KKE: Οn the 50th anniversary of the Pinochet coup in Chile and the assassination of Salvador Allende

Statement of the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE on the 50th anniversary of the Pinochet coup in Chile and the assassination of Salvador Allende:

On 11 September 1973, a military coup d’état took place in Chile, led by General Pinochet, who, with the support of the USA, overthrew the Popular Unity government.

The Chilean experience tragically confirmed the basic lesson drawn from the experience of the Paris Commune, which Marx and Engels also stressed in the Communist Manifesto, that “the working class cannot simply lay hold of ready-made state machinery and wield for its own purposes”. It must, as Lenin stressed, “smash the ‘ready-made state machinery’ and not confine itself merely to laying hold of it”.

 

"History is ours, and people make history" — Salvador Allende, 11 September 1973

This speech was delivered at 9:10 am on September 11, 1973, in the midst of the US-sponsored coup d'etat against the democratically-elected government of Chile. Barricaded inside La Moneda presidential palace, Salvador Allende gave his life defending Chilean democracy. 

"My friends,

Surely this will be the last opportunity for me to address you. The Air Force has bombed the towers of Radio Portales and Radio Corporación.

Remembering the 1973 Chile coup: A useful lesson about the “peaceful transition” to Socialism

EDITORIAL

Santiago de Chile, 11 September 1973. With the active support of the US, a military coup under the leadership of General Augusto Pinochet overthrows the Salvador Allende's “Popular Unity” government. President Allende dies heroicly while defending the presidential palace. In the following years, more than 40,000 people are tortured and imprisoned. More than 3,000 people are officially dead, either executed or “vanished”. Thousands of citizens arrested. In October 1973, the popular songwriter Víctor Jara, and 70 other political killings were perpetrated by the death squad, Caravana de la Muerte. The Pinochet regime was ruthless and brutal.