Salvador Allende was the president of Chile from 1970 until his death in 1973, and head of the Popular Unity government; he was a Socialist and the first Marxist elected to the national presidency of a liberal democracy in Latin America.Don Mabry, Chile: Allende's Rise and Fall. In August 1973, the Chilean Senate declared the Allende administration to be "unlawful", and Allende's presidency was ended by a military coup before the end of his term.
During his tenure, Chilean politics reached a state of civil unrest amid political polarization, hyperinflation, lockouts, economic sanctions, CIA-sponsored interventionism and a failed coup in June 1973. Allende's coalition, Unidad Popular, faced the problem of being a minority in the congress and it was plagued by factionalism.
On 11 September 1973, a successful coup led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government of Allende. During the bombing of the presidential palace by the Chilean Air Force, President Allende, after mounting a brief armed resistance against the military, eventually died by suicide. In Chilean historiography, Allende's presidency is the last one of the period known as the "Presidential Republic" (1925–1973).
Election and Inauguration
In the 1970 election, Allende ran with the Unidad Popular (UP or Popular Unity) coalition. Succeeding the FRAP left-wing coalition, Unidad Popular comprised most of the Chilean Left: the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Radical Party, the Party of the Radical Left (until 1972), the Social Democratic Party, MAPU (Movimiento de Acción Popular Unitario) (in 1972, a splinter group – MAPU Obrero Campesino – emerged) and since 1971 the Christian Left.
Allende received a plurality with 36.2% of the vote. Christian Democrat Radomiro Tomic won 27.8% with a very similar platform to Allende's. Both Allende and Tomic promised to further nationalize the mineral industry and redistribute land and income among other new policies. Conservative former president Jorge Alessandri, standing for the National Party, received slightly under 34.9% of the vote.Angell, 1993, p. 50
According to the constitution, Congress had to decide between the two candidates who had received the most votes. The precedent set on the three previous occasions this situation had arisen since 1932 was for Congress simply to choose the candidate with the largest number of votes; indeed, former president Alessandri had been elected in 1958 with 31.6% of the popular vote.
In this case, however, there was an active campaign against Allende's confirmation by Congress, including clandestine efforts to prevent him taking office, and his presidency was ratified only after he signed a "Statute of Constitutional Guarantees". This statute was suggested as a means to convince the majority of Christian Democrat senators that favoured Allessandri, as they doubted Allende's allegiance to democracy, or at least the UP's. After signing the statute, members of the Christian Democrat party in the Senate gave their vote in favor of Allende. It has been argued that given that less than the majority of the voters voted for him, Allende did not have a clear "mandate" to embark in the policies put forward on his program; however, it is also true that in the post-World War II period three out of the four previous presidents of Chile had, like Allende, also been elected with less than 50% of the vote, due in part to Chile's multi-party system. Specifically, the winners of the four presidential elections prior to Allende's 1970 election had won with: 56.1% (the 1964 election of Frei), 31.6% (the 1958 election of Alessandri), 46.8% (the 1952 election of Ibáñez) and 40.2% (the 1946 election of Gonzalez Videla). The legality of the 1970 election itself is not in dispute.
On 4 November, Allende assumed the presidency in the National Congress. Afterwards he went to the cathedral to attend the ecumenical Te Deum celebrated by all the churches of Chile.La Prensa, 4 November 1970
"The Chilean Way to Socialism"
In office, Allende pursued a policy he called "La vía chilena al socialismo" (Spanish for "The Chilean Way to Socialism"). This included nationalization of certain large-scale industries (notably copper), of the healthcare system, continuation of his predecessor Eduardo Frei Montalva's policies regarding the educational system, a program of free milk for children, and land redistribution. The previous government of Eduardo Frei had already partly nationalised the copper industry by acquiring a 51 percent share in foreign owned mines. The primary U.S. business in Chile at this time was copper mining. The Chilean government sought to fully nationalize U.S. mining operations and the Chilean constitution required "just compensation" to be made according to "minimum international standards." However, the Allende government chose to hold mining companies liable for damages they caused to the state. Subsequently, Chile made significant deductions in computing the amount of compensation due to the North American industries. Such deductions included charges for "loans invested poorly" and "excessive profits" among other reasoning. "Excessive profits" were assessed dating back to the 1950s. Ultimately, deductions for "social and financial malfeasance" when combined with other deductions resulted in the total deductions greatly exceeding the base book values of the mining enterprises. In effect, compensation to three of the five nationalized mines was wholly eliminated by subjective deductions determined by Allende's government.John Fleming, The Nationalization of Chile's Large Copper Companies in Contemporary Interstate Relations, 18 Vill. L. Rev. 593 (1973) Allende also nationalized coal mining in 1971, a move that was welcomed by the miners of Lota. A system of clinics in working-class neighborhoods on the peripheries of Chile’s major cities was also set up.Politics and Ideology in Allende's Chile By Ricardo Israel Zipper, 1989, P.36
