September 11

One of the reasons I love history is that while it is possible to acquire more knowledge to create a clearer picture of the past, there are always new things to learn about that expand or rearrange that picture.  Traveling to Chile has added to that picture.  In the United States, September 11 means the terrorist attacks of 2001.  In Chile, September 11 means the coup d'etat (violent overthrow of a government) of 1973.

Before visiting of Chile, here's what I knew or didn't know about the coup:
1. Chile was becoming more socialist as the government was nationalizing (a government takeover of a private business or corporation) industries.  I didn't know who the president was.
2. It was replaced by a dictatorship led by Pinochet.  I didn't even know his first name.
3. The US, particularly Nixon's secretary of state Henry Kissinger and the CIA, was somehow involved.
4. Hard-core leftists (especially those who would consciously describe themselves as Marxists) in the US really hate (hate might not be a strong enough word) Kissinger because of the Chilean coup.
That's it.  That's all I knew, which is almost nothing.

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The touristy things that Lindsay and I did that prompted this particular post were one of the first and one of the last things we did in Santiago.  On Monday, July 7, we did a walking tour of Santiago (the subject of a previous blog post) which started at the statue of Salvador Allende, the president of Chile who was overthrown and killed/committed suicide on September 11, 1973.  On Thursday, July 17, we visited the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, which was dedicated to the horrors of the seventeen year dictatorship that followed the coup.

Allende Statue Outside La Moneda

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Entrance to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights

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The drive from the airport to Garv's apartment offers a stark contrast in worlds.  Near the airport are shanty-towns of shack after shack (I didn't get a picture), common to all Latin American cities .  Garv, however, lives in an area of Santiago called Las Condes which the safest and cleanest area of any huge city I've been to.  Las Condes is the financial center of Chile and is nicknamed Sanhattan.  There are a lot of wealthy retired Chileans and expatriates living and working there temporarily.  And both of these areas are much different than Santiago's downtown.

The view of Las Condes from their terrace at night.

The view of Las Condes from their terrace during the day.

It was the huge disparity between poverty and wealth that Salvador Allende tried to alleviate when he was elected in 1970.  Allende was the first socialist democratically elected in the Western Hemisphere (Castro had violently seized power in Cuba in 1959).  His primary objectives were to nationalize the copper mines (which were partially owned by US companies) and health care, redistribute land, and provide free education.  However, the economy tanked during the three years of his presidency mostly because of decline in the world copper market, spiraling inflation, price controls, and mandatory wage controls.  Basic food commodities increased in price dramatically and could only be found on the black market since his regulations had failed.  Allende had campaigned and governed on the basis of ending foreign influence in Chile and empowering the people and workers.  Instead, his policies wrecked Chile's economy, like Marxist policies always do.

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I love political ads.  I'm serious.  You should love them, too.  What's the alternative?  Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety.  Stalin.  Hitler.  Etc. In these systems, political opponents were harassed and treated violently.  There were no elections or elections were rigged.  Secret police were a common threat.  Governments changed by coup d'etats or assassinations rather than through elections.  So learn to love them Iowans, because you're going to continue seeing a lot of them.  And we're lucky it's possible to so openly, blatantly, and publicly critique public officials.

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Because the nationalization of industries and redistribution of land, Allende's opponents wanted him out of office.  He proposed a national referendum (an election) on whether to remove him or not, but his opponents wanted to ensure that he was removed from office.  On September 11, 1973, Chile's government was overthrown.  Tanks rolled in and airplanes bombed things and they took over the Moneda and everything.  You can Youtube "Chile Coup" and to see news coverage from the period and retrospectives from today.


It's surreal that something like this happened so recently.  It's surprising that Chile isn't completely fucked up today, especially since it subsequently endured seventeen years (1973-1990) of a dictatorship under Agosto Pinochet filled with executions, assassinations, torture, disappearances, and suspension of civil rights.  Anyone my age and older lived through the dictatorship and have memories of it.  According to Garv, however, it's not something Chileans talk about because there are very strong feelings about it.

There's a huge debate on whether Allende was assassinated or committed suicide on the day of the coup.  I'm not sure, and frankly, it only matters if one's concerned with how Allende looks in the historical record and the popular culture.  I'm not sure how he's regarded in the historical record because I've only read one book about Chile.  In popular culture, however, there seems to be at least a segment of the population that regards Allende very highly.  Allende's glasses, in particular, have become a symbol of him as his broken glasses came to represent the coup while his glasses have come to represent the end of the dictatorship.

Allende's glasses in the Museum of National History

Example of an Allende T-shirt Common in Museum Gift Stores

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One of the most interesting aspects of Chile's interpretation of the coup and dictatorship was that there was no mention of the US's role.  Obviously, my searching for a mention of the US's role is an example of my American-centrism.  To most Chileans, the coup was mostly a Chilean event, which it was.  But the coup and the US's role in it was also an example of a hot war in the Cold War.  Most Americans are aware of the Korean War and Vietnam War but they may not know why the US fought there--to stop the spread of communism.  Americans are aware of US intervention there because they involved large-scale military intervention.  Many Americans, however, are not aware of CIA sponsored or assisted coups: Iran in 1953 (to prevent the nationalization of oil companies--that's the reason Iran hates us so much today); Guatemala in 1954 (to keep Chiquita bananas under American ownership); Cuba in 1961 (the Bay of Pigs failure); and, of course, Chile in 1973 are the most well-known.  In each case the CIA wanted to remove a leader so as to prevent the spread of communism, but in exchange the US supported a dictator because, hey, a right-wing dictator is better than a left-wing leader nationalizating oil fields, banana plantations, copper mines, or the whole frickin country.  The extent of the US's role in Chile is hotly debated, though the US did have a role. But whatever the case, the major problem with the Cold War is that the US and USSR used other countries for their ideological battles.  However, as indicated by the lack of mention of the US's role in Chile's interpretation of the coup, within these countries the battle was not about the geopolitics of the Cold War, but instead a political, social, economic, and cultural contest within those countries where the people are looking out for their own welfare, not to color in their country red or blue on a map.