Define salvador allende biography pdf

President of Chile from 1970 to 1973

"Allende" redirects here. For other uses, see Allende (disambiguation).

In this Chilean name, the first or paternal surname is Allende and the second or maternal family name is Gossens.

Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens^[A] (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean socialist politician^[4][5] who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until his death in 1973.^[6] As a socialist committed to democracy,^[7][8] he has been described as the first Marxist to be elected president in a liberal democracy in Latin America.^[9][10][11]

Allende's involvement in Chilean politics spanned a period of nearly forty years, during which he held various positions including senator, deputy, and cabinet minister. As a life-long committed member of the Socialist Party of Chile, whose foundation he had actively contributed to, he unsuccessfully ran for the national presidency in the 1952, 1958, and 1964 elections. In 1970, he won the presidency as the candidate of the Popular Unity coalition in a close three-way race. He was elected in a run-off by Congress, as no candidate had gained a majority. In office, Allende pursued a policy he called "The Chilean Path to Socialism". The coalition government was far from unanimous. Allende said that he was committed to democracy and represented the more moderate faction of the Socialist Party, while the radical wing sought a more radical course. Instead, the Communist Party of Chile favored a gradual and cautious approach that sought cooperation with Christian democrats,^[7] which proved influential for the Italian Communist Party and the Historic Compromise.^[12]

As president, Allende sought to nationalize major industries, expand education, and improve the living standards of the working class. He clashed with the right-wing parties that controlled Congress and with the judiciary. On 11 September 1973, the military moved to oust Allende in a coup d'état supported by the CIA, which initially denied the allegations.^[13][14] In 2000, the CIA admitted its role in the 1970 kidnapping of General René Schneider who had refused to use the army to stop Allende's inauguration.^[15][16] Declassified documents released in 2023 showed that US president Richard Nixon, his national security advisor Henry Kissinger, and the United States government, which had branded Allende as a dangerous communist,^[8] were aware of the military's plans to overthrow Allende's democratically elected government in the days before the coup d'état.^[17] As troops surrounded La Moneda Palace, Allende gave his last speech vowing not to resign.^[18] Later that day, Allende died by suicide in his office;^[19][20][21] the exact circumstances of his death are still disputed.^[22][B]

Following Allende's death, General Augusto Pinochet refused to return authority to a civilian government, and Chile was later ruled by the Government Junta, ending more than four decades of uninterrupted democratic governance, a period known as the Presidential Republic. The military junta that took over dissolved Congress, suspended the Constitution of 1925, and initiated a program of persecuting alleged dissidents, in which at least 3,095 civilians disappeared or were killed.^[24]Pinochet's military dictatorship only ended after the successful internationally backed 1989 constitutional referendum led to the peaceful Chilean transition to democracy.

Early life

Allende was born on 26 June 1908^[25] in Santiago.^[26][27] He was the son of Salvador Allende Castro and Laura Gossens Uribe. Allende's family belonged to the Chilean upper middle class and had a long tradition of political involvement in progressive and liberal causes. His grandfather was a prominent physician and a social reformist who founded one of the first secular schools in Chile.^[28] Salvador Allende was of Basque^[29] and Belgian descent.^[30][31][32] In 1909, he moved with his family to the city of Tacna (then under Chilean administration) until he returned to his country to live in Iquique in 1916. In 1918, he studied at the National Institute of Santiago, and from 1919 to 1921, he studied at the Liceo de Valdivia. In 1922, he entered the Eduardo de la Barra school at the age of 16, studying there until 1924.^[33]

As a teenager, his main intellectual and political influence came from the shoe-maker Juan De Marchi, an Italian-born anarchist.^[28] In 1925, he attended the military service in the Cuirassier Regiment of Tacna.^[33] Allende was a talented athlete in his youth, being a member of the Everton de Viña del Mar sports club (named after the more famous English football club of the same name).^[34] In 1926, at the age of 18, he studied medicine at the University of Chile in Santiago and was elected President of the Student Center in 1927. In 1928, he entered the Grand Lodge of Chile and was elected vice president of the Federation of Students of the University of Chile in 1929. In 1930, he became the representative of the students of the School of Medicine.^[33]

