Chile's September 11

Al Jazeera:

September 11 marks the anniversary of the 1973 military coup that replaced Chile’s democratically-elected socialist government led by President Salvador Allende with the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. During the violent takeover, Pinochet’s military heavily bombed the capital city of Santiago and installed a junta that controlled Chile until 1990.

Read the whole story: Al Jazeera

Comments

[AbrahamSadegh]

03:32 AM on 09/11/2011

We seem to have an unwritten constitution or at least unwritten as far as the public is concerned in which the President of the United States approves covert operations by the CIA - the first victim was by the way my native land of Iran in 1953 when the democratically elected government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh was replaced by the dictatorship of the Shah that lasted for 25 year more years.

Let’s have a thought experiment about the first 9/11 in 1973: Would the people of our country have approved the Central Intelligence Agency’s overthrowing the democratically elected government of President Salvador Allende in Chile and replacing it with the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet under whose regime thousands were murdered and tortured including women and children?

The “decider” in this case was of course Nixon who didn’t want Allende elected to begin with and wanted him gone as soon as possible after he got elected. Someone might argue that it was Allende’s fault! Did he not know that our president could not possibly tolerate a socialist government only about 5,000 miles away? Besides, how dared he nationalizing our beloved corporations such as ATT that only owned 70% of the Chitelco, the Chilean Telephone Company? Did he also not know that the reason for two of our major copper corporations being there was that we needed copper?

I wonder what we would do if we discovered a covert operation by China to overthrow our democratically elected government!

[Olderandwiser55]

03:06 PM on 09/11/2011

I agree. But we need to realize that the first 9/11 was a terrible experiment. The same day, roughly the same number of people killed, both followed by heavy privatization. You see that in the US in Walter Reed, private military, Medicare is partially privatized, the USPS....the list goes on and on. Of course the Chilean coup backed by Nixon and Nixon was also the one that abolished the United States Post Office Department, a part of the cabinet, and created the United States Postal Service,( a big step to privatization) corporation-like independent agency through the The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970

GW Bush appointed a commission to study USPS "reforms" in 2002 and followed that with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. Now only a psuedo government agency.Much is outsourced and the postmaster general/ceo makes twice as much as the US president. Laying of employees will enable them to further privatize and outsource.

My point is that we have had a more silent coup here. Propaganda wins here as well. Allende believed socialism could be achieved through legislation. The neoliberals believe they can achieve their goals in the US as well.

I hope the internet makes it easier to draw attention to the truth. But truth over propaganda is not easy. It was indeed a terrible thought experiment

[JTyroler]

02:17 AM on 09/11/2011

I hope that the US has rid itself of the desire to eliminate leftist leaders in order to replace democratically elected leaders with dictators. I hope, but, knowing how some politicians feel about Chavez and Cuba - it's possibly not likely.

How can the US work with communist nations like China, Vietnam, but won't resume trade with Cuba?

[Marlyn]

11:54 AM on 09/10/2011

"The military government privatised nearly all industries that were made public under Allende" ???

And this is the plan that Republican candidate for president, Herman Cain, is proposing, his "Chilean Model" to replace Social Security. SHOCK DOCTRINE!

[Olderandwiser55]

01:39 PM on 09/11/2011

True. Herman Cain really has no idea what the chilean model is...he reads Jose Pinera's glowing reports at the cato. Jose privatized while working for the dictator. His brother is now president. They forget to mention the 17 year dictatorship or the fact that the previous socialist President Bachelet reformed the privatized pension system by setting aside a government pension fund with a minimum pension. The current right wing president has only 20% approval compared to bachelet's 80% so expect socialism to return to Chile. Pinera is the least popular leader since the dictator Pinochet.

[Cannonball Taffy O Jones]

10:55 AM on 09/10/2011

Chile under Allende in 1972, inflation over 200%, real wages fall by 25%, reserves down from $400,000,000 to $40,000,000, the government denounced by the Supreme Court and Chamber of Deputies for acting illegally and outside the constitution, emigration controlled illegally by the Government, theft of property supported by the Government, the illegal supplying of weapons to leftist paramilitary groups by the Government, illegal attempts to control the free media by the government, illegal repression of strikes by the Government etc. Allende was an arrogant incompetent; happy to see his nation utterly destroyed rather than admit that his politics were wrong. He got what he deserved.

[Swedenworks]

11:11 PM on 09/10/2011

Liar! Sounds to me like you're describing the Bush administration. How come he didn't get what he deserved?

[Olderandwiser55]

01:51 PM on 09/11/2011

Good propaganda, isn't it? And you see, they are doing it in the US as a silent coup. Propaganda only. The millions the CIA spent on propaganda was well spent since you believe all that.

It is interesting that Chile also had a September 11th and roughly the same amount of people were killed in each case. Both followed by a lot of privatization. In the US, Walter Reed,privatized military (contractors), the attempt at SS still ongoing, the usps is now mostly privatized, hospitals went to private ownership, it goes on and on.

Don't you ever wonder (if allende was the despot you say) why they needed a dictatorship for 17 years? Why didn't they overthrow and have elections? Why did they write a new Constitution? Have they convinced people that dictatorships are good? It seems strange.

