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Chilean presidential election, 1970
A presidential election was held in Chile on 4 September 1970. A narrow plurality (36.2 percent of the total vote) was secured by Salvador Allende, the candidate of the Popular Unity coalition of leftist parties. Because he did not obtain an absolute majority, his election required a further vote by the National Congress of Chile which resulted in Allende assuming the presidency in accordance with the Chilean Constitution of 1925.
Campaign
Both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the KGB spent significant amount of money to influence the outcome of the election. Vasili Mitrokhin and Christopher Andrew, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World, Basic Books (2005) hardcover, 677 pages ISBN 0-465-00311-7, pages 69-88.
The CIA spent $425,000, however the CIA did not provide direct assistance to any candidate as they had in 1964, but rather focused on anti-Allende propaganda, a "scare campaign" of posters and pamphlets linking an Allende victory with the violence and repression associated with the Soviet Union . Editorials and news stories reinforcing this message were also written with CIA guidance, especially in the newspaper El Mercurio, and disseminated throughout the national media. The goal was to contribute to and exploit the political polarization and financial panic of the period. Besides propaganda, the CIA also funded an attempt to splinter the Radical Party away from the Popular Unity coalition.
This CIA campaign was very inefficient. CIA director Richard Helms complained that he was ordered by the White House to "beat somebody with nothing" .
KGB money was more precisely targeted. Allende made a personal request for Soviet money through his personal contact, KGB officer Svyatoslav Kuznetsov, who urgently came to Chile from Mexico City to help Allende. The original allocation of money for these elections through the KGB was $400,000, and additional personal subsidy of $50,000 directly to Allende . It is believed that help from KGB was a decisive factor, because Allende won by a narrow margin of 39,000 votes of a total of the 3 million cast. After the elections, the KGB director Yuri Andropov obtained a permission for additional money and other resources from the Central Committee of the CPSU to ensure Allende victory in Congress. In his request on 24 October, he stated that KGB "will carry out measures designed to promote the consolidation of Allende's victory and his election to the post of President of the country" .
US president Richard Nixon was enraged by the victory of Allende and by the failure of CIA covert actions
Results
Source:The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) reports that a total of 2,954,799 votes were cast, from a registered electorate of 3,539,747, giving a turnout of 83.5%. 3,539,747 registered voters is a noticeably low proportion of the total Chilean population of 9,720,000, of whom IDEA calculates that 5,346,000 (55.3%) were of voting age. Registration and turnout were reasonably consistent with earlier Chilean presidential elections, although both registration and participation have been considerably higher since the restoration of elections, beginning with the election of 1989.
Other sources give slightly different figures.
Other sources give slightly different figures:El Mercurio, 5 September 1970, the day after the election, gives 1,075,616 (36.3%), 1,036,278 (34.9%), 824,849 (27.9%), the same figures given by The New York Times.
La Tercera 5-6 September 1970, gives 1,070,334 (36.3%), 1,031,159 (34.9%) 821,505 (27.8%). These figures are echoed at Adolfo Pardo's online Historia de Chile, periodo 1958/2002, accessed 2 August 2006; Pardo also indicates that there were 31,505 blank or null ballots.
Donald J. Mabry Chile: General History on Historical Text Archive, accessed 2 August 2006: Salvador Allende 36.3%, Jorge Alessandri 34.9%, Radomiro Tomic 27.8%
Sellos de presidentes de la Republica titulados en la Universidad de Chile: Salvador Allende Gossens, University of Chile, accessed 2 August 2006: 36.6%, 34.9% 27.8%.
Cronologia 1970: Una revolucion que comienza on salvador-allende.cl, Archivos Internet Salvador Allende, accessed 2 August 2006: 36.5%, 34.9%, 27.8%. This source also says that 0.2% cast blank ballots and that 0.6% of ballots were annulled.
In his memoirs , Henry Kissinger credits Allende with "a bare 36.2 percent of the popular vote".Congressional confirmation
None of the candidates received an absolute majority of votes; according to the 1925 Constitution, the National Congress had to decide between the two candidates who had received the most votes, Allende and Alessandri. The precedent set on the three previous occasions this situation had arisen since 1932 was for Congress simply to choose the candidate with the highest number of votes; indeed, former president Alessandri had been elected in 1958 with 31.6% of the popular vote, defeating the same Allende.
In this case, however, there was an active campaign against Allende's confirmation by Congress, including an intensification of the CIA propaganda campaign to create concerns about Chile's future. During this period the CIA generated over 726 articles, broadcasts and similar items. The CIA also encouraged international economic pressure against Chile during this period. The United States also began to lay the groundwork for a military coup in this stage, authorizing the Ambassador to Chile to encourage this outcome with his contacts in the Chilean military.
Allende's presidency was eventually ratified, after he agreed to sign a "Statute of Constitutional Guarantees", promising not to undermine the Chilean Constitution.
Two days before the confirmation, Army Commander-in-Chief General Rene Schneider, a legalist, was killed in a botched kidnapping attempt organized by General Roberto Viaux, and supported by the CIA, who later gave $35 000 to the kidnappers in "humanitarian" assistance Rene Schneider had expressed his deep opposition to organizing a coup d'etat in case Salvador Allende's was finally chosen by Parliament as president.
Rene Schneider's murder was disapproved by a lot of people, and helped citizens and military support Allende, whom the Parliament finally chose on 24 October. On 26 October, President Eduardo Frei named General Carlos Prats as commander in chief of the army in replacement of Rene Schneider.
Source:Additional information
Articles about Allende/Pinochet coup d'etat in Chile
Schneider Doctrine
Rene Schneider
Roberto Viaux
Carlos Prats
History of Chile – long article with section on 1970-1973 events
Alejandrina Cox incident
Chilean coup of 1973 – events following this election
Augusto Pinochet – took power in 1973 coup
U.S. intervention in Chile
Notes
External links
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Chilean presidential election, 1970