During his time at medical school, Allende was influenced by Professor Max Westenhofer, a German pathologist who emphasized the social determinants of disease and social medicine.^[35][36] In 1931, he was expelled from the university and relegated to the north. That same year, he retook his sixth year of medical school and graduated at age 23. In 1932, he began practicing as a physician and anatomo-pathologist in the morgue of the Van Buren Hospital. He became the union leader of the Valparaíso doctors, becoming 1st Regional Secretary in Valparaíso. In 1935, at age 27, he was relegated to the city of Caldera for the second time and, in 1936, he was imprisoned in the Popular Front in Valparaíso. In 1937, he was elected Deputy of Valparaíso and Aconcagua and, in 1938, he served as Undersecretary General of the Socialist Party of Chile.^[33]

In 1933, Allende co-founded with Marmaduque Grove and others a section of the Socialist Party of Chile in Valparaíso^[28] and became its chairman. He married Hortensia Bussi with whom he had three daughters. He was a Freemason, a member of the Lodge Progreso No. 4 in Valparaíso.^[37] In 1933, he published his doctoral thesis Higiene Mental y Delincuencia (Crime and Mental Hygiene) in which he criticized Cesare Lombroso's proposals.^[38]

Political involvement up to 1970

In 1938, Allende was in charge of the electoral campaign of the Popular Front headed by Pedro Aguirre Cerda.^[28] The Popular Front's slogan was "Bread, a Roof and Work!"^[28] After its electoral victory, he became Minister of Health in the Reformist Popular Front government which was dominated by the Radicals.^[28] While serving in that position, Allende was responsible for the passage of a wide range of progressive social reforms, including safety laws protecting workers in the factories, higher pensions for widows, maternity care, and free lunch programs for schoolchildren.^[39]

Upon entering the government, Allende relinquished his congressional seat for Valparaíso, which he had won in 1937. Around that time, he wrote La Realidad Médico Social de Chile (The Social and Medical Reality of Chile). After Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany, Allende was one of 76 members of the Congress who sent a telegram to Adolf Hitler denouncing the persecution of Jews.^[40] Following President Aguirre Cerda's death in 1941, he was again elected deputy while the Popular Front was renamed Democratic Alliance.

In 1945, Allende became senator for the Valdivia, Llanquihue, Chiloé, Aisén, and Magallanes provinces; then for Tarapacá and Antofagasta in 1953; for Aconcagua and Valparaíso in 1961; and once more for Chiloé, Aisén, and Magallanes in 1969. He became president of the Chilean Senate in 1966. During the 1950s, Allende introduced legislation that established the Chilean national health service, the first program in the Americas to guarantee universal health care.^[41]

His three unsuccessful bids for the presidency (in the 1952, 1958, and 1964 elections) prompted Allende to joke that his epitaph would be "Here lies the next president of Chile." In 1952, as candidate for the Frente de Acción Popular (Popular Action Front, FRAP), he obtained only 5.4% of the votes, partly due to a division within socialist ranks over support for Carlos Ibáñez. In 1958, again as the FRAP candidate, Allende obtained 28.5% of the vote. This time, his defeat was attributed to votes lost to the populist Antonio Zamorano.^[42] This explanation has been questioned by modern research that suggest Zamorano's votes came from across the political spectrum.^[42]

Electoral system

Declassified documents show that from 1962 through 1964, the CIA spent a total of $2.6 million to finance the campaign of Eduardo Frei and $3 million in anti-Allende propaganda "to scare voters away from Allende's FRAP coalition". The CIA considered its role in the victory of Frei a great success.^[43][44]

They argued that "the financial and organizational assistance given to Frei, the effort to keep Durán in the race, the propaganda campaign to denigrate Allende – were 'indispensable ingredients of Frei's success'", and they thought that his chances of winning and the good progress of his campaign would have been doubtful without the covert support of the government of the United States.^[45] Thus, in 1964 Allende lost once more as the FRAP candidate, polling 38.6% of the votes against 55.6% for Christian DemocratEduardo Frei. As it became clear that the election would be a race between Allende and Frei, the political right – which initially had backed Radical Julio Durán– settled for Frei as "the lesser evil".

1970 election

Main article: 1970 Chilean presidential election

Allende was considered part of the moderate wing of the socialists, with support from the communists who favored taking power via parliamentary democracy; in contrast, the left-wing of the socialists (led by Carlos Altamirano) and several other far-left parties called for violent insurrection. Some argue, however, that this was reversed at the end of his period in office.^[46][C]

Allende won the 1970 Chilean presidential election as leader of the Unidad Popular ("Popular Unity") coalition. On 4 September 1970, he obtained a narrow plurality of 36.6% to 35.z3% over Jorge Alessandri, a former president, with 27.8% going to a third candidate, Radomiro Tomic of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC). According to the Chilean constitution of the time, if no presidential candidate obtained a majority of the popular vote, Congress would choose one of the two candidates with the highest number of votes as the winner. Tradition was for Congress to vote for the candidate with the highest popular vote, regardless of margin. Former president Jorge Alessandri had been elected in 1958 with a plurality of 31.6% over Allende's 28.85%.

One month after the election, on 20 October, while the Senate had still to reach a decision and negotiations were actively in place between the Christian Democrats and the Popular Unity, General René Schneider, Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army, was shot resisting a kidnap attempt by a group led by General Roberto Viaux. Hospitalized, he died of his wounds three days later on 23 October. Schneider was a defender of the "constitutionalist" doctrine that the army's role is exclusively professional, its mission being to protect the country's sovereignty and not to interfere in politics.

General Schneider's death was widely disapproved of and, for the time, ended military opposition to Allende, whom the Congress finally chose on 24 October. On 26 October, President Eduardo Frei named General Carlos Prats as commander in chief of the army to replace René Schneider.^[52] Allende assumed the presidency on 3 November 1970 after signing a Statute of Constitutional Guarantees proposed by the Christian Democrats in return for their support in Congress. In an extensive interview with Régis Debray in 1972, Allende explained his reasons for agreeing to the guarantees.^[53] Some critics^[who?] have interpreted Allende's responses as an admission that signing the Statute was only a tactical move.^[54]

Main article: Presidency of Salvador Allende

"The Chilean Path to Socialism"

In his speech to the Chilean legislature following his election, Allende made clear his intention to move Chile from a capitalist to a socialist society:

We are moving towards socialism, not from an academic love for a doctrinaire system, but encouraged by the strength of our people, who know that it is an inescapable demand if we are to overcome backwardness and who feel that a socialist regime is the only way available to modern nations who want to build rationally in freedom, independence and dignity. We are moving towards socialism because the people, through their vote, have freely rejected capitalism as a system which has resulted in a crudely unequal society, a society deformed by social injustice and degraded by the deterioration of the very foundations of human solidarity.^[55]

Upon assuming the presidency, Allende began to carry out his platform of implementing a socialist program called La vía chilena al socialismo ("the Chilean path to socialism"). That included nationalization of large-scale industries (notably copper mining and banking) and government administration of the healthcare system, educational system (with the help of a United States educator, Jane A. Hobson-Gonzalez from Kokomo, Indiana), a free milk program for schoolchildren and in shanty towns of Chile, and an expansion of the land seizure and redistribution already begun under his predecessor Eduardo Frei Montalva,^[56] who had nationalized between one-fifth and one-quarter of all the properties listed for takeover.^[57] Allende also intended to improve the socio-economic welfare of Chile's poorest citizens;^[58] a key element was to provide employment, either in the new nationalized enterprises or on public-work projects.^[58]

In November 1970, 3,000 scholarships were allocated to Mapuche children in an effort to integrate the indigenous minority into the educational system. Furthermore, Allende's administration resumed payment of pensions and grants, launched an emergency plan providing for the construction of 120,000 residential buildings, granted rights to social security for all part-time workers, withdrew a proposed increase in electricity prices, restored diplomatic relations with Cuba, and granted amnesty to various political prisoners. In December 1970, the administration fixed bread prices; sent 55,000 volunteers to the south of the country to teach writing and reading skills and provide medical attention to an underserved sector of the population; established a central commission to oversee a tripartite payment plan in which equal place was given to government, employees, and employers; and signed a protocol agreement with the United Center of Workers, granting workers representational rights on the funding board of the Social Planning Ministry.^[59]

