A man shoots himself with a rifle in the temple. Some of the brain mass sticks to the wall. He committed suicide because he wanted to be consistent with his promise until the end: democratic legality. This man wants to die as an elected president rather than be removed from office by the military he says betrayed him. They will take his body wrapped in a blanket. There will be no funeral ceremony in 1973. His name cannot be said either.
Some behaviors and political scenarios are so foreign to today that some uninformed people may think this is a novel. Partially so, given the dramatic spikes, but it happened. HE suicide By Salvador Allende and the sudden end of the experience Popular LeagueIt moved part of the world half a century ago. A political tragedy of this depth is not part of today’s situations. In a time of forgetfulness immunities And impunity (Silvio BerlusconiHe died in 2023 at the age of 86 and was buried with a state ceremony. financial fraud After doing business, committing all kinds of fraud, and being the protagonist of sexual scandals with minors), the figure of Allende can be as alarming as it is disturbing. Here are some clues about his figure and political thought:
Traces of another world
He was a man from another world in many ways. On the one hand its hugenessRecognized even by enemies (supportive friend, talkative, seductive, bless you). On the other hand, he is the hero of a scene where there are only ruins. Ruins. Talking about Allende’s Chile forces us to replace words that have been removed from much of the political language (“transition to socialism“, “revolutionary process”, “Marxism”, “imperialism”, “class struggle”), or countries that are no longer even part of the current map despite their influence at the time, e.g. Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic.
Allende’s fall A sad chapter of the Cold War. He tried to change the roots of an unjust country. Without image consultants, trolls or algorithm experts. He believed in the value of words and the actions that support them. Chile approached the 1970s with a great horizon of expectation. Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Montalva He governed with the slogan “revolution in freedom”. Allende won the 1970 elections with his proposal for a “socialist revolution” through legal and peaceful channels. It received 33% of the votes (too few for objective magnitudes). The following year, amid potentially misleading economic growth, he reached 50% in municipal elections. The increase in consumption and public spending was followed by famine, black markets and inflation.
Struggles against internal and external forces
Allende nationalized large copper mines, big businesses And bankingpromoted agrarian reform And social programs It is aimed at less preferred sectors. wanted to convert education system. I couldn’t do it. He faced enormous foreign forces, anti-Americanism and domestic forces, Congress, the Judiciary, business and opposition parties, the major media.
Popular Unity brought together various left forces (socialists, communists, Christians), who, although they agreed on the final goal, did not always agree on the pace of transformations. There was also a guerrilla called the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), which did not believe in “bourgeois institutions”. The socialist paradise had to be reached without stopping and by paying whatever was necessary. Unreasonable complaints if read from now on.
Drop
The spring of 1971 turned into the autumn of the following year. 1973 was a long epilogue. lockouts and one failed military rebellion. Allende I tried to make a popular consultation call to get out of the trap high polarization. Language weaponry with the form of coup. HE September 11, 1973 The UP experience ended in blood and fire. Allende spoke to the country. It was almost time to bomb the Government Palace. “There’s no pain in my words, there’s disappointment“. His fate has been written. “Workers of my country: I want to thank you for the loyalty you have always had, for the trust you have placed in a man who gives his word, who is the interpreter of great desires for justice. He respected the constitution and the law, and he did so.” He oppressed the young people who “sang and gave joy and fighting spirit” as well as “workers, peasants, intellectuals.”
The historian commemorates Alfredo Sepúlveda, author Popular Unity, Allende’s thousand days and Chile’s road to socialismOver the years, the phrases from that speech have been repeated over and over like quotes. “However These are not political marketing gimmicksFuture longing for a better society resonates in this lyrical speech. “From the mouth of a standard politician this would be a shitty promise, just another lie babbled in the heat of the fight for votes.” that man.
The last hours before the wave of death and pain
“He doesn’t want to wander the world feeling sorry for himself as an exileAnother historian, more right-leaning, Daniel Mansuy, says: “He has no character for secrecy and therefore knows that he will die in La Moneda.” Allende, the Chilean left and Popular Unityrecommended by the president Gabriel Boric. “If you want, The best Allende is (by far) the one that came out in the last few hours. In his political career there were ups and downs, good and bad moments, greatness and infamy, but nothing at this height.” He rises “above the coup”, above his “enemies of all colors” and “settles in the long history of Chile”.
General Augusto Pinoche’s dictatorship came with a wave of death and suffering. On 4 September 1990, almost six months after the end of the military regime, Allende’s official funeral was held. A large group accompanied the walk to the mausoleum built in the Santiago General Cemetery. His name tops the massive Monument to Missing Prisoners and Politically Executed in the same cemetery. Poet Raúl Zurita’s poems, speaking on behalf of an important segment of society, are engraved in stone. “All my love is here and stuck to the rocks, the sea, the mountains.”