2023-08-26 21:51:14
The US government has declassified and published portions of two daily reports by President Richard Nixon relating to Chile from September 1973, just before the coup in which Augusto Pinochet overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende.
In the first, dated September 8 of that year, Nixon’s advisers (who was president of the United States from 1969 to 1974), warn about a “possible coup attempt” in the Latin American country, while in the second, on September 11, they report that several “key military units” support the attempt.
In a statement, the US State Department assured that the declassification this Friday demonstrates its “continued commitment” to the relationship between the US and Chile.
The government of Gabriel Boric immediately thanked the publication of these documents because “it promotes the search for the truth.”
Augusto Pinochet (left) and Salvador Allende, in an act in August 1973, days before the coup in Chile. Photo: AP
“Along with thousands of previously declassified documents, today’s release demonstrates our enduring commitment to the US-Chile partnership, which is consistent with our efforts to promote democracy and human rights in our own countries and around the world. “Reported the Washington embassy in Santiago, citing the White House spokeswoman.
“Document declassification is a complex, multi-agency process in which the United States government takes into account numerous factors, including national security, source protection and methodology, and other risks and benefits that come with the disclosure of specific information,” the text detailed.
“We remain committed to working with our Chilean partners to try to identify additional sources of information in order to increase our awareness of high-impact events that have occurred throughout our shared history and further strengthen the important relationship between our two countries.” complete.
Washington’s role
Sectors of the Chilean left have denounced the intervention of the United States in the coup in Chile for 50 years, as corroborated by documents declassified a few years ago by the CIA.
In 2016, the then US President, Barack Obama (2009-2017), ordered the declassification of documents related to different episodes in Latin American history, such as the 1976 attack against Chilean politician Orlando Letelier in Washington, or the “dirty war” of the last Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983).
US President Richard Nixon waves as he leaves the White House in a helicopter, in a picture from 1974. Photo: AP
In the presidential report of September 8, declassified this Friday, Nixon’s advisers detail that the then president of Chile, Salvador Allende, considers that his followers They do not have enough weapons to face the Army, and that the only possible solution is political.
Allende “is concerned about the pressure from the opposition and, especially, about the Army’s intentions.”
On September 11, the day of the coup, US intelligence services warned of the support of key sectors of the Army for the attempt, but they warned that the military might not have “an effective and coordinated plan to take advantage of the widespread civil opposition” to the Chilean government.
Meanwhile, “President Allende, for his part, still has hopes that postponing a decision will avoid the conflict,” the document reads.
On the afternoon of that day, the socialist president committed suicide, beginning Pinochet’s dictatorship, which lasted 17 years and left more than 3,000 political opponents dead or missing.
Despite the fact that there is no evidence of direct involvement by Nixon in the coup, thousands of documents that have been declassified since Bill Clinton’s tenure (1993-2001) have shown the deep hostility of Nixon and his right-hand man Henry Kissinger towards Allende since before he took office, in addition to the fact that the CIA supported and financed groups to destabilize the Executive.
A portrait of Salvador Allende, during a march to remember Augusto Pinochet’s military coup in Chile. Photo: AP
The declassification of US documents on the dictatorship in Chile is a historical demand of the Latin American country.
Incognitos
At the beginning of August, the Chilean ambassador in Washington, Juan Gabriel Valdés, told EFE: “We still do not know what President Richard Nixon saw on his desk on the morning of the military coup and how he was informed that the military coup had happened.”
The veteran diplomat defended that there are still many unknowns, since several published documents still show fragments crossed out in blacksuch as those exhibited in the Museum of Memory in Santiago de Chile.
“We want to see it and be able to read it to find out exactly what was going on in the heads of those who ruled the United States at that time,” he explained.
The United States noted that this declassification is taking place “in response to a request from the Chilean government and to allow for a deeper understanding of the history” that the two countries share.
“We remain committed to working with our Chilean partners to try to identify additional sources of information to increase our awareness of high-impact events that have occurred throughout history that we share and further strengthen the important relationship” bilateral, concluded his message.
Source: EFE
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