Is it raining in Santiago?
In previous articles (first, second) was told about how Salvador Allende became president, and Augusto Pinochet became a general. On the reforms of the Allende government, sanctions and sabotage. And also about the revolt of El Tanquetazo. Today we will continue this story and talk about the tragic events that took place in this country on September 11, 1973.
"It's raining in Santiago"?
This famous phrase, which allegedly served as a signal for the beginning of the rebellion, is not mentioned in foreign sources, but is extremely popular throughout the post-Soviet space. The reason is simple: that was the title of a film by Chilean director Elvio Soto, filmed in 1976 in Bulgaria with French participation.
Shot from the movie "It's raining in Santiago"
The most curious thing is that in the film this phrase serves as a password just for the supporters of President Allende - this is how they inform everyone about the beginning of the rebellion. In fact, this phrase, most likely, was simply invented by the screenwriters of this film, however, the conspiracy and military coup on September 11, 1973 in Chile were very real and very bloody.
Preparations for the coup were carried out under the guise of military maneuver planning. fleet - joint with American warships. In 1998, the US National Security Agency declassified a number of documents relating to the "FUBELT project", from which it became clear that CIA agents participated not only in measures to destabilize the situation in Chile, but also in the preparation of the putsch on September 11, 1973. According to various sources, the Americans spent from 6,5 to 8 million dollars.
At 4 am on September 11, the commanders of military garrisons throughout Chile, in response to requests from the Ministry of Defense, announced their readiness to follow orders. The alarmed soldiers began to leave the barracks. About half past seven, Allende was informed that naval sailors were taking control of the port of Valparaiso. His attempts to contact Pinochet and the commanders of all branches of the military were unsuccessful. And at 7 o'clock in the morning, army units entered almost all more or less large and significant cities of the country. The headquarters of the socialist and communist parties were taken by storm.
One of the streets of Santiago, September 11, 1973
At about half past seven in the morning, Allende arrived at the presidential residence, La Moneda Palace, located in the center of Santiago. Here he recorded his first radio address to the Chilean people. And for 8 hours, the rebels had occupied the ministry building, located next to the La Moneda Palace. At around 8:20 a.m., Allende was contacted by his assistant, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert Sanchez. He told him that the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Gabriel von Chauvin, was offering a plane that would take the president to any country in the world. Allende replied:
"Tell von Chauvin that the President of Chile is not going anywhere."
By the way, Allende until the last minute did not doubt Pinochet's loyalty and believed that he was arrested by the rebels.
At half past eight, the opposition radio station Radio Agricultura was the first to inform everyone about the military coup, demanding the resignation of Allende.
Around 9 o'clock, the Marines took full control of the port of Valparaiso. It was around this time that Allende made his final radio address to the nation. And at 9:45 a.m., the police and carabinieri guarding it left the presidential residence. Now the palace was defended only by the civilian supporters of Allende, who had at their disposal only light infantry weapon. Among them were 10 women, including Allende's three daughters. By 10 o'clock in the morning, the presidential palace was surrounded by rebellious army units, commanded by General Javier Palacios.
Positions of the rebels in front of the presidential palace
About half past 11 Tanks fired several demonstrative shots.
In this shot from the Soviet film Centaurs (1978), the president of a fictional Latin American country, Allende's "doppelgänger", fights off General Pina's rebels by firing RPG-7s at tanks:
In fact, Allende looked less heroic then:
Salvador Allende September 11, 1973, last photo of the President
However, this small man, not at all like a superman, behaved very worthily - not like the coward Yanukovych.
After the start of the shelling of the palace from tank guns, Allende demanded that the rebels allow the women to leave - they left at about 10 hours and 50 minutes. Immediately afterwards, the rebels issued an ultimatum for unconditional surrender within 5 minutes. Having received a refusal, at 11 o'clock an order was given to start shelling the palace. Its defenders, including Allende himself, responded with small arms fire.
Presidential Palace of La Moneda 11 September 1973
Then it was even more interesting: at 11:55, La Moneda was attacked by two Hawker Hunter fighters, which fired 18 missiles at the palace. Their impact caused the collapse of the ceiling and a fire. Allende was then injured by broken glass. At about 13 pm, he shot himself with an AK-47 assault rifle given to him by Castro. Streets in the USSR and in some European countries will be named after Allende, he will become the hero of books, films, in 2000 his monument will appear next to the presidential palace of La Moneda.
Monument to Allende in Santiago
Pinochet, "having won the battle", unconditionally lost the "war for Chile".
Pinochet with his adjutants, 1973
But let's go back to September 11, 1973 and see that after Allende's suicide, the surviving defenders of the La Moneda palace left it at about half past two with a white flag in their hands.
Arrest of Allende supporters
The hatred of the rebels for Allende was so great that they "shot" the discovered body of the deceased president.
Now there has been an official announcement that Chile is now headed by a military junta, which, in addition to Pinochet, included the commander of the Navy, Admiral José Toribio Merino, the commander of the Air Force, General Gustavo Li, and the acting director of the Carabinieri Corps, General Cesar Mendoza.
