Allende - Democratically elected

Now Pinochet is dead, the media have been running the same story non stop on all the channels and in all the news papers. What is interesting is that there is very little mention of Salvador Allende other than “the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende”.

I grew up believing that Allende was a friendly social democratic president, but nothing could be further from the truth. He was fiercely communist and anti democratic, he had no problem ignoring all aspects of the constitution of the day.

As a matter of fact it was ironically Allende himself that politicized Pinochet in the first place to help him against his democratically elected congress. Allende himself violently ignored the constitution and destroyed the economy. Catallarchy had a great piece for last years may day celebration Salvador Allende the Herald of Pinochet that is well worth reading or rereading as useful background material in these days.

The celebrated writer Isabel Allende herself the niece of Salvador Allende describes his rule as

As for the government of Salvador Allende, it wasn’t as innocent as I like to imagine; it suffered from ineptitude, corruption, and pride. In real life, it may not always be easy to distinguish between heroes and villains, but I can assure you that in democratic governments, including that of the Unidad Popular, there was never the cruelty the nation has suffered every time the military intervenes.