Allende presidency divides Chileans 40 years on

By Mauricio Weibel Sep 4, 2010, 15:46 GMT

   Santiago - As early as his 1970 inaugural address, Salvador Allende knew that his narrow victory in the presidential polls was likely to provoke a reaction from the Chilean right and the US government.

   'If victory was not easy, consolidating it will be difficult,' he said.

   Allende, a doctor by training, became the first Marxist in the Americas to gain national power democratically 40 years ago Saturday.

   He squeezed into power on September 4, 1970, with 36 per cent of the vote, a winning margin of 1.3 percentage points.

   Sergio Bitar, currently head of the opposition Party for Democracy, was Allende's mining minister at the time

   'He always used to tell us, 'I am not a man of exile - from here [the presidential palace] straight to the cemetery,'' Bitar said.

   Allende held power from when he was sworn into office on November 4, 1970, until he was abruptly toppled less than three years later by general Augusto Pinochet in a coup that ushered in a 17-year military dictatorship.

   While in office, Allende quickly implemented policies for his 'path to socialism,' with measures including handouts of a half-litre of milk per day per child and the nationalization of the banks and Chile's most important export, copper.

   On his election, he said, 'Chile has just given evidence of political development, making it possible for an anti-capitalist government to take power through the free exercise of citizens' rights.'

   But Chileans remained sharply divided, and the problems for Allende's government were compounded by revolutionary unrest within his own ranks and documented intervention by the US Central Intelligence Agency under then-president Richard Nixon.

   When the military coup struck on September 11, 1973, Allende tried to defend his government, rifle in hand. He committed suicide, aged 65, as the Presidential Palace went up in flames.

   'I am not going to resign!' he said that day in his last radio address. 'Placed at a historic crossroads, I shall repay with my life the loyalty of the people.'

   'I have the certainty that my sacrifice will not be in vain,' he said in his last broadcast words.

   Democracy was restored in 1990 with a long run of left-wing governments. The election of President Sebastian Pinera in December put the Chilean right wing back in power through democratic means for the first time in 50 years.

   Today, Allende's political and social legacy is mixed.

   The social policies of Chile, South America's most prosperous country, still bear the mark of his concern for children's nutrition. Chile is one of the few Latin American countries to have practically eliminated malnutrition.

   The nationalization of copper reserves, still Chile's most important export, still stands, too, although private investors today have a role in the industry.

   But Allende's ideas of nationalizing financial institutions and launching a state-run economy were abandoned, even by his socialist heirs.

   Allende remains an icon of the left around the world, an unfulfilled symbol of what might have been.

   In Chile, some parts of society blame him for the collapse of democracy that followed his rise to power while others still hold him up as an example of political morality.