Skip to main content
NEU job advert
Pinochet’s coup in Chile – 50 years on 
FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ reflects on the 1973 overthrow of democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende and the long shadow of neoliberalism
A man pedals his bicycle past a mural marking the 50th anniversary of the country's military coup, with a reminder of those disappeared during the Augusto Pinochet regime and an image depicting the deposed President Salvador Allende, in Santiago, Chile, Friday, September 8, 2023

ON THE cold morning of September 11, 50 years ago in Santiago, Chile, armed forces commander in chief Augusto Pinochet led a bloody military coup against democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende. 

Tanks had the presidential palace, La Moneda, surrounded, Pinochet demanded Allende surrender and resign from the presidency, handing power to the armed forces. 

President Allende refused and bravely resisted gun in hand; Pinochet, most likely prompted by the US, ordered the air force to bomb the palace. UK-built Hawker-Hunter war planes repeatedly hit the palace with missiles, setting it alight. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
chile
Books / 16 May 2025
16 May 2025

RON JACOBS welcomes an investigation of the murders of US leftist activists that tells the story of a solidarity movement in Chile

Literature / 10 February 2025
10 February 2025
An outstanding novel by Chilean writer and activist Pedro Lemebel, a poetry pamphlet by Venezuelan Natasha Tiniacos, and a children’s book of haikus singing the beauty of Cuba
A supporter of Brazilian President Lula da Silva of the Work
Features / 10 February 2025
10 February 2025
Long having been considered the ‘US’s backyard,’ Latin America is the crucible of anti-imperialist struggle – yet with the rise of China as an economic and ideological counterweight to Washington, we see a new phase of that struggle emerge, writes BEN CHACKO 
A Cuban flag shredded by the winds of Hurricane Rafael flies
Features / 9 November 2024
9 November 2024
FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ gets the measure of what the new administration in Washington could have in store for Latin America, where Trump’s previous government had a notorious track record of hostility