Posted on 09/14/2003 3:09:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
On Sept. 13, 1970, The Herald's long-time Latin American editor, Don Bohning, rated Salvador Allende's electoral victory in Chile, nine days earlier, as the ''single most significant event in Latin America since Fidel Castro seized power more than a decade ago.'' The then-U.S. Ambassador, Edward M. Korry went further. In a confidential report to President Richard Nixon, he wrote: ``It will have the most profound effect on Latin America and beyond; we have suffered a grievous defeat.''
And, he added: ``It is a sad fact that Chile has taken the path to communism with only little more than a third of the nation approving this choice, but it is an immutable fact.''
Three years later, on Sept. 11, 1973, Allende was overthrown in a remarkably surgical military coup. Despite elaborate plans to train, arm and equip a clandestine militia, and to ring Santiago itself with fortified factories, the fighting on the llth took fewer than 200 lives on both sides.
In the aftermath, another journalist -- the talented British writer, David Holden -- wrote ``Salvador Allende died a lucky man. In life, he was a failure. Both his policies and his country were shattered long before the end. But in death, he achieved success beyond his dreams. Instantly canonized as the Western world's newest left-wing martyr, he became overnight the most potent cult figure since his old friend, Che Guevara.''
The British author, Robert Moss, went further: ``It was a bit boy scoutish of them, but the soldiers who overthrew Salvador Allende thought they had earned the gratitude of the American people, and of the West in general. For one thing, they prevented the transformation of Chile into a sort of Latin American Czechoslovakia, complete with Soviet bases. . . . Alas, how little these soldiers understood the mood of the times in Washington or London.''
The assessments of all four writers were correct. The election of the first Marxist-Leninist government ever to reach power via the ballot box did reverberate through the entire world. And the Myth of Allende did billow up from the smoke of battle. The Soviet propaganda machine was never idle, but the Western press and academics were the principal agents of the myth. But as Alan Angell, head of Oxford University's Latin American department, observed recently, a crucial source of the propaganda was the Chilean exile community.
''Many exiles,'' he wrote, ``were politicians with connections with those same parties in Europe, in parts of Latin America and elsewhere. All the Socialists, Communists, Christian Democrats and Radicals found welcome outside of Chile. The exile community succeeded in securing the condemnation of the Pinochet government by international organizations such as the United Nations, in convincing governments to boycott Chilean products and to break relations with the government. It would be difficult to exaggerate the impact of the Chilean coup on the world community.''
Allende was central to the early message of the exiles and their allies. His wife was sent round the world to proclaim her late husband's deep devotion to democracy and brutal slaying at the command of blood-soaked generals. (Allende had actually committed suicide, a fact well-documented at the time, but which didn't win wide acceptance until years later.)
No longer a useful icon, Allende was dropped from the propaganda barrages around the end of the 1970s. But, while bleeped off the international screen, he never was in Chile. There, the man and his government, have been dissected, diagnosed, debated and delved into for years. The consensus is that Holden had it more or less right: He was a failure, his own worst enemy in government -- charismatic, yes; complex, too, especially in the dichotomy between his authentic democratic strain and his fascination with violence. And, in the end, unable or unwilling or both to contain the radical firebrands in his own Socialist Party -- a party then, by the way, far more Maoist than democratic, a party utterly committed to violence.
With a Socialist again at the head of the Chilean government -- and a Socialist (Ricardo Lagos) who had actually served in Allende's government -- it appeared for a brief time recently that the image of Allende might be moved back to center stage. But when the Socialists announced plans to make an homage to Allende the centerpiece of the Sept. 11 official ceremonies, they set off such a firestorm among their partners in the governing coalition that they were forced to back off.
The Allende homage was rescheduled as an unofficial event on the 10th, while the official ceremony would dwell on the loss of democracy 30 years ago and the need for all Chileans to unite so that that never would happen again.
Allende was, of course, ousted by a military coup headed by Augusto Pinochet. It was not a typical power-grab by jackbooted gorillas; the military acted reluctantly, and only in response to the clamor of the overwhelming majority of the Chilean people.
