Chile 1970-1973

Written by Critical Moviegoers , Labels: , , viernes, 3 de diciembre de 2010 6:14

By Joaquín Antonio Eguren Álvarez

Machuca is one of the most popular and well-known movies within the Chilean film Industry. It is also part of our history as a nation, part of that violent sad past. In 1970 Chile elected Salvador Allende as its president. Allende was a doctor who strongly believed in the total participation of the state in the development of the country. He was a socialist. But not only a common socialist, he was the first socialist in the history of the world to become president by voting. Unfortunately, the government of the people would not end its period normally. Three years later, a brutal coupe d’etat, led by General Augusto Pinochet took over the control of the country. Before that, Chilean society was already divided. It was easy to find riots in favour or against Allende’s administration. Many of these events are shown in Machuca. In this essay we will discuss who is to blame for this segregation, the government for its revolutionary ideas or the ring-wing party with the help of the U.S.A government? In my vision of this conflict I will say that the division and subsequent fragmentation of Chilean Society during the decade of 1970 was caused by the U.S.A government and its economic system: “Capitalism”.
The nationalization of Copper in 1970, carried out by Allende’s Administration, expelled North American interests. Finally, copper was owned by Chile. One of the consequences that this nationalization brought was the anger of private companies of the U.S.A which were making a profitable businness with Chilean Copper. In addition, those companies, especially Anaconda Copper Company, Kennecott Corporation and Cerro Corporation, started to put pressure on the U.S.A government to intervene in Allende’s Administration. The U.S.A governments supported its companies and initiated a strong campaign against Chilean economy, led by Richard Nixon. Within this campaign one of the measures was to focus on the fragmentation of Chilean society in order to create an atmosphere of instability. Envoys from America came to Chile and started paying huge amounts of money to lorry drivers who supported strikes against Allende’s administration. Those strikes produced an enormous shortage in Chile; people began to believe that they were going to die of starvation. The seeds of fear had been planted in Chilean Society.

The fear of a red united continent: Latin America. In 1959 the Cuban revolution had succeeded together with Fidel Castro, Ernesto “Che Guevara” and Camilo Cienfuegos. Cuba was now recognized as a communist country and it was said by the U.S.A government and press that it was under the control of the U.S.S.R (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). If we check in an atlas, we will find that Cuba is located in the Caribbean and Chile is located near the South Pole of the continent. In 1970 with Allende’s arrival to the Chilean government, the U.S.A government started thinking in a shocking possibility. Cuban and Chilean governments could have influence over Latin America, and many of their closest neighboring countries could follow their governments. Nixon’s administration did not want the creation of what he called “a red Sandwich in Latin America”. In this sandwich, Cuba was in the north and Chile in the South. So, what did the United States do to stop this situation? They started introducing ideas in Chilean military academies and wealthy places in Chile. Everybody who was influenced by these ideas started to divide Chilean Society. They started considering the supporters of the government as foreigners; now in Chile there were two nationalities, one made of Marxists and the other ones composed of Chilean people. Finally, they obtained what they had been plotting; a completely divided society, which was exhibited as one of the causes of the toppling of the government of the people.


All in all, we can say that the U.S.A government and its private companies, which had interests in Chilean resources but not in its people, started a campaign of terror. First, they started to cut the supplies off from Chile, creating an atmosphere of scarcity, later to reinforce that they began a process of loss of prestige of the Chilean Government, first in international conventions and second by introducing those ideas in the parties which were opposed to Allende’s Administration. That wound, which was opened in 1973 and changed the history of our country, is still open and the only way to close it is by recovering our national identity and our national resources. We shall overcome.




Riots in Santiago, Chile 1973.

1 Response to "Chile 1970-1973"

  1. Luz Díaz says:
    3 de diciembre de 2010, 10:35

    Guys, I love your blog, it really is a contribution to Chile and the world!
    Count on me if you want to keep on writing in this blog. You are hardworking and committed, and you will achieve great things in life. Great job!

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