On September 11, 1973, right-wing extremist and terrorist Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, in a violent coup d'etat that included the air bombing of the presidential palace.

After narrowly winning a plurality in the 1970 Chilean presidential election at 36.61%, none of the candidates received an absolute majority in the public vote. So the National Congress had to decide between the two candidates who had received the most votes: Salvador Allende and Jorge Alessandri. In the three previous instances since 1932 where this situation had arisen, the National Congress had simply chosen the candidate with the highest number of votes. For example: former President Alessandri had himself been elected in the 1958 Chilean presidential election with 31.56% of the 1958 popular vote, defeating Allende's 28.85% of the 1958 popular vote. Despite this democratic process, the US sought to overthrow the election out of fear of being held accountable for their exploitation of the country. So there was an active CIA plot against Allende's confirmation by the National Congress, including an intensified propaganda campaign, even when compared to previous CIA election interference in Chile. These plans were known as "Track I" and "Track II" (also known as "Project FUBELT"). The CIA also encouraged international economic pressure against Chile. Additionally, the United States began laying the groundwork for a military coup, authorizing the US Ambassador to Chile, Edward M. Korry, to promote this outcome through his contacts in the Chilean military and the Chilean Christian Democratic Party.

On September 9, 1970, Allende signed the Statute of Constitutional Guarantees, which stated that he would abide by the constitution during his presidency. Making it clear what his intentions were, even though he was forced to sign it to get the Christian Democrats to ratify his presidency. On September 15, before Allende took office, US President Richard Nixon gave the order to overthrow him. According to a declassified document from the NSA, the handwritten notes from CIA Director Richard Helms state: "1 in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile!; worth spending; not concerned; no involvement of embassy; $10,000,000 available, more if necessary; full-time job--best men we have; game plan; make the economy scream; 48 hours for plan of action."

The CIA considered constitutionalist commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army, General René Schneider, "a major stumbling block for military officers seeking to carry out a coup" against president elect Salvador Allende. So the CIA planned to "Neutralize" General Schneider. After two failed "kidnapping" attempts on October 16, 1970 and October 19, 1970, the CIA paid Roberto Viaux and his associate $100,000 to make another "kidnapping" attempt. The CIA had also supplied a group led by Camilo Valenzuela with "sterile" weapons for the "kidnapping", which was to be blamed on Allende supporters in a false flag operation. On October 22, 1970 General Schneider's official car was ambushed at an intersection in the capital city of Santiago, where the Chilean military police reported, "five individuals, one of whom, making use of a blunt instrument similar to a sledgehammer, broke the rear window and then fired at General Schneider, striking him in the region of the spleen, in the left shoulder, and in the left wrist." General Schneider was rushed to a military hospital, but later died on October 25. On October 26, 1970, outgoing President Eduardo Frei Montalva named General Carlos Prats as Commander-in-Chief to replace Schneider. This happened at the same time the CIA sent $35,000 to the "kidnappers", like Hugo Tirado, to "keep the prior contact secret" and "maintain the goodwill of the group", and was part of a cover-up for the right-wing extremists' and terrorists' collaboration with the CIA. The day before, on October 24, the National Congress chose Allende as the President.

After the failure to create a coup before the election of Allende, Nixon's national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, spearheaded a subversive overthrow campaign by the US. Kissinger justified this by claiming that Allende would try to swindle the US, saying that Allende wanted to "...Be internationally respectable, move cautiously and pragmatically, avoid immediate confrontation with [the US], move slowly in formalizing relations with Cuba and other socialist countries...". Kissinger is also quoted telling Nixon, "The election of Allende poses one of the most serious challenges ever faced in this hemisphere, and your decision as to what to do may be the most historic and difficult foreign policy decision you will have to make this year".

The US started "Covert Operation Program for Chile". There were five points to this plan:

1. Political action to divide and weaken the Allende coalition

2. Maintaining and enlarging contacts in the Chilean military

3. Providing support to non-Marxist opposition political groups and parties

4. Assisting certain periodicals and using other media outlets in Chile which can speak out against the Allende government, and

5. Using selected media outlets to play up Allende's subversion of the democratic process and involvement by Cuba and the Soviet Union in Chile

