tonysopranobignaturals-deactiva:

9/11 never forget

The bombing of La Moneda (seat of the president in Chile) on 11 September 1973 by the Chilean Armed Forces.

On September 11, 1973, the US government helped orchestrate a coup that desposed of democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende. The coup lead to dictator Augusto Pinochet’s military officers seizing power. The military established a junta that suspended all political activity in Chile and repressed left-wing movements, dissolving congress and outlawing enemy parties. The military government also took control of all media, including the radio broadcasting that Allende attempted to use to give his final speech to the nation. Allende’s death occurred in the presidential palace after he gave a final speech. One of the first measures of the dictatorship was to set up a ‘national youth office’ as a way of mobilizing support for it. Pinochet rose to supreme power within a year of the coup and was formally declared President of Chile in late 1974, leading the Nixon administration to recognize the junta government and support it in consolidating power. In the first months after the coup the military killed thousands of real and 'suspected’ Chilean leftists or forced their “disappearance” in which they were tortured or killed. The number of dead and disappeared citizens soon reached thousands. Torture and detention centers were established.

Pictures of people missing after the coup.

The CIA helped justify the coup in propaganda to Chilean citizens, pushing a conspiracy theory that they were in fact anticipating a self-coup (Plan Zeta/Plan Z) that Allende’s government or its associates were preparing. The theory was later discredited and officially recognized as political propaganda.

Decades before the coup, the US intervened in Chilean politics pushing anti-communist ideology, which influenced the Chilean Army.