Salvador Allende
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| Salvador Allende Gossens | |
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Chile's First Socialist President
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| In office November 3, 1970 – September 11, 1973 |
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| Vice President(s) | Carlos Prats |
| Preceded by | Eduardo Frei Montalva |
| Succeeded by | Augusto Pinochet Ugarte |
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| Born | July 8, 1908 Valparaiso, Chile |
| Died | September 11, 1973 Santiago, Chile |
| Nationality | chilean |
| Political party | Socialist Party of Chile |
| Spouse | Hortensia Bussi |
Salvador Allende Gossens (July 26, 1908–September 11, 1973) was a physician, senator, minister of health and the President of Chile from November 3, 1970 until his murder on September 11, 1973.
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[change] Biography
[change] Family and early life
Allende was born on July 26 of 1908 in the port city of Valparaiso, Chile. Like many Chileans Allende had a mestizo (mixed) racial background (ie. European and other races mixed with Native Americans), his father Salvador Allende (senior) was of Basque descent and his mother Laura Gossens had a Jewish background (though converted to Catholicism).
[change] School
In 1918 his father sent Allende to study at the Instituto Nacional (National Institute) in Santiago, after completing his secondary schooling he does his compulsory military service. After completing his military service he enters the University of Chile to study medicine. Allende was a gifted, friendly and popular student; a great debater and public speaker and quickly becomes a student leader and vice-president of the FECH. (Student Federation of Chile). He graduated with a medical degree in 1933.
[change] Distinguished political career
He was one of the founders of the Socialist Party of Chile and in 1938 became a minister of health. He was a senator from 1945 until 1969 and was President of the Chilean Senate from 1966 until 1969.
[change] Elections
Allende first run for the presidency in 1952 but failed. Determined to succeed and win an election he tried again in 1958 and then in 1964. In both instances he failed again. Allende would tour Chile from Iquique to Magallanes, ie. one end to the other, speaking to peasants in the south and miners in the north and held rallies in the big cities. Allende found it hard to win an election because of the successful scare campaigns launched by opposing parties, many financed by large multi-national corporations and powerful national institutions such as private banks and schools.
[change] Results
Finally, and to the surprise of many working people - who had voted for him in previous elections and felt he would never win - in 1970 he won and became the President of Chile.
[change] Goals
Allende always ran for election on the same socialist platform (plan) proposing the same resolutions (things to be done), focusing on the persistent inequality in the country and the underdevelopment (poverty for large part of the population) which Allende saw as being rooted in the lack of control the Chilean people had over their natural resources and vital industries. (e.g. Banks, Copper mines, Electricity Companies etc.).
Allende promised that he would nationalize (put under control of government) vital industries and then create an advanced public health system and educational system that would be free and accessible to all. During the cold war (between the U.S. and the former U.S.S.R) many people feared that Chile would fall under the influence of the USSR and after the 1960s under the influence of Cuba.
[change] Revolutionary change
Allende’s speeches were also very radical (extreme) and Allende’s vision for Chile seemed completely different to the Chile that most people were familiar with. For example: Allende was an atheist and Marxist ie. he did not believe in Jesus or God and considered economic planning more important than anything else. This was odd in a country that was very catholic, held traditional family values, and in which people were taught that political freedoms (the freedom to elect politicians from different parties) was more important than solving problems such as extreme poverty or economic inequality (division between the poorest and the wealthiest people).
Allende also wanted revolutionary change, ie. he wanted deep changes to Chilean society very quickly, such forms of changes have always tended to cause great divisions in society between those who oppose the changes (called reactionaries) and those who support the drastic changes (revolutionaries). Through history such situation tends to always end up resolved violently. ie. civil war (where one group of people fight another group of people of the same country), or military coup (when a government is overthrown before it finishes his term).
[change] Results
As a result many Chileans, especially professionals like University professors, doctors and business people left the country–this had a negative effect on Allende’s reforms. Eg. Allende increased health services and places at Universities for the underprivileged while many professors, specialists and doctors were leaving the country.
[change] Peaceful revolution
However, Allende was unique in that he did all he could to prevent this sort of violence, calling his revolution a “peaceful one within democracy” or calling it “the Chilean road to socialism.” In 1973 Allende’s enemies accused him of preparing a secret war and that his supporters were hoarding stocks of illegal weapons (in shanty towns and in rural areas) that were being sent from communist Cuba. To prove that this was not true, Allende allowed the Chilean Army to enforce a “weapons control’s law” that allowed the Chilean military to search and comb for any illegal weapons anywhere in the country. The Chilean army confirmed that after thoroughly searching for such weapons throughout the country they had found no significant stocks as the opposition was claiming. This ended up creating more support for Allende and allowed Allende to begin to focus on the upcoming election.
[change] Allende's Mandate
Allende came to power with a socialist plan. His vision for Chile was one in which the country's resources and wealth would be owned by Chileans and distributed more democratically. Allende started his program by nationalising (put under control of government) major industries. Such as, Chile's copper mines (Chile had one of the largest copper mines in the World) but these mines were not owned by Chileans but by very powerful U.S. business people.
This created a serious problem with the U.S. government who saw Allende's nationalisation as an attack on U.S. interest and a threat to U.S. money investments in South America.
[change] The coup, September 11, 1973
The American Central Intelligence Agency was involved in the overthrowing of his government. Allende was a socialist. Many of his reforms and programs revolved around socialism. He created universal health care for all, made education better, and took a stronger level of control within the economy. He died in 1973. His death has been disputed for years; some feel that he took his own life by committing suicide, but others feel that he was murdered by Augusto Pinochet's militia. Pinochet would then become dictator of Chile.
[change] Death and myth
Allende was replaced by those who bombed him out of his post as president. The new ruling Junta justified their coup claiming that “Chile could no longer tolerate the cancer of Marxism”. The Pinochet regime claimed Allende had violated the Chilean Constitution–strange considering that Pinochet ended up writing a completely new one.
Also, after the coup many rumours and myths emerged about Allende’s death and life. Many of these myths attempted to discredit the character of Allende ie. make him appear as a coward, weak or cruel person:
- Firstly his opponents claimed Allende had not been killed by the air bombardment of the presidential palace but rather that he committed suicide.
- Some of his enemies claimed he was living in Cuba or East Germany–photographs appeared depicting people with the likeness of Allende.
- One of the more current myths about Allende, has been that he was an anti-Semite and white supremacist–odd considering that he was a mestizo with jewish extraction who advocated Marxism (which teaches that people are divided by class not race, ethnicity or nationality).
[change] Legacy and place in history
Allende became of interest to people all over the world because he was the first democratically elected socialist in Chile and the first democratically elected Marxist in the world. Many people felt Allende was the beginning of a new era in which great changes to society - especially in developing countries - could be brought about peacefully through an election
