STORY OF A DEATH FORETOLD
Pinochet, the CIA and the Coup against Salvador Allende, 11 September 1973
Oscar Guardiola-Rivera
Bloomsbury (paperback); Rs 399
Chile is perhaps the only place in the world where "September 11" does not evoke images of people jumping out of flaming towers. Instead, Chileans remember jets bombing the presidential palace, and they recall civilians being herded into sports stadiums and shot.
That "other 9/11" was in 1973. The government of Salvador Allende was wiped out in a violent coup (Golpe). Thousands died. General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte took over. This book, which consciously channels Gabriel Garcia Marquez (not just in the title), describes the coup, the events leading up to it and the aftermath.
The coup was backed by the CIA. A host of multinational corporations sighed with collective relief when it succeeded. Allende had vowed not to be taken alive. Pinochet had said if Allende was captured, the junta would fly him out on a plane which would "fall in mid-flight". While the palace was under attack, Allende committed suicide, shooting himself with an AK-47 gifted by Fidel Castro. (A 2009 autopsy confirmed the testimony of the only witness).
The new regime indulged in mass killings, many of them public. Torture and disappearances continued for more than a decade. Intellectuals were singled out for special attention. The folk singer, Victor Jara, had his hands chopped off in front of 6,000 prisoners at a stadium before being shot by an officer, who played Russian roulette just to spice things up. Pablo Neruda, friend and advisor to Allende, died 12 days after the coup. His library was vandalised, with excrement smeared on his books and art collection.
So ended the Allende regime. But his life and deeds afforded inspiration to the Latin intelligentsia. Writers like Julio Cortazar, Garcia Marquez, and of course, his niece, Isabel Allende helped keep his memory alive.
The 65-year-old medical doctor was an avowed Marxist but also a constitutionalist. He articulated a "Chilean doctrine of socialism". His vision was in some ways, closer to West European and Scandinavian socialism, than to Cuba or the USSR.
Allende set up a national health system, a primary education system (with milk and midday meals) and embarked on a programme of land redistribution (with compensation paid as land was acquired). Copper mines were nationalised (the government already owned 51 per cent of every mine). Again, fair value was paid to mine shareholders. Allende also nationalised banks.
The takeovers led to US sanctions. Nixon said, "We need to kick Chile's ass". The Chilean economy collapsed as sanctions kicked in. The coup led to chaos, triggering insane inflation. Commerce came to a standstill amidst pitched battles and there was a mass flight of capital.
There were many reasons for the CIA and big business to be horrified by Allende. Whatever his ideological stances, he preferred to work within the law. There was a real chance his regime would inspire similar movements in other Latin American republics. The USA could cope with a Castro in the backyard; it would have had more difficulty accommodating multiple Allende clones who won elections.
The man who replaced Allende revered Napoleon Bonaparte. Pinochet had a huge library-cum-museum of literature and memorabilia about the Corsican emperor and he had replica Napoleonic uniforms tailored to fit him. A week before pulling off the coup, he said only "lunatics" would consider a coup.
He efficiently arranged the assassinations of influential emigre Chileans abroad. He was canny in maintaining good relationships not only with the Americans and the MNCs but also with Margaret Thatcher. Chile provided material help to Britain in the Falklands War. And, he managed the remarkable feat of easing out of power and dying peacefully.
Pinochet was also a believer in market economics. Even as his secret police, the dreaded DINA, killed and "disappeared" thousands, Pinchet sought out the "Chicago Boys", a bunch of Chilean economists who had studied at the University of Chicago. He pulled them in as advisors.
Their prescriptions helped pull the economy around. The "Chicago Boys" developed some innovative models such as market-financed pension plans. Even here, there are inconsistencies, however. For example, the Pinochet government retained ownerships of mines and banks.
The author is a law professor of Colombian extraction working in England, and his sympathies clearly lie with the Left. The book appears somewhat disorganised because it covers a vast canvas in terms of both the history and the geography. The focus often segues back and forth between personal lives and vast socio-economic trends.
Nevertheless, it is completely fascinating in its exposition of the complex politics of Chile, and indeed of that entire continent. Latin America has suffered the ruthless exploitation of its natural resources for centuries. Native populations were exterminated and enslaved, first by Spaniards and Portuguese colonists, and then by those who set up the businesses Julio Cortazar described as "Multinational Vampires". There have been countless revolutions, some led by revolutionaries as charismatic as Simon Bolivar. But democracy has rarely taken root for any extended period.
Herge summed up the politics when he created San Theodoros, the republic where Tintin's friend, General Alacazar and his rival, General Tapioca, are locked in an eternal cycle of golpe and contra-golpe. This book fills in the nuances and the histories that lie behind those caricatures.
