Salvador Allende

[[File:Salvador_Allende.jpg|right|thumb|165px|Salvador Allende in 1964.]]

'''Salvador Allende Gossens''' {{lived|1908|1973}} was a [[Chile|Chilean]] [[Medicine|physician]] and [[politician]] who served as the democratically-elected President of Chile from 1970 until his death in 1973 when a military [[coup]] led by [[Augusto Pinochet]] overthrew his government.

Allende was one of the few [[Marxist]] leaders elected by [[Democracy|democratic]] means,<ref name="profile">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3089846.stm Profile: Salvador Allende], 8 September 2003, ''BBC''. Retrieved 27 April 2016.</ref> and was openly attempting to make Chile a [[socialist]] state.<ref name="election_1970">Ewin Martínez Torre. History of Chile under Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity: [http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/chile/torre/UPgov.html Salvador Allende wins the elections: first coup attempt], 18 October 2001. Retrieved 27 April 2016.</ref> Despite his election victory being legit, if nowhere ''near'' a majority of the vote (his presidency was made possible by the support of the [[centrist]] but worker-friendly [[Christian democracy|Christian Democratic]] Party in turn for concessions), Chile's [[right-wing]] sections immediately had a hissy fit from day one of his rule and already made a botched coup attempt even before he was sworn in as president by killing the national army's commander in chief<ref name="election_1970" /> and maintaining a considerable propaganda campaign funded by the [[CIA]] during the entirety of his short presidency.<ref name="unidad_popular" /> He palled about with the establishment [[communist]]s of the era, for example by inviting [[Fidel Castro]] for a tour of Chile. Interestingly enough, his first name is the Spanish word for "savior."<ref>WordReference.com: [http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=salvador English translation of salvador]</ref>

==Government and policies==
Allende led a Popular Unity [[coalition government]], which included various [[left-wing]] parties with shared socialist objectives, but it excluded parties of the far-left (such as the MIR-Chile) which advocated any form of [[Revolution|armed struggle]]. However, Allende did call on the Chilean people to strengthen their grass-root social and workers' organizations and [[trade unions]] with the aim of getting them to support his government. Often these social "popular power" organizations were at odds with his socialist government, which had to balance itself between the demands of his supporters and the powerful [[lobby]] groups that opposed him.

The [[Soviet Union]] made repeated demands that he introduce more hard-line measures, which Allende was largely unwilling to do, insisting on what he called the "Chilean way to socialism"<ref name="unidad_popular">Ewin Martínez Torre. History of Chile under Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity: [http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/chile/torre/UPgov.html The Government of the Popular Unity], 18 October 2001. Retrieved 27 April 2016.</ref> or the "peaceful way to socialism within pluralism."

Allende tried to implement a [[command economy]], nationalizing hundreds of companies in his country, including banks and the copper industry, but also very small businessess.<ref name=Edwards>{{Cite book |last=Edwards |first=Sebastian |title=The Chile project: the story of the Chicago boys and the downfall of neoliberalism |date=2023 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-24936-0 |location=Princeton}}</ref>{{rp|58}} In order to finance the many social programs that his goverment tried to build, he believed in a rudimentary form of [[Modern Monetary Theory]].<ref name=Edwards/>{{rp|56}}

During his government, public deficit skyrocketed; the government declared a moratorium on its external debt, which implied no more external financing for Chile and {{wpl|seigniorage}} became a major source of financing the government.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A monetary and fiscal history of Latin America, 1960-2017 |date=2021 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-1-5179-1198-0 |editor-last=Kehoe |editor-first=Timothy Jerome |location=Minneapolis London |editor-last2=Nicolini |editor-first2=Juan Pablo}}</ref>{{rp|212-14}} As a result, [[inflation]] soared from 20% in 1971 to a staggering 352% in 1973, the highest in the world.<ref>[https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG?end=1973&locations=CL&start=1971 Inflation, consumer prices (annual %) - Chile] ''World Bank''</ref> Furthermore, the Chilean GDP grew by less than two percent during the three years of Allende's government,<ref name=Edwards/>{{rp|59}} while Latin America's GDP rose an incredible 23 percent between 1971 and 1973, its highest rate since at least 1961, the first year with reliable data for the entire region.<ref>[https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?end=1973&locations=ZJ&start=1971 GDP growth (annual %) - Latin America & Caribbean] ''World Bank''</ref> Investment in equipment and machinery (especially in the nationalized manufacturing sector) all but disappeared, agricultural output collapsed, and a substantial trade deficit developed.<ref name=Edwards/>{{rp|56}} As a result of Allende’s policies, real wages also fell 35 percent below their 1970 levels.<ref name=Edwards/>{{rp|64}} The government was incapable of seeing its mistakes on fiscal and [[monetary policy]], relying instead on price controls, that damaged the economy even further.<ref name=Edwards/>{{rp|60}} This all led to shortages, black markets, and rationing.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dornbusch |first=Rudiger |title=The macroeconomics of populism in Latin America |last2=Edwards |first2=Sebastian |date=1991 |publisher=University of Chicago press |others=National bureau of economic research |isbn=978-0-226-15844-0 |series=A National bureau of economic research |location=Chicago London}}</ref>{{rp|204}}

