And the reason they are free is, in part, due to the defeat of Allende. From the World Socialist Web Site (published by the international Committee of the Fourth International):
The Chilean tragedy is one of the major strategic experiences of the twentieth century. The overthrow of Allende's Popular Unity government and Pinochet's subsequent reign of terror delivered a body blow to the Latin American and international working class from which, in a sense, it is only now beginning to recover. . . .Chile was pregnant with the possibility of a successful socialist revolution, and such an eventuality would have had a profound impact on the movement of workers all over the world, just as the Russian Revolution did in 1917.
Is that what you would have preferred? Another Lenin but his time in our hemisphere?
Its a funny thing i've seen on FR. to agree with the writings of socialists when they aggrandize socialism and the socialist threat, but to disagree or dismiss them when they criticize capitalism, or promote other "socialist lies" etc...