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Death of Salvador Allende

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Salvador Allende, President of Chile, died during the Chilean coup of 1973. Since that time, there has been a controversy between supporters and detractors on just how he died. The currently prevalent view is that he committed suicide, as most evidence seems to suggest.

Historical event

On September 11, 1973, just prior to the capture by the military of the Palacio de La Moneda (the presidential palace), while gunfire and explosions were clearly audible in the background, President Salvador Allende made what would become a famous farewell speech to Chileans on live radio, speaking of himself in the past tense, of his love for Chile and of his deep faith in its future. He stated that his commitment to Chile did not allow him to take an easy way out and be used as a propaganda tool by those he called "traitors" (accepting an offer of safe passage), clearly implying he intended to fight to the end.

Shortly afterwards, Allende was dead. An official announcement declared that he had committed suicide with a machine gun, and an autopsy labelled his death as suicide. The weapon purportedly used by Allende to commit suicide was an AK-47 assault rifle given to him as a gift by Fidel CastroJames Whelan, Out of the Ashes: The Life, Death and Transfiguration of Democracy in Chile , 511-512 and 519-520. [*] and which bore a golden plate engraved "To my good friend Salvador from Fidel, who by different means tries to achieve the same goals."

This explanation is today widely accepted, even by his family and members of his own party, after decades of silence and pointing to the Military. This (now) general acceptance is based on statements given by two doctors from the Moneda Palace infirmary who witnessed the suicide: Dr. Patricio Guijon, who made a statement at the time, and Dr. Jose QuirogaEric Pape, Five Degrees of Exile, Los Angeles Times Magazine, 11 July 1999. Reproduced online as part of an archive of Pape's articles, accessed 22 September 2006. who only confirmed it many years later.

Official version of the death

At approximately 1:50 PM local time, President Allende ordered the defenders of the Moneda to surrender. The defenders then formed a queue from the second floor, down the stairs and onto the Morande street door. The president went along this queue, from the ground floor up the stairs, shaking hands and thanking everyone personally for their support in that difficult moment. After he finished, he directed himself toward the Independence salon, located in the north-east side of the Palace's second floor.

At the same time, Dr. Patricio Guijon (a member of La Moneda's infirmary staff) decided to return upstairs to recover his gas-mask as a souvenir. He heard a noise, and opened the door of the Independence salon in time to see the president shoot himself with his AK-47 assault rifle. From the other side of the salon and through an open door Dr. Jose QuirogaPatricio Zamorano, Muerte de Allende: los testigos que quedaron fuera de la historia , La Opinion Digital, 11 September 2003. Accessed online 22 September 2006., Arsenio Poupin, a member of the cabinet, Enrique Huerta, a palace functionary, two detectives from the Presidential security detail, and some GAPs (Presidential Security) were able to see the moment of death, or arrive a few seconds afterwards, attracted by the noise.

Witnesses

All sources seem to agree that at least the following witnesses were present:

Dr. Patricio Guijon - member of the Presidential Medical Staff - Survived

Dr.Jose Quiroga - member of the Presidential Medical Staff - Survived

Arsenio Poupin Oissel - Presidential Assesor and member of the cabinet - Executed a few days later

Enrique Huerta Corvalan - Palace Intendant - Executed a few days later

David Garrido - Detective (Presidential Security Detail) - Survived

Ricardo Pincheira - Detective (Presidential Security Detail) - Survived

Pablo Manuel Zepeda Camillieri - GAP (Presidential Security) - Survived

Of these witnesses, only Dr. Guijon spoke about the events immediately after they happened, and was roundly vilified for doing so. Some sources misattribute Guijon's declarations to "Allende's personal doctor": Dr. Enrique Paris Roa, who was at La Moneda not on his professional role but as a member of Allende's cabinet. He does not appear to have made any such statement as he was executed shortly afterwards.Anne-Marie O'Connor, Out of the Ashes, Los Angeles Times 22 October 2000. Reproduced online on the site of Oberlin College professor Steven S. Volk, accessed 22 September 2006.The other witnesses kept silent until after the restoration of democracy in Chile, as they believed (according to their own statements) that to corroborate the version of a suicide would in some measure downgrade Allende's sacrifice and lend support to the military regime.

Controversy

At the time and for many years after, his supporters nearly uniformly presumed that he was killed by the forces staging the coup. In Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion on September 28, 1973, Fidel Castro told a crowd of 1 million Cubans that Allende had died in La Moneda wrapped in a Chilean flag, firing at the army with Fidel's rifle. Another version says that Allende was killed in combat on the steps outside the Presidential Palace. In public addresses after Allende's death, Fidel Castro continued to promote the story that Allende had died while exchanging gunfire with Chilean troops but spoke of Allende's suicide as a fact in 2002In "Fidel Castro: o: biografia a dos voces (a two-voiced biography), pub. Debate Publishing House ISBN 0307376532, the Cuban president told Ignacio Ramonet that he told Hugo Chavez: "''Don't kill yourself, Hugo. Don't do (sic) like Allende, who was a man alone. You have most of the Army on your side. Don't quit, don't resign.''" [*]. However some supporters still insist that Allende was killed by Pinochet's military forces while defending the palace.

In recent years, the view he committed suicide has become more accepted, particularly as different testimonies are confirming the details of the suicide in news and documentary interviews.Camus, Ignacio Gonzalez , El dia en que murio Allende ("The day that Allende Died"). Instituto Chileno de Estudios Humanisticos (ICHEH) and Centro de Estudios Sociales (CESOC), 1988. p. 282 and following. Also, members of Allende's immediate family including his wife, always outspoken, never disputed that it was a suicide.

Additional information

Footnotes and references

External links and references

Official Site - Contains formal statements of some of the GAP operatives that survived

Eric Pape, Five Degrees of Exile, Los Angeles Times Magazine, 11 July 1999. Reproduced online as part of an archive of Pape's articles, accessed 22 September 2006.

Anne-Marie O'Connor, Out of the Ashes, Los Angeles Times 22 October 2000. Reproduced online on the site of Oberlin College professor Steven S. Volk, accessed 22 September 2006.

Patricio Zamorano, Muerte de Allende: los testigos que quedaron fuera de la historia, La Opinion Digital, 11 September 2003. Accessed online 22 September 2006.

La Tercera, Chilean newspaper, September 11, 1973

La Tercera, El Once, includes news of different newspaper of days previous to the coup

Las 24 horas que estremecieron a Chile. Detailed minute-by-minute account of the events of September 11, 1973 by historian Ascanio Cavallo, on the site of La Tercera.

Ronald Hilton, Chile: The Continuing Historical Conflict, World Association of International Studies, 22 December 1997. Accessed 22 September 2006.

Robinson Rojas, The murder of Allende and the end of the Chilean way to socialism, originally published by Harper and Row, New York, 1975,1976-Fitzhenry&Whiteside Ltd., Toronto, Canada, 1975. Accessed online 22 September 2006.

Salvador Allende's "Last Words" (with English translation.) The transcript of the last radio broadcast of Chilean President Salvador Allende, made on 11 September 1973, at 9:10 AM. MP3 audio available here.

September 11, 1973: President overthrown in Chile coup, BBC News "On this Day", undated. Accessed 22 September 2006.

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Death of Salvador Allende