Death of Salvador Allende

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Allende's last photograph alive
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Allende's last photograph alive
This article is about the controversy about President Allende's death. For for the successful coup in September 1973 that brought Army Commander-in-Chief Augusto Pinochet to power, see Chilean coup of 1973.

Salvador Allende, President of Chile, died during the Chilean coup of 1973. Since that time, there has been a controversy between supporters and detractors on just how he died. The evidence seems to point to the fact that he committed suicide.

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[edit] Historical event

Allende at shooting practice with his AK-47
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Allende at shooting practice with his AK-47

On September 11, 1973, just prior to the capture by the military of the Palacio de La Moneda (the Presidential Palace), while gunfire and explosions were clearly audible in the background, President Salvador Allende made what would become a famous farewell speech to Chileans on live radio, speaking of himself in the past tense, of his love for Chile and of his deep faith in its future. He stated that his commitment to Chile did not allow him to take an easy way out and be used as a propaganda tool by those he called "traitors" (accepting an offer of safe passage), clearly implying he intended to fight to the end.

Shortly afterwards, Allende was dead. An official announcement declared that he had committed suicide with a machine gun[1], and an autopsy labelled his death as suicide. The weapon purportedly used by Allende to commit suicide was an AK-47 assault rifle given to him as a gift by Fidel Castro[2] and which bore a golden plate engraved "To my good friend Salvador from Fidel, who by different means tries to achieve the same goals."

This explanation is today widely accepted, even by his family and members of his own party, after decades of silence and pointing to the Military. This (now) general acceptance is based on statements given by two doctors from the La Moneda Palace infirmary who witnessed the suicide: Dr. Patricio Guijón, who made a statement at the time, and Dr. José Quiroga[3] who only confirmed it many years later[4].

[edit] Official version of the death

At approximately 13.50 PM, President Allende ordered the defenders of the La Moneda to surrender. The defenders then formed a queue from the second floor, down the stairs and onto the Morande street door. The president went along this queue, from the ground floor up the stairs, shaking hands and thanking everyone personally for their support in that difficult moment. After he finished, he directed himself towards the Independence salon, located in the north-east side of the Palace's second floor.

At the same time, Dr. Patricio Guijón (a member of La Moneda's infirmary staff) decided to return upstairs to recover his gas-mask as a souvenir. He heard a noise, and opened the door of the Independence salon in time to see the president shoot himself with his AK-47 assault rifle. From the other side of the salon and through an open door Dr. José Quiroga[5], Arsenio Poupin, a member of the cabinet, Enrique Huerta, a palace functionary, two detectives from the Presidential security detail, and some GAPs (Presidential Security) were able to see the moment of death, or arrive a few seconds afterwards, attracted by the noise.

[edit] Witnesses

All sources seem to agree that there at least the following witnesses were present:

  • Dr. Patricio Guijón - member of the Presidential Medical Staff - Survived
  • Dr. José Quiroga - member of the Presidential Medical Staff - Survived
  • Arsenio Poupin Oissel - Presidential Assesor and member of the cabinet - Executed few days later
  • Enrique Huerta Corvalán - Palace Intendant - Executed a few days later
  • David Garrido - Detective (Presidential Security Detail) - Survived
  • Ricardo Pincheira - Detective (Presidential Security Detail) - Survived
  • Pablo Manuel Zepeda Camillieri - GAP (Presidential Security) - Survived

Some sources missatribute these statements to "Allende's personal doctor": Dr. Enrique Paris Roa, who was at La Moneda not on his professional role but as a member of Allende's cabinet. He does not appear to have made any such statement and he was executed shortly afterwards.[6]

[edit] Controversy

At the time and for many years after, his supporters nearly uniformly presumed that he was killed by the forces staging the coup. In Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion on September 28, 1973, Fidel Castro told a crowd of 1 million Cubans that Allende had died in La Moneda wrapped in a Chilean flag, firing at the army with Fidel's rifle. Another version says that Allende was killed in combat on the steps outside the Presidential Palace. In public addresses after Allende's death, Fidel Castro continued to promote the story that Allende had died while exchanging gunfire with Chilean troops,[7] but has revealed decades later that he did know, or believed, that Allende had committed suicide.[8] However some supporters still insist that Allende was murdered by Pinochet's military forces while defending the palace.

In recent years, the view he committed suicide has become more accepted, particularly as different testimonies are confirming the details of the suicide in news and documentary interviews.[9] Also, members of Allende's immediate family including his wife, always outspoken, never disputed that it was a suicide.

[edit] Additional information

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Salvador Allende Gossens. Presidencia de la República de Chile. Retrieved on 2006-04-08.
  2. ^ James Whelan, Out of the Ashes: The Life, Death and Transfiguration of Democracy in Chile (Washington: Regnery Gateway, 1989), 511-512 and 519-520.[1]
  3. ^ Eric Pape, Five Degrees of Exile, Los Angeles Times Magazine, 11 July 1999. Reproduced online as part of an archive of Pape's articles, accessed 22 September 2006.
  4. ^ Gonzalez 1988
  5. ^ Patricio Zamorano, Muerte de Allende: los testigos que quedaron fuera de la historia (Spanish), La Opinión Digital, 11 September 2003. Accessed online 22 September 2006.
  6. ^ Anne-Marie O'Connor, Out of the Ashes, Los Angeles Times 22 October 2000. Reproduced onlin on the site of Oberlin College professor Steven S. Volk, accessed 22 September 2006.
  7. ^ http://www.gigfoot.net/lol/facts/2178.html http://www.nationalobserver.net/2001_winter_109.htm
  8. ^ In "Fidel Castro: o: biografía a dos voces (a two-voiced biography), pub. Debate Publishing House ISBN 0307376532, the Cuban president told Ignacio Ramonet that he told Hugo Chávez: "Don't kill yourself, Hugo. Don't do (sic) like Allende, who was a man alone. You have most of the Army on your side. Don't quit, don't resign." [2]
  9. ^ Camus, Ignacio Gonzalez , El dia en que murio Allende ("The day that Allende Died"). Instituto Chileno de Estudios Humanísticos (ICHEH) and Centro de Estudios Sociales (CESOC), 1988. p. 282 and following.

[edit] External links and references

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