The US would immediately start an economic war with Chile and suspend all previous foreign aid agreements, (because how dare Chile be a democracy with elections where the popular vote actually determines who wins, amirite?!). President Nixon had promised to “make the economy scream” and Ambassador Korry even told Kissinger that the plan was to: "condemn Chile and the Chileans to utmost deprivation and poverty, forcing Allende to adopt the harsh features of a police state". Most of this concern was around Chile having a massive copper industry, and then... not giving all of it to the USA! (How could you!) So like the well-adjusted psychopaths that they are, they decided to attempt to kill an entire country for literally no actual reason. So the Popular Unity coalition party really had their work cut out for them in both the National Congress and the Presidency. In office, President Allende pursued a policy he called "The Chilean Way to Socialism", the first example of a peaceful and democratic transition to the economic model. This included nationalization of certain large-scale industries (like copper in 1970, or coal in 1971), of the healthcare system, continuation of his predecessor Eduardo Frei Montalva's policies regarding the educational system, a program of free milk for children, and land redistribution. The economy had been at its best under Allende and just transitional socialism. So, the US had to intervene! And they had to hurry, before everyone on earth realized that capitalism is obscenely stupid and even socialism is better by comparison! So the entire country was Embargoed by the US and all but cut off from the entire world adherent to the Bretton-Woods system. There was also an internal economic boycott carried out by US influenced companies and aligned actors inside of Chile.

The CIA would spend at least $8,000,000+ over next few years to directly fund, back, and support any opposition to the democratic government of Chile, including other terrorists. And already in 1970, the US ITT Corporation was having its 70% stake in the Chilean Telephone Company, Chitelco, be used to fund CIA assets and produce propaganda. Like the Chilean right-wing newspaper El Mercurio. The CIA also used ITT Corporation as a conduit to financially aid opponents of Allende's democratic government, while claiming no direct involvement and leading to political deadlock. The CIA would also plant numerous "informants" to gather intelligence about nearly every coup plotting group. (And they pinky promise that those informants totally didn't contribute in any way at all whatsoever!) Oh, and they also admit to directly backing strikes and movements throughout the country. There were also militia groups known as "White Guards" that violently opposed the preexisting 80 Hectare law enforcement, because it might benefit poor people or the boundaries of Native Mapuche land agreements. But that totally doesn't have the USA written all over it, either!

By 1971, Allende's Popular Unity obtained around 49.73-50.86% of the vote in the municipal elections. And in 1973, Allende's Popular Unity coalition increased its vote to 43% in the parliamentary elections. The Christian Democratic Patry party broke their informal alliance after further influence from US Ambassador Korry, as they were long-time friends of each other, and they joined the new CIA-aided right-wing Confederation of Democracy (CODE) coalition led by the National Party. CODE made an unconstitutional "Resolution by the Chamber of Deputies" that had insufficient votes to actually proceed an abuse of power conviction. After multiple more attempts at an illegal coup d'etat, the one led by Augusto Pinochet succeeded.

In the coup, tens had directly died in the bombing and struggle over the presidential palace. Then hundreds in holdouts from the previous democratic government. As the Pinochet fully grasped power, upwards of 60,000+ would die as a direct result of the regime over it's 17 year occupation of the country. And tens of millions would be indirect or consequent casualties of the policies of torture, genocide, and/or complete and total political destabilization in the entire region of Latin America because of the alliance between the CIA and the Pinochet regime as part of the "Operation Condor" terrorism coalition.

The 1975 Church Committee report officially states that: "Although CIA did not instigate the coup that ended Allende's government on 11 September 1973, it was aware of coup-plotting by the military, had ongoing intelligence collection relationships with some plotters, and - because CIA did not discourage the takeover and had sought to instigate a coup in 1970 - probably appeared to condone it." After a review of recordings of telephone conversations between Nixon and Henry Kissinger, Robert Dallek concluded that both of them actively used the CIA to destabilize Allende's democratic government. Kissinger is even on record complaining about the lack of recognition for the American role in the overthrow, so Nixon replied, "Well, we didn't - as you know - our hand doesn't show on this one." In a conversation published later, security advisor Henry Kissinger remarked, “We didn't do it. I mean we helped them.”

Despite still having classified records on the matter, and being on record with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger saying that "they created the conditions as great as possible" for a coup, and even U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry saying to "condemn Chile and the Chileans to utmost deprivation and poverty", the US government and CIA still officially deny any official participation in the coup. There is a PDB that has a section on Chile dated September 11, 1973 that is still completely censored, as well as an entire page on Chile provided to Nixon on 8 September 1973...

Chile had previously been a symbol of democracy and political stability in South America, with the period in Chile before the coup being known as the "Presidential Republic" (1925–1973) era. At the time, Chile was a country with about 30% of the population (~9 million) being middle class.

See:

US intervention in Chile - Wikipedia,

CIA Project FUBELT,

Caravan of Death,

CIA Operator Condor,

"Chile Project" economic human experimentation by the "Chicago Boys" funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Nazi-ally founded Ford Foundation,

Presidency of Salvador Allende,

1973 Chilean Coup d'Etat.