While it's probably impossible to deny Allende’s incompetence, the CIA was also working to destabilize his government, financing, for instance, a national strike organized by the trucking industry that resulted in even more shortages, while polarizing the country even more.<ref name=Edwards/>{{rp|62}}

==Coup==
However, his record was not spotless, as shortly before the Pinochet coup the Chilean legislature passed a resolution accusing his administration of unconstitutional activities such as passing [[law]]s by decree, removing cabinet ministers from legislative oversight, harassing opposition [[media]] outlets, making illegal arrests, and [[torture|torturing]] detainees.{{cn}} Armed supporters of his government also roamed the country harassing and searching those they suspected of opposition. As well, foreign leftist guerrillas took up residence in Chile, using it as a base for their activities. The legislature also implored the Chilean military to "restore order" (i.e., remove Allende, as Chile did not have a formal means of [[impeach]]ing a president at the time). They obliged on September 11, 1973, with Allende shooting himself<ref name="profile"/> (although there were claims that he was killed by the military, his suicide was later confirmed by the Chilean Supreme Court in 2011).<ref>Upi Chile, [http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2011/07/19/definitivo-expertos-determinan-que-ex-presidente-allende-se-suicido/ "Now it's definitive: Experts determined that former president Allende committed suicide"] (in Spanish), ''El Mostrador'', Jul 19, 2011</ref>
==Aftermath==
[[Pinochet]] went on to do ''[[Psychological projection|everything]]'' they accused Allende of and more, dissolving the legislature, appointing all judges, authorizing trial (with death sentences) by military courts, killing around 3,000 Chileans in the next 17 years (most "disappeared"), with thousands more imprisoned, tortured or fleeing the country.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2011-08-18 |title=Chile recognises 9,800 more victims of Pinochet's rule |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-14584095 |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> The [[Chicago school|Chicago Boys]] came back to overhaul the economy, which with the military [[junta]] in power was easier to do. [[Milton Friedman]] himself visited the country in 1975. These reforms have been maintained under the following democratic administrations, with the population overwhelmingly rejecting a new Constitution in a referendum in 2022.<ref>{{wpa|2022 Chilean constitutional referendum}}</ref>

[[Henry Kissinger]] didn't like Allende very much, either. [[Richard Nixon]] specifically told the [[CIA]] to do something to get him out of power.{{cn}} The CIA, contrary to common myth, did not orchestrate the affair... but they did know it was happening and did nothing to stop it. They even worked with the new government after getting hard proof about how brutal it was!<ref>[https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20000919/ CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet’s Repression]</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Augusto Pinochet]]
*[[The Venus Project]], which proposes a utopian society with elements strikingly similar to a system which has been partially implemented during Allende's time in office.
*[[Hugo Chávez]], also a democratically elected [[Latin America|Latin-America]]n socialist who, contrary to Allende survived a coup attempt.
*[[Mohammad Mossadegh]], He is the leader of another democratic regime that collapsed due to the American coup. However, Mossadegh was a left-liberal.
*[[Populism]]

==References==
{{reflist|2|90%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allende, Salvador}}
[[Category:Agnostics]]
[[Category:Anti-imperialism]]
[[Category:Chile]]
[[Category:Government incompetence]]
[[Category:Left-wing activists]]
[[Category:Physicians]]
[[Category:South American politicians]]
[[Category:Socialists]]

Categories: Agnostics, Anti-imperialism, Chile, Government incompetence, Left-wing activists, Physicians, South American politicians, Socialists