile & Allende' (Sept. 11, 1973, at 8:51)
(Tuesday, September 11, 1973, approximately 2:00 p.m. Chile Standard Time; during the 1973 Chilean coup d’état) — Chilean President Salvador Allende, the first Marxist to be elected president in a liberal democracy in Latin America, shot himself with an AK-47 assault rifle today during a U.S.-backed violent coup d’état led by General Augusto Pinochet, commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army.
Just prior to the capture of Palacio de La Moneda (the presidential palace) by military units loyal to Pinochet, Allende made his famous farewell speech to Chileans on live radio (Radio Magallanes).
The president spoke of his love for Chile and of his deep faith in its future. He also stated that, as he was committed to Chile, he would not take an easy way out or be used as a propaganda tool by those he called “traitors” (accepting an offer of safe passage, like Carlos Altamirano).
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The radio address was made while gunfire and explosions were clearly audible in the background.
At approximately 1:50 PM local time, President Allende ordered the defenders of the La Moneda Palace in Santiago to surrender. The defenders then formed a line from the second floor, down the stairs and onto the Morande street door.
The president went along this queue, from the ground floor up the stairs, shaking hands and thanking everyone personally for their support in that difficult moment. At the end of the queue, Allende turned toward the Independence salon, located in the north-east side of the Palace’s second floor.
Video: 'Dateline: Chile, 1973 - ABC News' (Sept. 11, 1973, at 1:05)
At the same time, Dr. Patricio Guijón (a member of La Moneda’s infirmary staff) himself decided to return upstairs to recover his gas-mask as a souvenir. He heard a noise, and opened the door of the Independence salon in time to see the president shoot himself with his AK-47.
A report prepared by the United States Intelligence Community in 2000, at the direction of the National Intelligence Council, stated: “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—because CIA did not discourage the takeover and had sought to instigate a coup in 1970—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.”
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After a review of recordings of telephone conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, historian 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.”
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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.”
Pinochet would head a U.S.-backed military junta that governed Chile for the next 16 years.
