September 11—30 years since the US- backed coup in Chile

[Aidoneus]

a bit different view of events.. pretty long read.

September 11—30 years since the US- backed coup in Chile

September 11 marked the 30th anniversary of the bloody US-backed coup that brought to power the fascist-military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. The struggle in Chile that culminated in bitter defeat three decades ago constituted one of the most important strategic experiences of the international working class. The coup itself was an event that played no small role in shaping the world as it exists today.

Much of the commentary that has appeared internationally on the occasion of the coup’s anniversary has focused on the tragic fate of Chile’s Socialist Party President Salvador Allende, who took his own life as the military was bombing the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago.

What is less remembered is that the Chilean working class, which had entered into a profound revolutionary struggle, was horribly betrayed by Allende’s Popular Unity government, a coalition dominated by his own social democratic party and the Stalinists of the Chilean Communist Party.

Thousands of workers and youth were rounded up in Santiago’s soccer stadium and other makeshift concentration camps where they were tortured and executed. The coup in Chile, moreover, signaled the intensification of a political bloodbath that was to claim the lives of tens of thousands of trade unionists, students, peasants and socialist intellectuals throughout Latin America’s southern cone.

Washington under the Nixon administration utilized the full economic power of the United States to strangle Chile, while the CIA fomented economic chaos and political terror before finally engineering the military takeover.

The defeat in Chile, however, was not inevitable. ...

--snip--

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/sep2003/chil-s12.shtml

[T Wolf]

1. this got so little attention

in the media yesterday. Of course, American lives are the only ones worth caring or talking about.

I can remember when there was an actual press in this country. No more.

[Resistance]

2. to be fair

I can understand why media attention would place focus on the attacks on America 2 years ago - however, you're right that the events in Chile are basically ignored here, which is a tragedy. I didn't pay much attention to any mainstream news reporting this past Sept. 11th - was there any mention anywhere of the Chilean events?

The press here is subservient to the dominant elite minority, for sure.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Here's a good assortment of articles on September 11, 1973

which were published in the last few days.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&q=Chile+September+11%2C+1973&btnG=Search+News

There's a TON of information to read. It's a deep, dark, rotten story, and the U.S., under Nixon and Kissinger was totally involved.

People are STARTING to find out what has been hidden. Recently declassified papers are helpful.