Marxist Overreach and Rocking the Corporate Boat

Policies of the Allende Presidency, and U.S. Involvement in the Coup of September 11, 1973

The election of Salvador Allende in 1970 as Chile’s president, as well as his subsequent policy implementation and eventual overthrow, is among the most important events to occur in Chile’s modern history. It underscored the divergent sentiments of the country’s wealthy class, its working poor, and the U.S.-owned corporate interests (whose own deep-rooted ties to the Washington D.C. power structure would play an enormous role) during the era.

Allende was elected with a plurality of the votes and, following the rules of its governmental system, ultimately became president as decided by Chile’s legislative branch (due to Allende not having won by a majority). The election of Allende and the three-way split decision among the candidates in 1970 spoke to the political and economic chasm among the nation’s population. “Allende’s election was confirmed after a period of uncertainty and agitation and, most important, after Chile’s president, the immensely popular Eduardo Frei, assumed a posture of nonintervention.”¹