What the documents declassified by the US say about the hours before the coup in Chile

This September 11 marks the 50th anniversary of the military coup that overthrew the socialist president Salvador Allende in Chili. Two presidential reports revealed by the State Department of USA On August 25, they shed more light on the role of the North American country in the days prior to the coup that was led by General Augusto Pinochet.

The protagonist of the new documents is Richard Nixonthen president of the United States and who, according to official reports known in the past, in 1970 ordered a direct and hidden intervention to prevent allende will arrive at The coin or “unseat” it if there is a way to do it.

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The first document is dated September 8, 1973. In it, the advisers of Richard Nixon report on a “possible coup attempt” in Chili.

While in the second document, dated September 11, 1973, Nixon he is informed that several “key military units” support the coup attempt.

Photos of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger displayed at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights during the exhibition “State Secrets: The Declassified History of the Chilean Dictatorship” in Santiago on October 24, 2017. (MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP). (MARTIN BERNETTI /)

Through a statement, the Department of State indicated that USA ha declassified and published parts of the Daily Briefings of the President related to Chile“in accordance with our commitment to increase transparency.”

“Along with thousands of previously declassified documents, today’s release demonstrates our long-standing commitment to the partnership between United States and Chilewhich is consistent with our efforts to promote democracy and human rights in our own countries and around the world.”maintains the statement.

The US State Department added that “The declassification of documents is a complex process involving multiple agencies, in which the government of the USA takes into account numerous factors, including national security, source protection and methodology, and other risks and benefits of disclosing specific information. Taking these factors into account, The United States government completed this declassification review in response to a request from the Chilean government and to allow for a deeper understanding of the history we share.”.

In Chilithe government of the president gabriel boric thanked on Friday USA the declassification of the two presidential reports and assured that the publication of secret documents “promotes the search for the truth.”

“A few weeks after the commemoration of the breakdown of democracy in ChiliWe especially thank the administration of President (Joe) Biden for its willingness to accept the request to declassify files that have a relationship with our country”, said the Undersecretary of Foreign Relations, Gloria de la Fuente.

“50 years after the military coup, the declassification of files promotes the search for truth and reinforces the commitment of our countries to democratic values ​​because democracy is memory and it is also the future”he added.

On September 11, 1973The general Augusto Pinochet staged a military coup in Chili against the president Salvador Allendewho committed suicide in La Moneda, and imposed a dictatorship that lasted until 1990.

General Augusto Pinochet (left) poses with Chilean President Salvador Allende on August 23, 1973 in Santiago, shortly after Allende named him head of the army. (AFP PHOTO/FILES).

The Pinochet dictatorship It left nearly 40,000 people tortured and imprisoned and more than 3,000 opponents executed, of which a third are still missing, according to official data.

The defenders of Pinochet they maintain that the coup d’état saved Chile of a civil war and of becoming a communist state.

Even in a surprising survey published in May of this year, 36% of Chileans said they believed that the military “were right” to carry out the coup.

Not only that, the same survey CERC-Mori Policy Barometer concluded that the justification for that coup grew 20 percentage points since 2013 and that today 47% of Chileans believe that the Pinochet regime was “partly good and partly bad.”

That is the context in which Chili will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the military coup.

There is no evidence of a coordinated three-service coup plan. In fact lately we’ve been talking […] of ways to build inter-service unity with a view to increasing the influence of the military in government. If Navy bosses act in the belief that they will automatically receive support from the other services, they could find themselves isolated.

There are also indications that naval officers may be planning joint anti-government actions with civilian anti-regime militants. The far-right movement Patria y Libertad has been blocking roads and sparking clashes with police national, increasing the tension caused by the continuous strikes and opposition political movements.

President allende […] earlier this week […] He said that he believed that the Armed Forces would ask for his resignation if he did not change his economic and political policies. He raised the prospect of a armed confrontation between his followers and the military. Allende says that his supporters do not have enough weapons to prevail in such an event and that it would be pointless to try to distribute more weapons now., since the military would not allow it. He concluded that the only solution is political.

allende seemed to be trying to convince […] that the situation is serious and requires cautious management, and that some tactical political withdrawals may be necessary. He is concerned about the opposition’s sustained pressure against him and, especially, the intentions of the military.”

Although military officials are increasingly determined to restore political and economic order, they may still seem like an effectively coordinated plan that would take advantage of widespread civil opposition.

Socialists, left-wing extremists and communists are equally determined not to budge. They are betting that the military and political opposition will not be able to carry out measures to overthrow the government or even impose restrictions on it. President Allende, for his part, still hopes that appeasement will avoid a confrontation.”

A man burns an American flag in the streets of Santiago, Chile during demonstrations marking the 25th anniversary of the death of Chilean President Salvador Allende. (Photo by ORLANDO BARRIA / AFP). (ORLANDO BARRIA /)

According to an article published in the National Security Archive of the United States, on September 15, 1970, during a 20-minute meeting in the Oval Office (in the White House, USA) between 3:25 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. President Richard Nixon ordered the CIA to foment a coup in Chile. According to handwritten notes by the CIA director, Richard HelmsNixon gave explicit instructions to prevent the newly elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, took office in November. Or to create conditions to overthrow him if he did. “One chance in 10, maybe, but saving Chile”, “You are not concerned about the risks involved“, I note Helms in his notes as the president demanded regime change in the South American nation that had become the first in the world to freely elect a candidate socialist. “Full time job: the best men we have”. “Make the economy scream”.

Pinochet receives Kissinger in his office, in a photo from June 8, 1976, in Santiago, Chile.

“Fifty years after it was written, the cryptic conversation memo of Helm with Nixon it remains the only known record of a US president ordering the covert overthrow of a democratically elected leader abroad. Since the document was first declassified in 1975 as part of a major Senate investigation into covert operations by the INC in Chili and other places, the notes of Helms They have become the iconic representation of the US intervention in Chile and an enduring symbol of Washington’s hegemonic arrogance towards smaller nations.says the document.

The thousands of documents that have been declassified since the president’s government Bill Clinton (1993-2001) show that Nixon and his right hand henry kissinger they did not want Allende to assume power in Chile. It is also now known that the CIA supported and financed groups to destabilize the socialist.

By announcing the release of the 23,000 declassified documents, the government of Clinton He said that the public could “judge for themselves to what extent the actions of the United States undermined the cause of democracy and human rights in Chile.”

“Actions approved by the United States government during that period aggravated political polarization and affected Chile’s long tradition of democratic elections and respect for constitutional order and the rule of law”the White House said.

In 2016, the then President of the United States, Barack Obama (2009-2017), ordered the declassification of documents related to the attack in 1976 against the Chilean politician Orlando Letelier in washington.

He document proved what for many was always an open secret: that Pinochet ordered the killing of Letelier in Washington on September 21, 1976.

Source: Elcomercio