Salvador Allende was the president of Chile from 1970 until his 1973 suicide, and head of the Popular Unity government; he was the first Marxist ever to be elected to the national presidency of a liberal democracy in Latin America. In August 1973 the Chilean Senate declared the Allende administration to be "unlawful," due in large part to direction and intervention by the CIA over its expropriation of private property. Allende's presidency was ended by a military coup before the end of his term. During Allende's three years, Chile gradually was transitioned from a democratic republic into a Marxist state.