By LIO KAMMUELLER

September 11 is a date that, to U.S. Americans and many others around the world, is synonymous with a single event. While that date in 2001 is certainly a critical point in national and world history, not to mention a tragedy worthy of remembrance, another historical event which took place on the same date in 1973 has been forgotten in our culture: the U.S.-backed military coup of the Chilean government. This coup overthrew a democratically elected presidency and instated a violent dictatorship that would govern Chile for seventeen years. 

The president of Chile at the time of the coup was Salvador Allende, the first socialist to be elected president of a Latin American country. He ran in both the 1964 and 1970 elections, and during both campaigns, the CIA spent millions of dollars on anti-Allende and anti-socialist propaganda, including manipulation of radio and printed news. Allende’s potential presidency was a threat to the economic benefits the U.S. was earning in Chile in industries like coal and copper mining. One of Allende’s goals was to nationalize corporations in these industries and bring profit back to Chileans instead of foreign companies. Despite the CIA’s efforts, Allende was elected in 1970 in a competitive and controversial race.

In the first year of Allende’s presidency, rent limits were passed, workers’ wages increased, and land was redistributed to house families in need of shelter. However, when the U.S. cut off loans to Chile and trade between the countries halted, the Chilean economy began to experience issues like inflation and food shortages. The U.S. refused requests for credit to buy food, and the CIA backed a strike by trucking workers so that food could not be transported throughout Chile. The CIA also received intelligence regarding the planning of a military coup until September 11, 1973, when General Augusto Pinochet declared martial law and attacked Allende in La Moneda, the presidential palace. While under bombardment in his office, Allende delivered his final speech over radio, stating that “foreign capital, imperialism, together with the reaction, created the climate in which the armed forces broke their tradition.” Allende committed suicide after giving this address.

After the coup, the U.S. government began loaning tens of millions of dollars to Pinochet’s dictatorship. Under this regime, at least 40,000 people were killed or “disappeared,” many of whom were never found. The military and the national police also tortured and assassinated politicians, activists, artists, and journalists who opposed the regime. A few hundred thousand Chileans fled the country or were exiled over the course of Pinochet’s rule. 

However, despite the active involvement of the U.S. in establishing this dictatorship and the lasting damage it has left on Chile’s government, economy, and people, these events are strikingly absent from the collective U.S. American mind. Our culture struggles to look beyond our own borders and remember the harm that our country has inflicted on others. Students may easily graduate high school without ever being taught about U.S. interference abroad and its long term consequences to Chile and many other nations that our country exploited for our own economic and political benefit. We remember only the tragedies our country was the victim of, while those we were responsible for fade completely from our memory. History is an important teacher, and now more than ever, the story of the Chilean coup is a much-needed reminder of what the U.S. is capable of when it decides democracy can be conditional.

Featured image: Lio Kammueller’26