During the Presidency of Eduardo Frei Montalva in the 60´s, Chilean society started to become more polarized than before. During this period, the left started acting more violently, creating Communist guerrillas and motivating extreme violence; This was alien to Chilean democratic tradition and stability until this time. In the 1970 elections, the Popular Unity, represented by the Socialist Salvador Allende Gossens, won the presidency by one third of the popular vote (36%). The Popular Unity coalition was composed of the Socialist party, the Communist party, the Radical party, Christian Left, and the Popular Action Unity Movement (MAPU in Spanish). Because he won with 36% of the vote, this shows us that he did not win with an "absolute mayority" like the Socialists and the Communists would like us to believe. As pertained to the constitution of the time, he was elected by indirect vote of Congress, since he did not obtain the necessary absolute mayority of votes; this shows us why he was NOT DIRECTLY elected by the people. Nowadays, some Communists and ignorant people say he was "just a social-democrat", that tried to inplant some friendly reforms. He was not your local friendly Labour MP, he was an extremist, admired Fidel Castro (not only did he invite him twice, he even danced with him!) and would take machine-gun shooting lessons with leftist guerrillas. Does Allende sound like your simple social-democrat? We think not, more like a lunatic.

The day the Chilean National Congress elected the Marxist Dr. Salvador Allende Gossens to the presidency, in 1970. Here we can see ex-president Eduardo Frei Montalva (Christian Democrat) give the presidential band to Salvador Allende amid much popular promises.

It's funny to hear people say how "democratic Allende was; he acted almost like a dictator. As time went by, he was becoming more and more brainwashed by Communists, and he became paranoid about a Coup d'Etat against his Marxist government. This man declared from early on that there were no contradictions between the socialist process of Chile and Cuba; in december of 1972, he traveled to the Soviet Union, and hailed it as "Chile's older brother". He lived like an extremely rich man (or as the Communists say, "burgueois"), had a great mansion on Tomas Moro street, had one of the best wine cellars of the country (well stocked, while the rest of the normal populace was lacking wine), and had an excess of food and "delicatessens" that at this time was not available to common people. The common people were lacking even simple things like sugar, cooking oil, chicken, rice, gas, and many other things due to disorganized government distribution, while Allende could buy directly from foreign countries. He also dressed in expensive, elegant suits and silk ties (impossible to buy such luxuries at the time!), which he would take off (or change clothes) when he went to give speeches to poor neighborhoods, to try and brainwash the people into what a good president he was.

Is this the leader of a nation, or the leader of a guerrilla gang? - "Tell me with whom you are associating with and I will tell you who you are!"

During Allende's government, democracy was pushed to the limit, prohibiting freedom of ideas, closing newspapers which critisized the government (these newspapers, surprise, had free democratic ideas). The Popular Unity government would often ignore the law, trespasing the law and only using it when it suited their needs. Allende was often at loggerheads with Congress and Senate, as well as the Supreme Court because he claimed they were against him and "attacking" him. Allende as well as most of the parties in the coalition, only saw democracy and law and order as a "burgueois" thing and that socialism had to be implanted as soon as possible. Allende and his henchmen would call anyone against his regime as "fascist" or "reactionary Burgueois", maintaining himself in power by his mock of democracy. Any vandalic action (like killings and kidnappings), he would declare it as an act of the CIA and the fascists trying to destroy his government, when in reality, the mayority of the killings were done by leftist terrorists (which as usual, they were blamed on the right). As you can see, his government never tried to "unite" the Chilean people, but concentrated in attacking and alienating them, using the farce that he was helping the poor. From early on he said he "was not president of all Chileans". He alienated the Chilean people by increasing "class hatred" and by giving false hopes of a better future to the poor people. Allende and the Popular Unity did little or nothing to help the poor; The Allende government never worried about these people, since instead of giving them benefits, like long term housing and stable jobs, he only gave them milk, populist moves which don't help anyone and anybody. When the Popular Unity said proudly that they "had created more jobs", the only thing they created was a huge state bureaucracy, with inefficient people doing absolutely nothing (not producing). The Popular Unity government took over (stole) almost 80% of all local and international industry, no matter how small or unimportant this companies were. The takeover of industry was done in the name of "progress" and they called it "passing" it to the public sector, so that the people could get bigger benefits. Government sectors openly called for takeover of all local industries and to "overthrow" their bosses. The ones who usually oversaw the takeovers of land and industry were extreme terrorist groups like MIR, this way the government appeared to not be directly implicated, but would support them morally. Allende's policies ruined the economy, fixing prices, which lead to the creation of a vast Black Market. Inflation went up, reaching 1000%, the highest inflation ever reached in Chile. Litte by little, the government was taking over everything, creating absolute power, which he could manipulate in his favor, which in the future it would be hard to remove them from governance. The right of private property and individual liberties were not respected. Allende would give Presidential Amnesty (like a Presidential pardon) to all those who were leftist guerrillas like FPMR and MAPU and a thousand others under the pretext that they were "idealist youngsters". Of course he was biased in his decitions, because whenever the right was implicated in anything, he would call them "murderous fascists" or provocators. It's funny how observers of "Human Rights" and "Amnesty International" didn't come to "observe" or criticize the abuses comitted under the Popular Unity regime.

