While many mourn the September 11, 2001, attacks, few remember the U.S.-backed coup in Chile on September 11, 1973, that overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende. Orchestrated by Henry Kissinger and the CIA, this bloody coup replaced democracy with Pinochet’s dictatorship, leaving thousands dead and tortured. The author condemns the lack of accountability for these crimes and calls for recognition of the hypocrisy in viewing the U.S. as a model of democracy.
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Everyone laments the events of September 11, 2001, but few remember September 11, 1973, a date that deserves to be broadcast universally because it put an entire people in chains: the Chilean people.
Chile was considered the U.S.’s “backyard,” so they could not tolerate Salvador Allende’s socialist path, which was benefitting the Chilean people. On September 11, 1973, the U.S. exported a bit of democracy, as only they can: a bloody coup, still aligned with “Western democratic standards” today.
Allende, Chile’s legitimate president, was “suicided” to make way for Pinochet. The coup was orchestrated by Henry Kissinger, then Nixon’s National Security Advisor, and the CIA. Thousands of opponents were also killed, many tortured. Allende was about to nationalize Chile’s copper industry, pursue monetary autonomy, and held deep respect for the working class. All of this was unacceptable to the world’s police.
This is how one of the most violent, bloody, shameful, and anti-democratic coups in human history unfolded, ushering in a military dictatorship filled with torture and oppression, where thousands of political opponents disappeared. There was democracy in Chile under Allende, a real democracy inspired by socialism. But for the U.S., a dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet, who remained in power for about 15 years, served their interests better.
No condemnation came from the International Criminal Court; no one has ever been held accountable for yet another crime committed in a sovereign country. Kissinger died a free man, walking red carpets in institutions and newsrooms until his last day. It’s essential to remember the past to understand the future because it is intolerable that those who have shed blood around the world are now seen as paragons of democracy and moral superiority. No one in the world has committed as many crimes. No one in the world has committed so many crimes and remained perpetually unpunished. It’s time to say enough!
El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido
