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Alliance for Progress
President John F. Kennedy wanted to fix the relationship between the US and Latin America. In 1961, Kennedy proposed the Alliance for Progress, which would loan more than $20 billion to Latin American nations that would promote democracy and undertake meaningful social reforms. He mainly wanted to prevent the spread of Socialism. The pledge included Chile and marked a major point of the US' involvement in Chilean affairs. -
Eduardo Frei Montalva wins 1964 Presidential Election
Eduardo Frei Montalva won the 1964 Presidential Election over Salvador Allende. Because he aligned himself with the Christian Democrats (a center-right party formed in 1957 by multiple other political parties), his win led to the widespread belief that neither the right nor the left would dominate as the leading political party moving forward. However, only a couple years later, his party lost support and the deep divisions between the left and the right reemerged. -
1970 Presidential Election
Salvador Allende won by a very narrow margin, leaving it up to Congress to decide the outcome of the election. Because of Allende's radical plans and his Marxist-Leninist ideologies, Congress nearly voted in favor of Allende's opponent, Jorge Alessandri. The Christian Democrat Party (PDC) and Allende's Unidad Popular (UP) began negotiations. The PDC agreed to vote for Allende with many conditions, the most important of which being his allowing for the existence of oppositional political parties. -
Track II
In 1970, President Nixon had CIA to launch a preventative coup against Allende that would undermine him and prevent him from taking office. The plot known as "Track II" turned out to be a failure, as the Chilean people didn't support the move against Allende and the Chilean military wanted no part of it. Allende still took power, but because of Nixon's secrecy, no evidence of the US' role in the coup could be traced back to them, meaning the US never got held accountable for the attempted coup. -
Nationalization of the Anaconda and Kennecott Copper Mines
Corporations based in the US owned both of the leading Copper mines in Chile: Anaconda and Kennecott. Both mines' full nationalization in 1971 gave the Chilean government the right to assess and deduct "excess profits" from the amount of compensation to the two US companies. The corporations effectively owed the Chilean government an indemnity for their net capital outflow. This combined with growth of socialist sentiment led the US to send aid to the Chilean Government, as well as the PDC. -
Trucker Strike
In 1972, the Chilean Trucker Union went on strike. This proved to be problematic because Chile had limited railroads and air transport, as trucks owned by small firms carried most goods. The truckers worried about Allende nationalizing the industry. When he announced his new transport operation plan, they decided to strike. Soon, vendors and producers joined in, and eventually upwards of 700,000 people had joined the strike. By 1973 the economy had spiraled, and rumors of a coup began to spread. -
Congressional Elections to impeach Allende
In March 1973 the two parties in Congress (Christian Democrats and Nationals) came together to impeach Allende. Though they didn't get the majority needed to impeach Allende himself, they passed a resolution on August 22, 1973 that moved to impeach his cabinet members by accusing the government of constitutional violations. After Congress couldn't impeach Allende, many politicians believed that elections no longer represented a reliable political strategy. The coup seemed imminent. -
Tanquetazo
Led by Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Souper, this attempted coup took place among widespread protests and strikes. Eighty men who'd been drinking heavily decided to free a soldier who'd been arrested earlier for advertising a coup. Chilean army commander in chief General Carlos Prats didn't want the military to intervene, and went in person to the presidential palace to confront the men, who backed down with little resistance. After this failure, the CIA accepted that there would never be a coup. -
Second Trucker's Strike
In July 1973, the Truckers' Confederation began a second strike. By September 1973 the strike had strangled Chile's flow of supplies to the breaking point, which turned out to be a major contribution to the crisis atmosphere in which the coup took place. The second strike acted as the culmination of escalating economic and political turmoil as Allende's economic systems continued to fail and support for him began to fade. The twenty-three day strike had catastrophic economic repercussions. -
Carlos Prats' Resignation
Congress impeached General Carlos Prats during their resolution on August 22, 1973. His resignation the day before the resolution passed led to a domino effect of the resignation of the strongest constitutionalists in the army. Allende replaced Prats with General Augusto Pinochet because he saw a stout supporter who he hoped would bring order back to the army. However, Pinochet secretly aligned himself with Allende’s opposition, leading to his eventual takeover of Chile following the coup. -