Scarcity and hunger was everyday life. To buy this rubbish people had to belong to the JAP.

Soon, as mentioned before, not even the most basic necessities were available, and if they were, it was in small quantities, and to obtain food and any other thing, people had to queu for hours. The Popular Unity controlled the people by their hunger, because to even buy the little food available, people had to be a member of the "JAP" (Juntas de Abastecimiento y Control de Precios). This meant that if you were not part of this communist organization, they wouldn't let you buy food. Also the card of the JAP was to be used in the area where it was issued. This forcibly made people declare that they were in favor of Allende and the government (this was so they could eat!)when in reality they were not in favor of the government. The JAP was also an organization that forced all merchants to sell at fixed, set prices, not the prices they wanted or needed.

One of the numerous cabinet shifts made by Salvador Allende to give the Armed Forces a bigger role within the marxist government. It did not work.

They say one of Allende's triumphs was in the Agrarian Reform (started in the 1960's by the Christian Democrat President Frei Montalva), which, in reality it was desastrous. This was a particular area where violence was widespread. The Popular Unity government in contrast with the Christian Democrat government, took over land by force, without compensation. It was often done in illegal ways, the MIR often involved in these violent take overs, where the owner could be kidnapped or even killed (much like in Zimbabwe today). The big and small honest and hardworking land owners were forced to give up their land to the state (who do they think they are, one has the right to do what he feels like on their land!), and the government would give small plots of land to ignorant peasants, who couldn't produce anything on that land, since it was too small, and they did not posses or have the technology, money and "knowhow" to grow and sell his own food. Of course, the land was not given away to these landless peasants, but it was rented or leased to them, the state owned the land. This made Chile dependent on Cuba for sugar, and for the first time, Chile was begging for food to the "Eastern bloc". The Soviet Union, seeing its chance of implementing their hated ideology in our dear fatherland, soon started to make Chile dependent on them for mayor imported goods, trying to enslave Chileans to Communism. There was more violence day by day, creating an unbereable atmosphere where no one had faith living in, chaos being the order of the day, and democracy and liberty, and all it stood for, seemed to be disappearing or being demoralized. Towards the end of 1973, the mayority of Chileans (from every sector of society), with the exception of the Socialist and Comunist parties, as well as the leftist terrorists, wanted Salvador Allende to renounce the presidency, so that stability, law and order and economic well-being could return to the country once more. However, with time, he became more dictatorial, and he would refuse to leave power, saying that only bullets would remove his pro-Communist government from power. The military gave him an ultimatum: give up or suffer the consecuences. The Armed Forces were prepared to make available a plane to let Allende and his family leave the country to exile. He refused, and with a few loyal friends, returned machine gun fure from the Presidential Palace. As he refused, the Aviation proceded in a professional manner, to bomb La Moneda, the Presidential Palace. Alone and in a feeling of guilt and anguish, he committed suicide with the machine gun his friend Fidel Castro had given to him (this is what happened according to Allende´s personal doctor). His words proved true, and the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros (Police), tired of the moral and economic rundown, and the chaotic state of the fatherland, without personal ambitions other than the good of the fatherland, decided to take the patriotic duty of saving and taking direction of the nation.

Allende and his socialist democratism; Here Allende taking shooting lessons from his Political Police chief, "Coco" Paredes.(from A.P.U Foundation)

Allende practicing with his "revolutionary" friends.

Orlando and Isabel Letelier with the then senator Salvador Allende in Havana, Cuba in 1960.

Orlando Letelier meets the communist tyrant Fidel Castro.

PARIS, FEBRUARY 1972: ORLANDO LETELIER, PABLO NERUDA (CHILEAN AMBASSADOR IN FRANCE) AND CLODOMIRO ALMEYDA (MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS) IN FRANCE FOR NEGOTIATIONS ON CHILE'S DEBTS

Arsenal found after Allende's downfall.

See the picture gallery of the Popular Unity 1970-1973

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