Pinochet and the other armed services took over a country whose economy, social and political arrangements had -- in the phrase of Chile's leading contemporary historian ''suffered a progressive decay, culminating in its later and total collapse -- the collapse of death -- in 1973. Many,'' added historian Gonzalo Vial Correa, ``are unwilling to admit the decadence and death of the system -- the military intervened because the conflict among civilians has become insoluble.''
Over the next 17 years, they focused first on fighting well-armed terrorist organizations and those who aided and abetted them. In those 17 years, 2,279 persons -- on both sides -- died or are missing, more than half of them in the first, conflictive 90 days after the coup.
Parallel with that, they set out to rebuild the economy and create a new and sturdy institutional framework; the Constitution created by a broad-based group of civilian experts, including two former presidents, is, by far, the most functional in Chilean history. Indeed, it remains in force 13 years after Pinochet voluntarily relinquished power to an elected government. The economy has made Chile the envy of all of Latin America.
Altogether, the Chilean revolution of 1973 was the most successful in Latin American history.
It also was the least bloody of any major revolution. And it also is the most reviled. But that would be a story for another day.
James R. Whelan has written on Latin America since 1958, and six of his seven books deal with Latin America.
He recounted the struggle of the man who won the elections as a candidate of the Chilean Popular Unity Party and proceeded to initiate “a unique revolutionary process that proposed profound political, economic and social changes to the benefit of the people within the canons of bourgeois democracy.”
Balaguer recalled Allende’s visit “to our country in the early months of the Cuban Revolution and his meetings with Che Guevara, Raúl Castro and Fidel.
A few hours after the Cuban military victory on the sands of Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs), Allende arrived on the island, as he himself said: “To be with the people who gave a lesson in heroism by defeating Cuban counterrevolutionaries organized, funded and armed by U.S. imperialism,” the Party leader explained.
He stated that “our country will never forget that the first measure decreed by the recently acclaimed Chilean president was the reestablishment of full diplomatic relations between our two countries, in defiance of the might of imperialism which, with the honorable exception of Mexico, forced the rest of the Latin American governments to break of such relations. Likewise, his valiant gesture of going to find and accompany the three Cuban and two Bolivian survivors of Che’s guerrilla force, in his condition as president of the Chilean Senate.”
In a packed public meeting during a visit to the island who years after taking up the presidency, Allende referred to Fidel’s visit to Chile by Fidel in December 1971, affirming: “Fidel’s presence and the masterly teachings of his speeches fortified the revolutionary faith of the Chilean people and the revolutionary faith of the Latin American people.”
Speaking of the events that gave rise to the fascist coup of September 11, 1973, Balaguer reflected: “What a similarity with what is currently occurring in Venezuela! The same pattern, the same actions, fascism against the peoples. Hatred and scorn of human beings and their ascent to happiness. The hypocrisy and Paraphrasing Allende, Balaguer concluded: “The peoples’ struggle will inexorably open up the grand avenues that lead to the future. At that moment the memory and history of Salvador Allende will shine out like an infinite sun.”
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Thanks for the LINKS!
Bump!
Glad to oblige!
Parallel with that, they set out to rebuild the economy and create a new and sturdy institutional framework; the Constitution created by a broad-based group of civilian experts, including two former presidents, is, by far, the most functional in Chilean history.
In our venture into Iraq we are banking heavily on being able to beat the post-Allende Chilean timetable by an order of magnitude. And we are being told by the French to accomplish that in a matter of weeks!Indeed, it remains in force 13 years after Pinochet voluntarily relinquished power to an elected government. The economy has made Chile the envy of all of Latin America. Altogether, the Chilean revolution of 1973 was the most successful in Latin American history.
It also was the least bloody of any major revolution. And it also is the most reviled. But that would be a story for another day.
Bush is trying to convert Iraq from a North Korea to a Canada. But I guess he can forget about winning a Nobel Peace Prize even, or especially, if he succeeds . . .
very lo-o-o-ong but lots of information
The Nobel Peace Prize is not worth having. It was long ago compromised by the choices for previous winners, Lee Duc Tho, Yassir Arafat, Jimmy Carter, etc.
Generalissimo Augusto Pinochet
very lo-o-o-ong but lots of information
Very good read, you mean.Makes you think what Hillary might do . . .
bttt
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