With his death, Salvador Allende also wanted to give a message: that we must never concede in the defense of freedom. Today freedom seems normal, democracy is there, but we must continue to fight. We must never give up (and we should) think that there is a risk to the most precious thing, which is our way of life. (my translation)Allende's elected government was overthrown on September 11, 1973 in a coup backed and even orchestrated by the CIA. It was replaced by the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet that lasted until 1990.
Malcolm Byrne writes in Allende and Chile: ‘Bring Him Down’ H-Diplo 11/05/2021:
Several days after Salvador Allende’s history-changing November 3, 1970, inauguration, Richard Nixon convened his National Security Council for a formal meeting on what policy the U.S. should adopt toward Chile’s new Popular Unity government. Only a few officials who gathered in the White House Cabinet Room knew that, under Nixon’s orders, the CIA had covertly tried, and failed, to foment a preemptive military coup to prevent Allende from ever being inaugurated. The SECRET/SENSITIVE NSC memorandum of conversation revealed a consensus that Allende’s democratic election and his socialist agenda for substantive change in Chile threatened U.S. interests, but divergent views on what the U.S. could, and should do about it. “We can bring his downfall, perhaps, without being counterproductive,” suggested Secretary of State William Rogers, who opposed overt hostility and aggression toward Chile. “We have to do everything we can to hurt [Allende] and bring him down,” agreed the secretary of defense, Melvin Laird.The National Security Archives at George Washington University has a Chile Documentation Project that provides extensive documentation of US involvement in the coup. Just yesterday, they published this report on newly released documentation, Australian Spies Aided and Abetted CIA in Chile 09/10/2021.
“Our main concern in Chile is the prospect that [Allende] can consolidate himself and the picture projected to the world will be his success,” President Nixon explained as he instructed his national security team to adopt a hostile, if low-profile, program of aggression to destabilize Allende’s ability to govern. “We’ll be very cool and very correct, but doing those things which will be a real message to Allende and others.”
Chile is currently in the process of replacing the very conservative constitution that Pinochet established before he left office.
The story of US intervention in Chile is part of the larger picture of US regime change operations, which Roger Burbach discussed in Two 9/11s, one story Guardian 09/10/2021.
These assassinations [of two people in the US] were linked to the first international terrorist network in the west, Operation Condor. Begun in 1974 at the instigation of the Chilean secret police, it was made up by the intelligence services of at least six South American countries that collaborated in tracking, kidnapping and assassinating political opponents. Based on documents divulged under the Chile Declassification Project of the Clinton administration, it is now recognised that the CIA knew about these international terrorist activities and may have abetted them.See also the following references:
After the murders of Letelier and Moffitt, the CIA concluded that Condor was a rogue operation and may have tried to contain its activities. However, the network continued to act throughout Latin America at least until the early 1980s. Chilean and Argentine military units assisted the dictator Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua, and helped set up death squads in El Salvador. Argentine units also aided Honduran military death squads that began operating in the early 80s with the direct assistance and collaboration of the CIA.
Similarities abound between the emergence of terrorist networks in Latin America and events leading to the rise of al-Qaida. Osama bin Laden first became involved in militant Islamist activities when he went to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight with the Mujahideen against the Soviet-backed regime that had taken power. Even in the 1980s it was recognised that many of those fighting against the Soviets and the Afghan government were religious fanatics who had no loyalty to their US sponsors. Ronald Reagan likened them to America's "founding fathers". [my emphasis]
Felipe Pigna gives an account of the coup in, El golpe de los Estados Unidos contra Salvador Allende El Historiador, accessed 19/1/2021
A Senate Committee, the famous Church Committee, investigated US participation in the coup. (Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973, 1975)
Another 9/11 Anniversary: September 11, 1973, When US-Backed Pinochet Forces Took Power in Chile Democracy Now 09/15/2010
Sophia Boddenberg und Anne Herrberg, Chiles 9/11: Der lange Kampf gegen Pinochets Erbe Deutschlandfunk Kultur 08.09.2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment