CIA Ousts Allende: Pinochet's Dictatorship Rises
General Augusto Pinochet led a CIA-backed military coup against democratically elected President Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973. Chilean Air Force jets bombed La Moneda presidential palace while tanks surrounded the building. Allende died inside, almost certainly by suicide with an AK-47 given to him by Fidel Castro. Pinochet established a military junta that ruled Chile for seventeen years, executing roughly 3,200 political opponents, torturing 40,000, and forcing 200,000 into exile. The regime's economic policies, designed by University of Chicago economists known as the "Chicago Boys," created Latin America's freest market and most unequal society simultaneously. Pinochet left power after losing a 1988 plebiscite but was never convicted of his crimes.
September 11, 1973
53 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on September 11
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