"Workers of my fatherland, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this critical and bitter moment where treason is attempting to interfere. You should know that sooner or later the greater public paths will be walked upon by the free man to build a better society.
"Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!
"These are my last words. Knowing that the sacrifice will not be in vain, I am sure that at least there will be moral sanction that will condemn the crime, the cowardice and the treason."The last words of President Salvador Allende
September 11, 1973
Thursday marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of former Chilean President Salvador Allende (1908-1973)
Allende, founder of the Socialist Party of Chile, dedicated his life to the struggle for the wellbeing of his people, first as a medical doctor and later as a senator and finally as president of the Popular Unity Government.
His exemplary attitude took him to the nation’s highest office, where he died on September 11, 1973, during the coup perpetrated by traitors backed by Washington.
A Predecessor
Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon notes that it’s the example of sacrifice and altruism by men like Allende that underpins Latina America’s current resurgence.
In an article titled "Salvador on my Memory," published in the Punto Final magazine's special edition on marking Allende's centennial, Alarcon states that “Latin America is making a comeback, shrugging off exploitation and the vassalage it has suffered for centuries."
Allende was a forerunner. And like all those ahead of the times, he faced many who misunderstood, criticized and wronged him, yet they could not touch his determination and conviction.
He considered the so-called "Chilean road to socialism" realizable, although he knew, exactly as he denounced thousands of times, that U.S. imperialism and its local allies would not rest in their efforts to derail the process of change they recognized as dangerous and contagious.
Allende was not a utopian or a dreamer. He was a revolutionary entirely committed to the cause of the working class in Chile, to which he devoted and sacrificed his heroic life.
In a bipolar world, in the middle of the Cold War, a broad sector of the Chilean people, the political parties of the left, trade unions, student and youth organizations, the marginalized Mapuche people and some dignified and law-abiding officers within the armed forces, joined Allende in the difficult and risky struggle to transform Chile, within a regional context which included only the Cuban Revolution as an unconditional, trustworthy ally.
Who killed him? It wasn’t Pinochet alone
Nixon, Kissinger and the Central Intelligence Agency have the martyred president’s blood on their hands, as do ITT and other U.S. multi-national corporations. They, all of them, planned and carried out the cunning, fascist September 11, 1973 coup against the Popular Unity government.
With these events began the dark days in Chile and South America of Operation Condor which left thousands dead and disappeared. The coup against Allende was needed in order to implement the sinister Plan Condor, extended across Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, where U.S.- sponsored military dictatorships were imposed.
Re-establishing full diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba was the first foreign policy measure taken by the Popular Unity government, breaking the ironclad blockade of U.S. imperialism and setting the precedent subsequently followed by other Latin American countries which re-established relations with Cuba throughout the 1970’s and 80’s.
Salvador Allende’s solidarity with the Cuban Revolution and his genuine friendship with Fidel characterized the life and work of this exceptional man who, as the years passed, increasingly became a point of reference and an example, someone who was able to see, perhaps prematurely, new and unexplored roads which would enrich and diversify the paths taken by the popular struggle within the historic context of different countries.
> Allende and his ideas in PowerPoint
> Allende's Government Programme
> Allende’s Last Battle – Fidel
> Chronology of a Junta - 1973 -1989
> Allende's Government Programme
> Allende’s Last Battle – Fidel
> Chronology of a Junta - 1973 -1989
Reflection by Fidel:
> Salvador Allende: his example lives on (added July 1)
> Salvador Allende: his example lives on (added July 1)
