What happened in the coup of 11 September 1973 in Chile?

The coup of 11 September 1973 in Chile

El golpe de Estado del 11 de septiembre de 1973

11 September 1973–11 March 1990. Salvador Allende, a socialist, had been elected president of Chile in 1970 and tried to build socialism by law: nationalising copper, speeding land reform,…

Draft: not yet checked against its sources.

Where: Chile

What happened

Salvador Allende, a socialist, had been elected president of Chile in 1970 and tried to build socialism by law: nationalising copper, speeding land reform, taking over factories. On the morning of Tuesday 11 September 1973 the armed forces rose under General Augusto Pinochet. Allende went to the presidential palace, La Moneda, refused to surrender, and at about noon Air Force Hawker Hunter jets fired rockets into the building; when soldiers entered, the president was found dead by the weapon with which he had killed himself. A junta took all powers. Pinochet ruled for seventeen years, with thousands killed or disappeared, tens of thousands tortured and a radical free-market economy. Voters rejected him in the plebiscite of 5 October 1988, and he handed over the presidency on 11 March 1990.

Say it

El 11 de septiembre de 1973 los militares bombardearon La Moneda y Allende murió.

On 11 September 1973 the military bombed La Moneda and Allende died.

Why it matters

The Chilean coup became the world's image of Latin American dictatorship, scattered a generation of Chileans into exile across the Spanish-speaking world and beyond, and made the Chilean transition of 1988–1990 a model for how to vote a dictator out.

Read about it

• Las Fiestas Patrias de Chile — Chile's national holidays

Connected

• The War of the Pacific (February 1879–April 1884)
• The Cuban Revolution (1 January 1959)
• The Cuban Revolution (1 January 1959)
• The Cuban Missile Crisis (14–28 October 1962)
• Tlatelolco, 2 October 1968 (2 October 1968)
• Franco dies and the Transition begins (20 November 1975–15 June 1977)
• The return to democracy (1977–1990)
• The dictatorship and the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (30 April 1977–10 December 1983)
• The coup attempt of 23-F (23–24 February 1981)

• Before: The War of the Pacific
• After: García Márquez wins the Nobel: the Boom

Sources

1. Golpe de Estado del 11 de septiembre de 1973 — Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile
2. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1915-2006) — Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile