1973 Chilean coup d'état location Chile
The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a military coup in Chile that deposed the Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende. Allende had been the first Socialist to be elected president of a liberal democracy in Latin America. On 11 September 1973, after an extended period of social unrest and political tension between the opposition-controlled Congress and the socialist President, as well as economic war ordered by United States President Richard Nixon, a group of military officers led by General Augusto Pinochet seized power in a coup of their own, ending civilian rule.
The military established a junta that suspended all political activity in Chile and repressed left-wing movements, especially communist and socialist parties and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). Pinochet rose to supreme power within a year of the coup and was formally declared President of Chile in late 1974. The Nixon administration, which had worked to create the conditions for the coup, promptly recognized the junta government and supported it in consolidating power.During the air raids and ground attacks that preceded the coup, Allende gave his final speech, vowing to stay in the presidential palace and refusing offers of safe passage should he choose exile over confrontation. Salvador Allende died in the palace,  but the precise circumstances of his death are still contested.Before the coup, Chile had been hailed as a beacon of democracy and political stability for decades, a period in which the rest of South America had been plagued by military juntas and caudillismo. The collapse of Chilean democracy ended a succession of democratic governments in Chile, which had held democratic elections since 1932. Historian Peter Winn characterised the 1973 coup as one of the most violent events in the history of Chile. The coup marked the beginning of a violent, enduring campaign of political suppression via torture, murder and exile, rendering leftist opposition to the Pinochet regime weak within Chile. An internationally supported plebiscite in 1988 held under the military junta was followed by a peaceful transition to a democratic civilian government.
Due to occurring on the same date as the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, the coup has often been referred to as "the other 9/11".
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