Cesar Mendoza, Jose Toribio Merino, Augusto Pinochet and Gustavo Lee
I must say that Pinochet very quickly got rid of his "co-rulers" and became the sole dictator. Gustavo Lee and Merino were fired, and Bonilla died in a plane crash that many consider to be no accident. In 1974, a law was passed in Chile, according to which Pinochet was declared "the supreme bearer of power." He now had the power to impose a state of siege, approve or repeal any laws and regulations, remove and appoint judges.
The putschists justified their actions "desire to prevent civil warand protect Chile fromMarxist threat". Even the centrist Christian Democratic Party, which supported the September 11, 1973 coup, was banned in 1974 (at the initiative of Pablo Rodriguez, the founder of the far-right Motherland and Freedom movement).
To combat political opponents, the National Intelligence Directorate (Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, DINA) was created, which both in Chile and abroad was compared to the Gestapo. Incidentally, former SS Colonel Walter Rauff served in this Directorate, who during the Second World War commanded a detachment of mobile gas chambers in the eastern occupied territories and was involved in the murder of 100 people.
The terror unleashed by the junta was called "temporary tightening of the regime" necessary for "reassurance","putting things in order", economic and political "recovery". During the reign of Pinochet DINA, hundreds of thousands of people were arrested, and it must be said that the Chilean junta managed to shock the whole world with its bestial cruelty and a huge number of victims. The death toll is still debated. On October 8, 1973, American journalist John Barnes published an article in Newsweek stating that 14 corpses with signs of violent death were delivered to the Santiago Central Morgue alone in the first 2796 days after the coup. It should be noted that not only the military or the police were killed then, but also activists of right-wing parties and latifundists returning to their lands. The exact number of their victims is unknown.
What is the total number of victims of the September 11, 1973 coup? Some researchers talk about 30 thousand people. By August 2011, a special commission headed by Bishop Sergio Valeche had documented the identity of 3065 victims of terror, and the number of political prisoners was 40 (with a population of 018 million people). However, many people are still missing, and this list is not final. The number of people subjected to torture is determined at 10,2 thousand people: some of them died, most of them went to prison, and only a few managed to get free. About a million Chileans - 38% of the total population - fled the country, including 10% of Chilean Jews.
The Left Revolutionary Movement (MIR), founded in 1964, suffered the greatest losses: 92% of its members either died or were arrested during the first days after the putsch.
Immediately after the coup, a network of filtration camps was created, where everyone suspected of sympathizing with the Allende government was taken. Often, city stadiums were used for these purposes. The prisoners were also housed in the huge sports complex of Santiago, part of which is the Nacional de Chile football stadium, where the country's football team played its home games since 1939, and in 1962 the final match of the World Cup took place. In the same year, the national team of this country won the match for 3rd place here. Currently, Nacional continues to be the home stadium for the national team and is the base of the Universidad de Chile club. In addition to the stadium, this sports complex includes a velodrome, tennis courts, swimming pools and a large gymnasium. During the tragic events of the autumn of 1973, the arrested men were kept in the under-tribune premises of the stadium, women - in the changing rooms of the swimming pool and adjacent buildings, interrogations were carried out at the velodrome. The football field and stands were used only for temporary accommodation.
Nacional de Chile, September 1973
Under-tribune premises
According to some reports, this complex finally ceased to be used as a filtration camp only on November 9 - 2 weeks before the FIFA-appointed match between the USSR and Chile national football teams (the return play-off match of the 1974 World Cup qualifying tournament). The Soviet Union severed relations with Chile on September 22 - 4 days before the first match, which took place in Moscow (and ended in a goalless draw). Meanwhile, it was quite realistic to agree on two matches on neutral fields. Moreover, Pinochet, fearing that many players would wish to stay in the USSR, did not want to send the Chilean national team to the first game (maybe the Soviet officials were counting on this?). But time was lost, and the demand of Soviet party and sports officials to transfer the second match to a neutral field was frankly unfair to the Chilean team. Moreover, in the same November 1973, before the alleged meeting with the USSR national team, games were held at this stadium with teams from Peru (November 14) and Argentina (November 18), whose federations did not raise any objections.
A poster showing the schedule of football matches at the Nacional de Chile stadium in November 1973, showing the prices of entrance tickets
The FIFA leadership showed integrity, which was so lacking in 2022 for Infantino, who followed the lead of the Polish federation, which refused to send his team to the match against the Russians. At the appointed time, the Chilean national team entered the field, brought the ball to an empty net with a reshuffle, and captain Francisco Valdez sent it into the net. The referee then blew the final whistle. None of this was actually required: according to the regulations, the USSR national team was credited with a technical defeat. The Soviet Football Federation was fined 5 Swiss francs and had to pay the costs of the Chilean national team related to its trip to Moscow.
