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Declassified cables published this Friday by the National Security Archives center and entitled “Allende won” highlight the reaction of the United States to the electoral victory of a Marxist president in Chile 50 years ago, described as “painful” and as “a decomposition that is no less smelly for the civility that accompanies it.
This Washington-based research center published this Friday – coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the triumph of the popular government – declassified documents that show the surprise that the victory of the socialist doctor Salvador Allende generated among the US authorities, but also the closeness of the late former president Eduardo Frei with the Washington ambassador.
Even before Election Day, September 4, 1970, the US authorities believed that covert “sabotage operations” to undermine Allende’s popularity were going to be effective.
His victory at the polls unleashed a machine orchestrated by the White House – with President Richard Nixon at the helm – to “destabilize” Chile, which laid the foundations for the coup of September 11, 1973, said this research center. specialized in declassified information.
The overthrow of Allende, who died besieged in a burning La Moneda palace after air force bombings on the day of the coup, gave way to 17 years of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, which left more than 3,200 dead and missing.
A confidential conversation the day before the elections between the outgoing president, the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei, and the US ambassador showed that the Chilean president asked the diplomat for guidance on what he thought the result would be.
The American ambassador in Santiago, Edward Korry, bet that conservative candidate Jorge Alessandri would be the winner in the elections in which three candidates participated.
On election day, Korry was in a frenzy, sending 18 information cables. His first communications described a participation “very important” and without “incidents” and highlighted that Chileans were so eager to vote that there were even patients on stretchers taken to the voting precincts “apparently to fulfill their last wishes.”
An “abjectly insulting” tone
But as Allende’s tight victory began to be seen, Korry’s tone changed and he abandoned the unusual descriptions to enter into a furious critique of Chilean political culture for having created, in his opinion, the conditions for Allende’s democratic victory and to make matters worse, then finish accepting this triumph with civility.
For Peter Kornbluh, who directs the documentation project on Chile and is the author of the book “Pinochet: the secret archives”, “these documents remind us that the choice of Allende was a turning point not only in the history of Chile and Latin America, but in the United States and in the world “.
The researcher noted that when the cable “Allende won” was published for the first time more than 25 years ago, the second paragraph was completely crossed out. A more recent declassification revealed that this censorship was not intended to preserve sensitive information.
The concealment sought to hide the “melodramatic” and “abjectly insulting” tone of the ambassador’s views, the report noted.
“We have been living with a corpse among us for some time and his name is Chile,” said the official in the paragraph that was released.
“Something almost epic”
Later, the diplomat affirmed that this “decomposition is no less smelly because of the civility that accompanies it.”
“Chileans could chat non-stop on television and radio as usual in the early hours of today as if nothing had changed and the screens went from entertainment programs to political gatherings pontificating as foolishly as they always do,” he said. office.
In the end, he concluded: “Chileans like to die in peace with their mouths open.”
Kornbluh noted that half a century later, the imperialist response of the Nixon government to Allende’s democratic election continues to resonate.
At a rally to commemorate this victory, William Teillier, deputy and president of the Chilean Communist Party, told Agence France-Presse that “It was something almost epic to conquer that government, something very difficult, because the enemies were very powerful”.
Kornbluh pointed out that “50 years later, the issue of socioeconomic inequalities is still on the agenda in Chile.”
Communist deputy Karol Cariola highlighted as this 50th anniversary occurs in an important context.
“Our country is experiencing a constituent process, the change of the Constitution, which is such a relevant moment, since finally we are going to leave behind one of the main legacies of the dictatorship “, said.
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