The Other September 11

The pieces I have written about Argentina have focused mainly thus far on different events and movements that I have had the opportunity to see unfolding around me. Writing about these social currents helps bring me to a better understanding of them as I am forced to put thought and analysis into what might otherwise be simple experience. But I thought I would try something a bit different with this article and address some other issues in the Latin American world. With that in mind here we go.
The anniversary of the September 11 attacks was recently remembered in the US and around the world. Buenos Aires was certainly no exception as news coverage was rather extensive. There was one major difference though. In Argentina, the rest of Latin America, and a good part of the world September 11 has long been an infamous date that is associated with tragedy and death; it marks the anniversary of the 1973 military coup against the government of Salvador Allende in Chile. General Augusto Pinochet, a name that might ring a few more bells up north, was the leading force in the coup and went on to be a rather long lasting and oppressive dictator. Most North Americans simply are not aware that this event took place and are even less aware of the all the tragic implications and details involved. Unfortunately is only one in a series of similar events that have plagued the people of the Latin America for years.
Perhaps one of the reasons that we don’t learn about the toppling of the Allende government is because the coup was supported by the Nixon administration. It just doesn’t sound that great to say you were fighting a war in Vietnam to bring freedom and democracy to the people there while at the same time you were supporting the overthrow of a democratically elected government in favor of a military dictator in South America. But then again no one had ever really paid that much attention to South America before, so Nixon probably thought no one would really notice. Like so many other of his decisions this one turned out to be a mistake as well. You see there is essentially one reason why Allende and his government are different from all the other coups in Latin American history; Allende was a Socialist and his government represented the first time in the world where an openly Socialist government was democratically elected. Its one thing to talk about giving the people freedom and democracy but it is certainly another thing when they truly begin to use it to build a better society for all. The Chilean generals and the Washington politicians were well aware of this and they moved to put the people of Chile back in the place they belonged, firmly under their control.
When Allende assumed the presidency of Chile in 1970 international news organizations declared him to be the world first democratically elected Marxist leader. That is simplifying things somewhat. Allende gained power with the backing of the Unidad Popular (UP) coalition of leftist political parties. The Socialist Party and the Communist Party did indeed make up the two largest factions in UP, but there were also smaller non-Marxists parties aligned with it as well. This conglomeration of parties on the left backing a Marxist program was a key to gaining victory through elections, something many thought was impossible in Chile or indeed any country. Clearly the CIA did not see it as such an unlikely outcome as it had infused over $11 million dollars into Chilean politics between 1962-1970 in an attempt to prevent Allende from being elected. When he finally succeeded the US stepped up its efforts to eliminate him from the scene. Henry Kissinger, who was Secretary of State under Nixon, authorized the expenditure of $8 million dollars between 1970-1973 to ‘destabilize’ the economy, including money for right-wing strikes, to bring down the Allende government.
In fact when you actually examine what Allende accomplished or set out to accomplish in the three years he was in power it is clear that he was following a path of peaceful reform with the capitalist state and not a revolutionary overthrow of that system. There were modest challenges to the existing order, such as the nationalizing of the US-owned copper mines, but all in all Allende continued to push on reforms that were begun by the previous Christian Democrat government. The reforms amounted to an orthodox Keynesian plan for restarting the economy under the direction of the government, certainly nothing revolutionary as similar models had been followed all across Europe after the Second World War. The reasons behind Allende’s mild reforms are manifold, but it basically rested on his belief in the eventual success of the movement and the use of the current state institutions to build a socialist society directly at odds with those institutions. Perhaps his most fatal error was to believe right up until the end the military would obey its constitutional duty to uphold the democracy and not intervene.
That was all to change on the morning of September 11, 1973. Tensions had been rising for some time as the reactionary backlash against the modest reforms enacted over the past few years had lead to major disruptions in the country organized by industry bosses. Workers were also becoming frustrated with UP as they thought the pace of reforms should be sped up and not watered down to try to appease everyone. The line between opposing forces that Allende was trying to walk was turning out to be an impossible venture with those on the right becoming increasingly hostile and those on the left increasingly disillusioned. The hammer finally fell when the coup was launched. Allende, trapped in the Presidential Palace while it was surrounded and being bombed by the military, managed to transmit one final radio broadcast to the country. He closed his address with following,

Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Keep in mind that, much sooner than later, great avenues will again be opened, through which will pass the free man, to construct a better society.

Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!

These are my last words, and I am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain, I am certain that, at the very least, it will be a moral lesson that will punish felony, cowardice, and treason.

Whatever his faults or naivety in governing he truly was a man that had the best interest of the Chilean people at heart. It became clear that he was never going to willing resign as president to the coup plotters and he took his own life shortly after the speech rather that wait to be killed by the generals.
Allende’s end was a tragic one, but if anything it is just a representation of what happened to Chile as a whole. Tens of thousands were murdered or disappeared under the dictatorship for opposing the government, being perceived ‘subversives’, or simply to be made an example of. One such man was Victor Jara. In the preceding years he had emerged as the leader of the ‘new song movement’ in Chilean folk music. His songs with filled with praise of the brotherhood of humanity, the right to live in peace, and the socialist ideals popular among the followers of Allende. Immediately following the success of the coup thousands were rounded up by the military and placed in the national stadium in Santiago, which had been turned into a makeshift prison camp. Jara was among the prisoners and he paid a price like so many others for the ideal he represented. He first had his hands broken and mangled so that he would never be able to play the guitar again. It was a cruel punishment for simply being a musician but they couldn’t break Jara’s spirit and he sung songs for the other prisoners to help give them hope while they were all imprisoned together. After four days in the stadium he was dead, executed at the hands of the military.
The history of the coup and the long years that followed are filled with many such episodes of personal and national tragedies. Of course some were celebrating the turn of events. A US Defense Department memo dated October 1, 1973, actually goes as far as stating that September 11 was “our D- Day” and that “Chile’s coup de etat was close to perfect.” It probably doesn’t really surprise anyone to read that Nixon was involved in something so dirty and that he actually supported it. The point is that when we in the US remember the misfortunes that have afflicted us and let us also remember the misfortunes that we have inflicted upon other nations and reflect on the reasons why. These are not the sorts of things that are better to be swept under the rug and forgotten. Look at Iraq, eventually these things come back and bite you in the ass. We can learn from Chile not only about the mistakes that were made but also about what it takes to make a better place for all. It is a struggle, those with power are not simply going to hand it over to the masses, it will have to be taken from them. But without the struggle we will not only not make progress but we will slowly beat into submission.