Knowing that there would be no match with the USSR national team, the Chilean authorities invited the famous Santos club from Brazil. The Brazilians did not look for political prisoners on the lawn and stands of Nacional de Chile: they took the field and “rolled out” the local team with a score of 5:0, perhaps expressing their attitude towards Pinochet and the Junta in this way - it’s a pity that such an opportunity failed to take advantage of the Soviet players.
Let us return to the tragic events of September 1973. One of the priests who confessed the prisoners of the Santiago sports complex was a certain “Father Juan”, who turned out to be Jan Skavronek, a Pole sentenced to death in his homeland for participating in the massacres of Jews and local anti-fascists. At the same time, among the prisoners there were 4 Belgian Catholic priests who tried to stand up for children beaten by soldiers in one of the poor quarters of Santiago.
By the way, during the first month after the coup in Chile, 60 local priests were arrested, 12 of them were shot.
Some claim that between 50 and 250 people were shot daily in the Santiago sports complex alone, but this, of course, is a big exaggeration. At present, the identity of 38 people shot here has been precisely established (but there are also nameless victims). One of them is the famous singer, poet, director and active member of the communist party Victor Jara (his body with broken arms and 34 bullets was thrown on one of the streets of Santiago, but later the circumstances of death were precisely established).
Victor Jara
Let us note that the executions took place not on the football field, but in office premises. The reasons for the arrests then were sometimes the most ridiculous. Architect Maria Elena, for example, got to this stadium because her collection of coins included the Soviet ruble. And some women were suspected of "leftist views" and taken to the stadium because they were wearing trousers. In addition to the Chileans, there were also citizens of other states in this stadium, for example, two American students, one of whom, Frank Teruji, was shot.
During the coup, Allende's close friend Pablo Neruda, a Nobel Prize winner in literature, died. His death is shrouded in mystery, officially it was believed that he died of natural causes, but in 2015 the Chilean authorities reported that Neruda could have been poisoned. However, there is still no convincing evidence of poisoning. It is quite possible that the already elderly poet really died of a myocardial infarction or acute heart failure against the background of a nervous shock experienced during these days.
Pablo Neruda
At the same time, the world-famous Chilean anthropologist, ethnographer and medical doctor Alejandro Lipshütz, who was 90 years old, died without surviving the destruction of his house and the actual destruction of the library.
Alfanso Asenjo, one of the best neurosurgeons not only in Chile, but in all of Latin America, was suspended from work and also placed under house arrest. After his release, he chose to emigrate to Israel.
Denunciations were encouraged, and the small town of Chuquicamata in Chile was later named "cradle of informers”: 90 children and adolescents in it were reported to their parents.
It is curious that in many countries of modern Europe, children calmly report the "oppression" of their parents, and no one considers them "snitches". In Sweden, for example, the requirement to do homework is called "psychological abuse» over the child. And please clean your room - "coercion to excessive physical labor».
But back to Chile during the junta.
The methods of "working with the population" can be judged from the episode associated with a visit by Pinochet at the end of 1973 to the village of Quinta Bella. The dictator wished to attend the ceremony of renaming this settlement to Buin (this is the name of the Chilean regiment). To ensure the safety of the head of the junta, 5 thousand residents of the village were driven to the football field, 30 of them were shot, 170 people were taken hostage. They were released only after the departure of Pinochet.
Universities are now headed by career officers - almost according to Griboyedov: "Sergeant Major in Voltaire Ladies"Do you remember? For example, General Dalyeu became the rector of the capital's university.
Even more absurd was the situation in the Central Psychiatric Hospital of Santiago, whose chief physician was Claudio Molina, who had previously been treated in this clinic for alcoholism and schizophrenia. Molina ordered the execution of 5 doctors and fired several dozen employees. Some of them were later arrested.
Sometimes there are disputes whether it is possible to call Pinochet's regime fascist? But the foreign minister of the junta, Admiral Ismael Huerta, at the Pan-American meeting in Mexico in 1974, did not hesitate to say:
“I don’t know what is meant by the word ‘fascism’ today. When I was young, I visited Europe, and there this expression was applied to powerful, strong, able to lead governments. If this expression is applied to us because we are a strong government, then we are fascists.”
The general secretary of the Communist Party of Chile, well-known in the USSR, Luis Corvalan, went underground on September 11, 1973, but was arrested on September 27. December 18, 1976 he was exchanged for the dissident V. Bukovsky.
Luis Corvalan with his wife at the Moscow airport. December 27, 1976
After three plastic surgeries, the leader of the Chilean communists returned to his homeland and spent 6 years in an illegal position. You can be sure that in the event of an arrest, Corvalan would have been shot, and, most likely, without trial or investigation. And therefore, his courage, no matter how one relates to his views, cannot but arouse sincere admiration. Luis Corvalan died on July 21, 2010 in Santiago.
In the next article, we will talk about the Chilean reforms according to Friedman's recipes and "at gunpoint", their consequences and the armed struggle of the left parties.
Information