Presidency of Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende
Presidency of Salvador Allende
3 November 1970 – 11 September 1973
Salvador Allende
PartyPopular Unity
SeatLa Moneda Palace, Santiago

Standard of the President
Chile inflation rate 1971–1994
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Salvador Allende was the president of Chile from 1970 until his suicide in 1973, and head of the Popular Unity government; he was a Socialist and Marxist elected to the national presidency of a liberal democracy in Latin America.[1][2] In August 1973 the Chilean Senate declared the Allende administration to be "unlawful," Allende's presidency was ended by a military coup before the end of his term. During Allende's three years, Chile gradually transitioned into a socialist state.

During his tenure, Chilean politics reached a state of civil unrest amid political polarization, hyperinflation, lockouts, economic sanctions, CIA-sponsored interventionism and a failed coup in June 1973. Allende's coalition, Unidad Popular, faced the problem of being a minority in the congress and it was plagued by factionalism.[3]

On 11 September 1973, a successful coup led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government of Allende. During the bombing of the presidential palace by the Chilean Air Force, President Allende, after mounting a brief armed resistance against the military, eventually died by suicide.[4] In Chilean historiography, Allende's presidency is the last one of the period known as the "Presidential Republic" (1925–1973).

  1. ^ Don Mabry, Chile: Allende's Rise and Fall. Archived 30 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Profile of Salvador Allende". BBC. 8 September 2003. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2009. Chile's Salvador Allende was murdered in a United States-backed coup on 11 September 1973 – three years earlier he had become Latin America's first democratically-elected Marxist president.
  3. ^ Angell, Alan (1993). "Chile since 1958". In Bethell, Leslie (ed.). Chile since independence. Cambridge University Press. pp. 159–160. ISBN 0-521-43987-6.
  4. ^ "Ministro cierra investigación sobre Allende: fue asesinado – Terra Colombia" (in Spanish). Noticias.terra.com.co. Retrieved 12 September 2012.