Santiago, Chile – Next week marks 50 years since the September 11, 1973 coup d’etat in Chile, led by General Augusto Pinochet in the middle of the Cold War.
One might think that after half a century, there is little left to know about the circumstances surrounding the overthrow of the world’s first democratically elected, Marxist president, Salvador Allende.
But as details continue to emerge about what happened, nothing could be further from the truth.
Much has been written about the 17-year Pinochet dictatorship that followed the coup – especially the tens of thousands of Chileans who were tortured, executed and forcibly disappeared.
We also know that the United States played a role in pushing for Allende’s overthrow and supported Pinochet until he became too much of a liability.
But thanks to one man in particular, we continue to learn more fascinating details about how the coup was hatched, and why: American Peter Kornbluh has been tirelessly working since 1986 to sift through declassified documents detailing US foreign interventions in general, and in Chile in particular.
Article from www.aljazeera.com