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This is one of the last photos of Chile’s democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende, as he made his last stand while defending the presidential palace during the U.S.- backed coup on 11 September, 1973. The coup orchestrated by right-wing general Augusto Pinochet would install a military dictatorship that would last almost 2 decades under which about 40,000 people were tortured, disappeared or killed and over 200,000 went into exile
In 1970, President Allende was elected and started an ambitious plan of social reforms, nationalizing natural resources, building houses for the poor and providing access to healthcare and education. As a Latin American socialist president, Allende posed a threat to the U.S. influence in the region.
In what has been called by critics as “the coup template for Latin America,” the U.S. intelligence services started a destabilization campaign against Allende, including economic and political sabotage, the backing of opposition politicians and the threat of military intervention.
During the U.S.-backed coup, led by Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army, Augusto Pinochet, Salvador Allende fought and was killed in the La Moneda presidential palace. Allende remains an inspiration as well as an important example and reminder for leftist movements across Latin America and the rest of the world.
“I will not resign. Placed in a historic transition, I will pay the loyalty of the people with my life. And I tell them I have the certainty that the seed that we have planted in the dignified conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled. You have the power, they can destroy us, but social progress cannot be stopped neither by crime nor by force. History is ours, and people make it happen.”
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