Allende established an obligatory minimum wage for workers of all ages (including apprentices),^[60] free milk for expectant and nursing mothers and for children between the ages of 7 and 14,^[61] and free meals at school.^[62] His administration also reduced rent and rescheduled the construction of the Santiago subway so as to serve working class neighborhoods first. Workers benefited from increases in social security payments, an expanded public works program, and a modification of the wage and salary adjustment mechanism that had originally been introduced in the 1940s to cope with the country's chronic inflation. Middle class Chileans benefited from the elimination of taxes on modest incomes and property.^[63] In addition, state-sponsored programs distributed free food to the country's neediest citizens,^[64] and in the countryside, peasant councils were established to mobilize agrarian workers and small proprietors. In the government's first budget presented to Congress in November 1970, the minimum taxable income level was raised, removing from the tax pool 35% of those who had paid taxes on earnings in the previous year. In addition, the exemption from general taxation was raised to a level equivalent to twice the minimum wage. Exemptions from capital taxes were also extended, which benefitted 330,000 small proprietors. The extra increases that Frei had promised to the armed forces were also fully paid. According to one estimate, purchasing power went up by 28% between October 1970 and July 1971.^[65]

Agrarian and literacy reforms

The new Minister of Agriculture, Jacques Chonchol, promised to expropriate all estates which were larger than eighty "basic" hectares (about 200 acres). That promise was kept, with no farm in Chile exceeding that limit by the end of 1972.^[66] Within eighteen months the Latifundia (extensive agricultural estates) had been abolished. The agrarian reform had involved the expropriation of 3,479 properties which, added to the 1,408 properties incorporated under the Frei government, made up some 40% of the total agricultural land area in the country.^[65]

Particularly in rural areas, the Allende government launched a campaign against illiteracy, while adult education programs expanded, together with educational opportunities for workers. From 1971 to 1973, enrolments in kindergarten, primary, secondary, and post-secondary schools all increased. The Allende government encouraged more doctors to begin practising in rural and low-income urban areas, and built additional hospitals, maternity clinics, and especially neighborhood health-centers that remained open for longer hours to serve the poor. Improved sanitation and housing facilities for low-income neighborhoods also equalized health-care benefits, while hospital councils and local health councils were established in neighborhood health-centers as a means of democratizing the administration of health policies. The councils gave central-government civil-servants, local-government officials, health-service employees, and community workers the right to review budgetary decisions.^[67]

The Allende government sought to bring the arts to the mass of the Chilean population by funding a number of cultural endeavours. With eighteen-year-olds and illiterates now granted the right to vote, mass participation in decision-making was encouraged by the Allende government, with traditional hierarchical structures now challenged by socialist egalitarianism. The Allende Government was able to draw upon the idealism of its supporters, with teams of "Allendistas" travelling into the countryside and shanty towns to perform volunteer work.^[66] The Allende government also worked to transform Chilean popular culture through formal changes to school curriculum and through broader cultural education initiatives, such as state-sponsored music festivals and tours of Chilean folklorists and nueva canción musicians.^[68] In 1971, the purchase of a private publishing house by the state gave rise to Editorial Quimantu, which became the center of the Allende Government's cultural activities. In the space of two years, 12 million copies of books, magazines, and documents (8 million of which were books) specializing in social analysis, were published. Cheap editions of great literary works were produced on a weekly basis, and in most cases were sold out within a day. Culture came into the reach of the masses for the first time, who responded enthusiastically. "Editorial Quimantu" encouraged the establishment of libraries in community organizations and trade unions. Through the supply of cheap textbooks, it enabled the Left to progress through the ideological content of the literature made available to workers.^[65]

