Richard Nixon Salvador Allende | In detail, the new classified documents

Declassified documents provide additional data on past hours US Participation in Salvador Allende’s Destabilization Process In Chile. This is proven by the published material, A month away from the 50th anniversary of the military coup He brought Augusto Pinochet to power.

It became known this Tuesday from the US National Security Archive, and researcher Peter Kornbluh has already cited it in his book. Pinochet, classified. The documents show Involved in persecuting and overthrowing Richard Nixon’s Popular Unity government.

Elected president of Chile in September 1970, Allende was the first socialist to come to power through the ballot box. He took office on November 3. A few days ago, the president was elected What should be avoided is the first aggressive move towards a coup d’état September 11, 1973: Army Chief Rene Schneider is assassinated.

A lawyer general, Schneider was attacked by a far-right group while driving his car. The intention was to abduct him, but the firing took place and he died of his injuries. The documents reproduce a conversation between Nixon and Henry Kissinger. A then-presidential adviser told him “there’s a nasty twist, But it didn’t trigger anything else.”; And “the next move should have been Takeover of Govt (referring to the military), but that didn’t happen.

According to Kornbluth, Nixon and Kissinger “focused entirely on the incompetence of the Chilean military, which failed to conspire to seize power, shut down Congress, and prevent Allende from taking office.” The idea was that without Schneider in the middle, the military’s coup wing would block Allende’s rise.. His successor was Carlos Pratts, who submitted to civilian authority until his fall in August 1973. He was replaced by Pinochet, who three weeks later led the coup that launched a 17-year dictatorship.

“It’s incredible that 50 years later, we’re still learning key details about how America tried to block, thwart, undermine and destabilize the first elected socialist president,” Kornblu said. Nixon’s meeting with Augustine Edwards, the owner of the newspaper in those days Wednesday. Edwards was out of Chile throughout the Allende government, and his newspaper undermined the president.

“Chile was one of the CIA’s most infamous covert operationsAnd you’ve got a clear connection where the President of the United States is ordering the overthrow of a democratically elected government,” Kornblu added.

Publication of documents This is at the request of the Chilean Ambassador in WashingtonJuan Gabriel Valdez demanded that the White House reveal what Nixon had said about Chile.

So a few days after Allende’s victory and Nixon’s meeting with Edwards, the Republican president called CIA Director Richard Helms, along with Kissinger and Attorney General (Minister of Justice) John Mitchell. There Helms was appointed to stop Allende’s assumption. That was the origin of the attack on Schneider, who later commented on Nixon’s phone conversation with Kissinger, which is now coming to light.

“The anniversary of the coup in Chile offers them a great opportunity to learn lessons about the sanctity of democratic processes against the dangers of dictatorship; Lessons that are immediately relevant not only to Chileans, but to the global communityIncluding the United States,” Kornblu noted.