[Sanity Inspector]

09:59 AM on 09/10/2011

'One of [Christopher Hitchens'] earliest ripostes to the Chomsky position has stuck in my mind. Noting that September 11 happened to mark the anniversary of the 1973 military coup in Chile -- a CIA-backed enormity that gave democratic Chileans every right to resent the US government -- Hitchens wrote: "I don't know any Chilean participant in this great historical struggle who would not rather have died -- you'll have to excuse the expression -- than commit an outrage against humanity that was even remotely comparable to the atrocities in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania."'
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts-arc/theres-just-one-hitch/story-e6frg8nf-1226126501899

[TAIsabel]

08:38 AM on 09/10/2011

Just another one of our many Frankensteins. A few of his brothers:
Anastasio Somoza
Fulgencio Batista
Manuel Noriega
Ferdinand Marcos
Alfredo Strossner
Robert Mugabe
Mohammad Resa Pahlavi aka The Shah of Iran
Rafael Trujillo
Saddam Hussein
Osama Bin Laden
Hamid Karzai

Just a few of our creations.

[banker67]

08:11 PM on 09/10/2011

That's quite a list. I suppose we should add Diem and all the Saigon rulers we installed.

No matter how you slice it, you can't dispute our government's pivotal role in creating and sustaining these brutal leaders.

It's not just that the governments we installed were profoundly anti-democratic.

In many cases our spooks, State Department and military were prime movers in overthrowing democratically elected leaders.

In too many cases, the governments we installed and backed arrested, tortured and murdered compatriots with democratic ideas. In too many cases, with full U.S. approval, our puppets slaughtered thousands.

Why?

The only explanation that makes any sense is money. American-owned businesses were threatened with nationalization, or some lesser form of sharing with the nation's citizens. Certainly, the people of those nations never posed the slightest threat to American citizens. Neither did the democratically elected governments there.

Nevertheless, our government obliterated those countries' hope for democracy, and often obliterated the people who lived there too.

Protecting American businesses just isn't enough a reason to destroy a nation's attempt to create democratic rule. There's a risk involved when you invest abroad; that's the reason most often given for extracting high profits as soon as possible with little regard for the needs of the people who live there.

Sadly, when the risk is realized, the risk-takers won't stand for it. They call Washington and demand the government spend billions of tax dollars to protect their profit centers.

[TAIsabel]

05:28 PM on 09/11/2011

Our corporations go hand in hand with our empire building. Thus the term, "Banana Republic". We continue on with our "March of Folly" and old patterns in South Asia and the ME.

[bobo5]

10:08 PM on 09/09/2011

It was about copper. Zambia was also about copper.

[SamKnause]

09:18 PM on 09/09/2011

We spread destruction, not democracy everywhere we go.

What a sad history this country has.

[shylove2]

09:07 PM on 09/09/2011

But Obama told them they should not be a slave to history only we get to do that...

Well Bush had a mandate based on the Supreme Court too.. and probably we feel just as emntitled to help the takeover in Iran that installed the Shah and we helped train their secret police and we are sill see consequences of that...

[Cannonball Taffy O Jones]

05:14 PM on 09/09/2011

Allende won the election by fewer than 40,000 votes out of over 3,000,000 cast. The $500,000 (US, 1970) the Soviet Union gave to Allende for electioneering was therefore decisive in determining the election of the Marxist and placed him firmly in the pocket of Moscow. Allende’s post election actions where indicative of a man determined in an ambition of turning his country into Cuba mk II. The Generals, brutal as they were, were only doing their duty as protectors of the nation when they moved against Allende.

[Olderandwiser55]

12:55 AM on 09/10/2011

Their duty...for the 17 year dictatorship. Seventeen years. Yes, they were bringing democracy through the dictatorship. And it took 17 years.

[June25]

02:37 AM on 09/10/2011

It worked for Castro.

[Cannonball Taffy O Jones]

10:34 AM on 09/10/2011

They surrendered power peacefully and left the country economically strong and democratic. How many leftists have managed that?

[TAIsabel]

08:28 AM on 09/10/2011

Oh please cannonball, spare us the red scare BS! We all know better. This was part and parcel of the USA backed CIA empire building and power geopolitics. They are still at it today. The US foreign policy is all about creating and building self serving Frankensteins.

By the way, I am a casualty of this disgusting policy. I am Cuban and lived through the Cuban revolution to topple that US backed criminal Fulgencio Batista.

[Cannonball Taffy O Jones]

10:33 AM on 09/10/2011

I provide facts you provide a dull anecdote.

[xoloitzcuintle]

04:05 PM on 09/09/2011

Another case of neoliberalism being shoved down the throats of a democratic people through the barrel of a gun. Tens of thousands of dead, hundreds of thousands of refugees, but at least some corporations were able to come in and make a killing.

History will not look back favorably on the actions of this empire.

[Olderandwiser55]

12:56 AM on 09/10/2011

A dictatorship for 17 years....unreal. The rich got richer.

[Olderandwiser55]

01:01 AM on 09/10/2011

Lot of info out there on Chile. The sad experiment was done there and Jose Pinera is pushing it here from the Cato.

http://foia.state.gov/SearchColls/CIA.asp

[yoyodyne666]

11:28 AM on 09/09/2011

Oh, 40 years later someone figured out the the U.S. was part of the axis of evil.

[Little Princess]

12:44 PM on 09/09/2011

Everybody knew that at least 39 years ago. You're late.

[looneydoone]

11:15 AM on 09/09/2011

Another coup, and US sponsored dictator