US informed of the Coup
Rumors of a coup against Allende had been circulating for months, but the US CIA caught word that the coup would officially happen two days before it did, on September 9, 1973. US agents informed CIA headquarters that the coup would begin at 7 AM and that the navy would lead it off. They used coded messages to confirm the coup. To confirm the coup, they used the phrase "My aunt has died." To warn the coup would be coming soon, they used the phrase "My aunt is sick and may not live to recover." -
Beginning of the Coup
The US CIA had been getting calls with ominous messages like "The baby will be delivered tomorrow" and "Uncle Jonas will be in town tomorrow." They set up the night of September 10, and feared they had yet another false alarm, until 8 AM on September 11 when they got word that the navy had started the coup with an uprising in the city of Valparaíso. By 9 AM, the armed forces had control of all of Chile except for the center of Santiago and the world became aware of the Chilean Coup d'Etat. -
Coup d'Etat
By 2:30 PM on September 11, 1973 Salvador Allende had been found, dead. General Augusto Pinochet's presidency began two days later. The Chilean Coup d'Etat ended forty-six years of democratic rule and began a seventeen year military dictatorship during which Pinochet consolidated his rule through acts of terror. The coup led to the establishment of concentration camps and torture centers. During the next two decades Chile went through a period of major destabilization. -
Pinochet creates DINA
Pinochet created the DINA (Directorate of National Intelligence) in 1974. It acted as a secret police force that directly targeted enemy political parties. Chile had a saying at the time: "The three main sources of power in Chile are Pinochet, God and DINA." The DINA symbolized the new oligarchy and the consolidation of Pinochet's rule as he established his military dictatorship. The DINA holds responsibility for some of the regime’s most emblematic human rights crimes. -
Private Enterprise Economy Instated
Shortly after his rule began, Pinochet declared the Christian Democratic National party to be in "indefinite recess." He explicitly forbade Communists, Socialists, and Radicals. In 1977 Pinochet dissolved the traditional parties and instated a Private Enterprise Economy. Though the new policies supposedly encouraged development of free enterprise and a new entrepreneurial class, they instead caused unemployment and an overall worsening of the standard of living for the lower and middle classes. -
Pinochet creates new constitution
Proposed in September of 1980 and officially enacted in March of 1981, Pinochet's Constitution fundamentally changed Chile and molded it to fit Pinochet's rule. It included an 8 year extension of Pinochet's presidency and specific provisions for a transition to civilian government. It mandated a referendum be held in 1988 on whether the ruling junta’s president would remain in office. The constitution further limited Congress' power and established military influence for future governments. -
1988 Plebiscite
On October 5, 1988, Pinochet lost the Plebiscite, showing how fed up the Chilean people had become. Protests by banned parties like the Christian Democrats had been erupting since 1983. Angry politicians calling for an early election gained support from the US who had grown impatient with Pinochet's rule due to his human rights violations. Following Pinochet's loss, the revocation of discriminatory constitutional amendments began in anticipation of Chile's first democratic election since 1973. -
1989 Presidential Election
Patricio Aylwin Azócar led the Christian Democrat Party from 1958-1989. Aylwin won the 1989 Presidential Election by a large margin over his opponent, Hernán Büchi Buc, a former finance minister and the government-endorsed candidate. Aylwin took office in March of 1990, and emphasized major change for Chile. Despite Aylwin's presidency, Pinochet still managed to retain significant political power as commander of the armed forces until his retirement from the military in 1998. -
Pinochet arrested in London
In 1998, Chile faced more controversy. Spain had requested Pinochet's extradition because of the torture of Spanish citizens in Chile during his dictatorship, leading to his detainment while in London. The US then released documents about those who “disappeared” in Chile under Pinochet. In 2000, Pinochet returned to Chile on medical grounds, but the investigation into his human rights abuses continued. Stripped of his immunity as a former president, Pinochet received another indictment in 2005. -
Pinochet's Death
Augusto Pinochet died on December 10, 2006 at the age of 91 after suffering a heart attack a week earlier. At the time of his death, Pinochet had been indicted in three cases stemming from the massive human rights abuses he committed during his rule, though he never received a sentence. Chile's president at the time, Michelle Bachelet refused the former dictator a state funeral. Despite the government's refusal, the armed forces gave Pinochet a military funeral with full honors.