Rise and fall of

Salvador Allende

Rise of populist leader

Democracy in crisis
Rise of Allende
Background:

● Strong democratic traditions

● By late 1950s workers expressed demands in labour conflicts and stikes
● Cost of living rise - annual inflation 51%
● Loans from IMF and their conditions
● PDC - Christian democratic party middle ground- current government - Eduardo Frei
● Extreme left and right parties - Revolutionary leftist movement - left, National party - right
● Miner’s strikes, student’s demonstration, divide by left and right - serving upper class,
sowing revolutionary change respectively
● Continued domestic reforms but avoided confrontation with US
● Lowered voting age 21 to 19, organisation Women’s venters - 500k women joined provided
with 70k sewing machines to start business
● “Chileanization” of mines - US companies retained lucrative contracts but bought part of
the companies
● Frei failed to comply fully with campaign promises and was votes out in 1970
Rise to power

● Salvador Allende of Popular Unity (UP) - a left leaning party -

won 36% of votes in 1970 and formed coalition with PDC
● Largest plurality of votes to date
● Upper and middle class fear leftist government - removal of
capital, leaving country - closing factories and firing workers -
financial chaos
● Change social, political and economic system and build socalism
● Creating a people’s assembly, nationalizing resource companies
and foreign commerce
● Deep division within coalition from 1970 to 1973 prevented
implementation - 6 leftist parties made up coalition
● Debate between legal means VS revolution - Allende preferred
former but party divided
● PDC split into factions, nationalist party warned of socialist
takeover - catholic church powerless to intervene
● Significant impediment throughout presidency
Social, economic and political policies

● Enlarged government social services and nationalised key

industries - Alienated entrepreneurs
● Agrarian reform, nationalised copper mines and processing
plants and banks
● Lack of coordination within faction of UP threatened private
sector and expropiation of large landholdings caused violent
confrontations
● Congressional opposition and US financial blockade
● Salary hikes and price fixing - helped poor Chileans
● UP obtained 50% of votes in March 1971 municipal elections
● Neighbourhood supply and Price control committee (JAP) to
distrubute foodstuff in 1972 as a populist tactic
● Reached out to Soviet Bloc
● Invited Castro to Chile and visited Soviet Union
● Deeply unpopular with the US - pressure to not confirm him as
candidate after election
● Truckers strike - October 1972 - covertly financed by the US
Fall of Allende
Political

● Divisions within party and coalition from 1970 - 73 prevented any coordination of policy
● By 1972, PDC allied with National party to form an opposition block - included opposition
candidates to stop Allende’s reforms
● Allende resorted to decrees to pass laws
● By August 1973, Allende had 10 cabinet changes in 3 years
● Extreme left and right demonstrations and violent shock groups - penetrated into daily lives
● Leftist groups launched a call to arms for violent revolution
● Opposition parties demanded to impeach Allende for violating the consitution
● Allende in 1973 congressional election had 54% UP and 44% opposition but country deeply
divided
● Right wing media spoke of civil war
● Concilitatory armed forces commander General Prats came under pressure - resigned in favor
of Pinochet
● Several armed forces commanders appointed to cabinet
● On the 11th September, a general coup by armed forces would take Allende out of power
Social
● Violent confrontation in land expropiations
● Unified national schooling policy (ENU) - highly unpoplar
in Janurary 1973 - upset traditional division of public and
private schools
● Demonstrations which were violent - state of emergency
in 20 provinces - bill was shelved
● Copper miners two month strike
● Increasingly difficult to buy daily supplies - expropiation
diminished food and goods production causing a black
market
● Chilean women - 2/3rds were housewives staged
demonstration on 9th September 1973 in downtown
Santiago
● Extreme right shock groups defended event - supported
by PDC national party coalition - women were not
expected agency and came as major shock
Economic

● Upper and middle class exodus from Chile - brain

drain
● Removed capital and closed factories leading to
unemployment and financial chaos
● Nationalised key industries and alienated US
● Unable to receive loans by world bank
● US financial blockade - currency reserves
diminished and inflation soared - 500% per year
● Land holdings larger than 200 acres largely
eliminated
● Shortage of consumer goods due to price fixing
and salary hikes
● No significant increase in domestic production
(15%) when imports increased by 30% - trade
deficit
Historian opinons

Peter Goldberg:

“Sharp transformation” in policies and the responses to such by “key groups and elites” including the United States caused
Allende’s downfall

Fransisco Zapata:

“Offensive of the rightist parties” in April to June 1973 caused pressure to Allende’s regime and caused his eventual downfall

Allende aimed to pursue a “Chilean way of communism”

PAUL N. ROSENSTEIN-RODAN (Economist)

Allende failed not because he was a socialist but rather because he was “incompetent” due to his “poor leadership”, “poor
planning” and lack of “economic realism” led to his downdall