|  |  | | On September 11, 1973, the Chilean military overthrew the socialist government of President Salvador Allende in a CIA-supported coup, installing a ruthless 17-year dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet. As the U.S.-backed military junta killed or forcibly disappeared more than 3,000 people and tortured more than 40,000, the country became the laboratory for neoliberal policy with sweeping privatization and aggressive free market reforms. |
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| At the time, NACLA was at the vanguard of the solidarity movement with Chile. The Latin America and Empire Report—renamed the NACLA Report on the Americas in 1977—offered research and analysis of the economic and political interests in overthrowing Allende; denounced U.S. involvement in the coup and the destabilization leading up to it; condemned human rights abuses at the hands of the U.S.-backed regime; and amplified the positions of the Chilean Left for an international movement of solidarity activists. Fifty years on, overcoming the legacy of Pinochet and the coup remains extremely difficult. The constitutional process born out of popular protest in 2019 and aimed at burying a cornerstone of Pinochet’s legacy—the 1980 Constitution—has suffered serious setbacks curtailing its potential. The “economic counterrevolution” of Chile-style laissez-faire capitalism that NACLA critiqued in the 1970s remains in force today with devastating consequences of extreme inequality. |
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| In the series of special anniversary coverage below, Carole Concha Bell analyzes the anniversary in light of the conservative capture of the historic process to rewrite the 1980 Constitution. Hillary Hiner highlights the importance of truth and memory for dictatorship-era sexual political violence amid resurgent denialism 50 years after the coup. In a conversation with Manuela Badilla, filmmaker Patricio Guzmán reflects on Chile’s past and future, noting that making a film about the country today would call for a “film of questions.” Explore these articles and more below, including key pieces from the NACLA archives published in the early 1970s. Stay tuned for new coverage of the coup commemorations this week as well as more materials from the NACLA archives with a focus on news and analysis from the year following the coup. |
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| | | REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11, 1973 |
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| | | | | | | | Interview with Salvador Allende, 1971 Less than three months after Allende took office in November 1970, filmmaker Saul Landau interviewed the president in his home in Santiago. "To be a socialist is not to be a utopian," said Allende. |
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| Chronology of Events Before the Coup, 1973 A recap of events leading up to the September 11, 1973 coup, beginning with the election of Salvador Allende in September 1970. The first months of his government brought promised reforms including wage hikes, improved medical care, and nationalization of assets such as major copper mines. Destabilization soon began. |
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| Since the Coup, 1973 A summary of events during the first three weeks of the military junta’s rule, from September 11 to October 1, 1973. The summary documents fierce repression, political exile, attacks on press freedom, and resistance both in Chile and in solidarity movements around the world. |
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| Green Light for the Generals, 1973 “The military coup against the Unidad Popular government was the end product of a long and tenacious campaign by the Chilean Right, aided by U.S. government and corporate leaders, aimed at reversing the tide of history in Chile.” |
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| Declaration of the Chilean Left, 1974 “For five months now, the people of Chile have lived under a cruel fascist dictatorship.” In the wake of the coup, NACLA published a statement from the Chilean Left, signed by the Socialist Party of Chile, Communist Party of Chile, MIR, and other groups. |
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| | North American Congress on Latin America
53 Washington Sq South, Fl. 4W | New York, New York 10012
(212) 992-6965 | info@nacla.org |
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