The Allende Government steered the educational system towards poorer Chileans by expanding enrollments through government subsidies.^[69] A "democratisation" of university education was carried out, making the system tuition-free, which led to an 89% rise in university enrollments between 1970 and 1973. The Allende Government also increased enrollment in secondary education from 38% in 1970 to 51% in 1974.^[70] Enrollment in education reached record levels, including 3.6 million young people, and 8 million school textbooks were distributed among 2.6 million pupils in primary education. An unprecedented 130,000 students were enrolled by the universities, which became accessible to peasants and workers. The illiteracy rate was reduced from 12% in 1970 to 10.8% in 1972, while the growth in primary school enrollment increased from an annual average of 3.4% in the period 1966–70 to 6.5% in 1971–1972. Secondary education grew at a rate of 18.2% in 1971–1972, and the average school enrollment of children between the ages of 6 and 14 rose from 91% (1966–70) to 99%.^[65]

Social welfare initiatives

Social spending was dramatically increased, particularly for housing, education, and health, and a major effort was made to redistribute wealth to poorer Chileans. As a result of new initiatives in nutrition and health, together with higher wages, many poorer Chileans were able to feed and clothe themselves better than ever before. Public access to the social security system was increased, and state benefits such as family allowances were raised significantly.^[66] Family allowances for those living the countryside were also made the same as for those living in cities.^[71] To improve social and economic conditions for women, the Women's Secretariat was established in 1971, which took on issues such as public laundry facilities, public food programs, day-care centers, and women's health care (especially prenatal care).^[72] The duration of maternity leave was also extended from 6 to 12 weeks.^[73]

The redistribution of income enabled wage and salary earners to increase their share of national income from 51.6% (the annual average between 1965 and 1970) to 65% while family consumption increased by 12.9% in the first year of the Allende Government. In addition, while the average annual increase in personal spending had been 4.8% in the period 1965–70, it reached 11.9% in 1971.^[65] During the first two years of Allende's presidency, state expenditure on health rose from around 2% to nearly 3.5% of GDP. According to Jennifer E. Pribble, the new spending "was reflected not only in public health campaigns, but also in the construction of health infrastructure".^[74] Small programs targeted at women were also experimented with, such as cooperative laundries and communal food preparation, together with an expansion of child-care facilities.^[75] In addition, the Statute of Democratic Guarantees made social security a constitutional right.^[76]

The National Supplementary Food Program was extended to all primary school pupils and to all pregnant women, regardless of their employment or income condition. Complementary nutritional schemes were applied to malnourished children, while antenatal care was emphasized.^[77] Under Allende, the proportion of children under the age of 6 with some form of malnutrition fell by 17%.^[61] Apart from the existing Supply and Prices councils (community-based bodies which controlled the distribution of essential groups in working-class districts, and were a popular, not government, initiative),^[78] community-based distribution centers and shops were developed, which sold directly in working-class neighborhoods. The Allende government felt obliged to increase its intervention in marketing activities, and state involvement in grocery distribution reached 33%.^[65] The CUT (central labor confederation) was accorded legal recognition,^[79] and its membership grew from 700,000 to almost 1 million. In enterprises in the Area of Social Ownership, an assembly of the workers elected half of the members of the management council for each company. Those bodies replaced the former board of directors.^[65]

During a 1971 emergency program, over 89,000 houses were built, and during Allende's three years as president an average of 52,000 houses were constructed annually.^[80] Education, food, and housing assistance expanded significantly, with public housing starts going up twelvefold and eligibility for free milk extended from age 6 to age 15. A year later, blue-collar wages were raised by 27% in real terms and white-collar wages became fully indexed.^[81] Price controls were also set up, while the Allende Government introduced a system of distribution networks through various agencies (including local committees on supply and prices) to ensure that shopkeepers adhered to the new rules.^[82]

Minimum pensions were increased by amounts equal to two or three times the inflation rate, and between 1970 and 1972, such pensions increased by a total of 550%. The incomes of 300,000 retirement pensioners were increased by the government from one-third of the minimum salary to the full amount. Labor insurance cover was extended to 200,000 market traders, 130,000 small shop proprietors, 30,000 small industrialists, small owners, transport workers, clergy, professional sportsmen, and artisans. The public health service was improved, with the establishment of a system of clinics in working-class neighborhoods on the peripheries of the major cities, providing a health center for every 40,000 inhabitants. Statistics for construction in general, and housebuilding in particular, reached some of the highest levels in the history of Chile. Four million square metres were completed in 1971–72, compared to an annual average of 2+1⁄2