The constitutional changes for the transition from capitalism to socialism that the government of Salvador Allende wanted to carry out have been referred to as the “Chilean path to socialism” or as the “peaceful path to socialism”. The Popular Unity Basic Government Program for Salvador Allende's candidacy included proposals organized around several axes. Among them were a new political constitution, the creation of a People's Assembly, the development of a planned economy, the nationalization of basic wealth in the hands of foreign capital and domestic monopolies, and the creation of a Mixed Area, a Private Area and a Social Property Area (APS), among several other points. The character of the “Chilean path to socialism” constituted a global novelty, since up to that point there had been no political experience advocating the development of socialism through electoral means. Although the parties grouped in Popular Unity accepted and submitted themselves to the rules of the electoral path, their goal in winning state power was to create a new institutional framework in accordance with socialist principles. Regarding the state and its role, the Popular Unity government program contemplated three characteristics:
A gradual and peaceful transition to socialism Rejection of the notion of the dictatorship of the proletariat as a transitional state form Consolidation of the national character of the branches of the Chilean Armed Forces and their integration into social and economic development tasks
Chilean presidents were allowed a maximum of six years in office, which may explain Allende's haste to restructure the economy. He had a significant restructuring program organized.
At the beginning, there was broad support in Congress to expand the government's already large part of the economy, as the Popular Unity and Christian Democrats together had a clear majority. But the government's efforts to pursue these policies led to strong opposition by landowners, some middle-class sectors, the rightist National Party, financiers, and the Roman Catholic Church (which in 1973 was displeased with the direction of the educational policyCECH – Conferencia Episcopal de Chile [www.iglesiachile.org] ). Eventually the Christian Democrats united with the National Party in Congress.
The Popular Unity coalition itself was far from unanimous. Allende himself said he was committed to democracy and represented a more moderate faction of his Socialist Party. He was supported by the Communist Party, thatdespite being ultimately less committed to representative democracyfavoured a cautious, gradual approach. For example, the Communists urged to find a compromise with the Christian Democrats and supported the application of reforms through Congress. In contrast, the radical leftist wing of the Socialist Party wanted to smash the capitalist system at once, even if that meant violent actions. If one includes smaller parties, Allende's moderate left-wing line was supported by moderate Socialists, Communists, Radicals (Social Democrats merged with that party in June 1972) and part of the MAPU (later: MAPU/OC), whereas the left-wing Socialists (led by Altamirano), the extremist elements of the MAPU, of the Christian Left and the MIR (not belonging to the Unidad Popular) represented the far-left.
Allende believed in peaceful change, arguing that capitalism could be ended in Chile through democratic means. As he noted in a 1972 speech
Allende also saw his government as representing a transition step between capitalism and socialism, stating in a 1973 speech
The land-redistribution that Allende highlighted as one of the central policies of his government had already begun under his predecessor Eduardo Frei Montalva, who had expropriated between one-fifth and one-quarter of all properties liable to takeover. The Allende government's intention was to appropriate all holdings of more than eighty basic irrigated hectares.Faundez, 1988 Allende also intended to improve the socio-economic welfare of Chile's poorest citizens; a key element was to provide employment, either in the new nationalized enterprises or on public works projects.
Towards the end of 1971, Fidel Castro toured Chile extensively during a four-week visit.Castro Speech Data Base – LANIC – Browse Speeches from 1971 This gave credence to the belief of those on the right that "The Chilean Way to Socialism" was an effort to put Chile on the same path as Cuba.
Today, The Chilean Way to Socialism is often associated with the democratic road to socialism, a form of democratic socialism emphasizing representative democracy and the development of an organized working class.
Mixed Area, Private Area and Social Property Area (APS)
According to the parameters established by the government of Salvador Allende, the national economy was to be divided into three areas: the Social Property Area (APS), the Mixed Area and the Private Area. First, the Social Property Area (APS) was to be the dominant sector of the economy, encompassing approximately 200 large monopolistic companies and state-owned enterprises. Second, the Mixed Area included national or foreign private companies with state participation. Third and finally, there was the Private Area, which included a number of small and medium-sized companies. The APS played a crucial role within the government of Salvador Allende, since its objective was to free the country from dependence on foreign capital, orient production to satisfy the needs of the majority of the population, increase employment, control inflation, etc.