Today is September 11, or 9/11 and we all know what happened on this day.
Where were you when you heard the news? In was sitting with my kids in the caf of a public swimming pool in the Hague , when I saw the footage of a plane flying into a sky-scraper appearing on the screen of tiny television behind the counter. The sound was switched off and it took me a few minutes to work out that this was not the trailer for some new Hollywood disaster movie, but news coverage. Home again, I spent the night watching reports and comments on all channels, and after a few hours it became clear that this was not only the single most horrible and obscene terrorist attack yet to have occurred, but also bound to become the single most seminal political event in recent history. It has, of course, and the implications of the attack on 9/11 are still, four years after ,defining the political climate not only in the Middle-East but also globally.
There is no need to retell the sequence of the actual events of 9/11, as usual there is a very good account on
Wikipedia. Further, there is no need to discuss the political importance of pre-history and aftermath of 9/11 here, AE is full of it. I just leave it here.
On
September 11, 1973 the democratically elected President of Chile, Salvatore Allende, was overthrown in a military coup, led by General Augusto Pinochet.
Salvatore Allende was the first Socialist to be elected President of his country in 1970. He was the leader of the Unidad Popular ( Popular Unity), a coalition of leftish parties that had won the elections with a narrow margin. Immediately he began to implement his program of social reforms, a reform of the welfare, heath and education systems, a land reform, a nationalization of the heavy industry , mainly copper mining, in Chile and the introduction of a new taxation structure that would inconvenience the richer population. Until then Chile had been a very divided and oligarchic society, with a small class of wealthy ruling over the vast majority of poor and exploited workers and small farmers. Allende proved naturally extremely popular with the poorer population, whilst the formerly privileged rather opposed his policies. Something they shared with the US-American government, that not only saw the interests of American corporations in Chile endangered, but also regarded Allendes government as the first step in a development that would introduce Communism in South-America, something that by the doctrines of US-American politics could not be tolerated.
President Salvatore Allende
Chiles economic dependency on Copper production and the collapse of copper prices on the world markets in the early 70s meant the introduced reforms caused no immediate improvement in the living standards of the Chilean population, especially the wealthy and middle-classes witnessed a significant drop. Nevertheless at the elections of 1973 Allendes Unidad Popular could incease its share.
It was no surprise however, that the conservative opposition made numerous efforts to bring down Allendes government, but all the demonstrations, strikes and a failed coup in June 73 did not have the desired effect. The US-American government under Nixon, in the meantime did everything it could to contribute to Allendes troubles. It tried to isolate the Chilean government, both politically and economically, and openly supported the opposition. It has never been disclosed how far this support went, how far, for example, the CIA was involved in the events that occurred next.
On September 11, 1973, the Presidential palace in Santiago was surrounded by units of the Chilean army, by nature a conservative and influential element of Chilean politics. The palace was stormed in the early hours of the morning, and Salvatore Allende was found dead inside the building. If he was killed, as his supporters have claimed, or if he committed as the army has, has never been conclusively proven. The very same day, a military junta, led by General Augusto Pinochet, assumed power and quickly crashed all resistance. Many of Allendes supporters were famously imprisoned in Santiagos football stadium, later to be tortured and killed, amongst them Victor Jara, Chiles most popular singer and poet, whose songs later became hymns of the resistance against the junta.
Augusto Pinochet and his friendly neighbourhood junta
Pinochet ruled Chile with the common brutality of a South-American military dictator, enjoying the equally common support of the American government for his undemocratic regime. The number of Chilean murdered or having disappeared is disputed, probably around 5000, the number of people having been imprisoned and tortured is estimated to be 30.000, and an even higher number escaped the regime and found exile in South-America and Europe.
Pinochet remained President until 1990, and for a few more years after that the eminence grise of Chilean politics. In 1998, during a visit to the UK, where he had cultivated good relations with the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher, he was arrested due to an international warrant issued by the Spanish authorities. He was put under house arrests for two years, but the request for his extradition was declined due to health reasons, and he was returned to Chile.
After a long legal debate he was finally put on trail in Santiago in 2004, but his failing health will probably mean that he will never be punished for the crimes committed on his orders as the head of the junta.
What else happened on this day?
It was rather intrigued by this entry in Wikipedia:
1777 Battle of Brandywine .
I had always thought that this battle happened in the year 3019 in the Third Age, when Frodo and his hobbit friends returned to the shire and defeated Sarumans stooges. Can anybody clarify this?
Brandywine River
Full list:
Wikipedia
Edited by Komnenos