60 Facts About Salvador Allende

Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973.

Salvador Allende was the first Marxist to be elected president in a liberal democracy in Latin America.

Salvador Allende was elected in a run-off by Congress, as no candidate had gained a majority.

Salvador Allende clashed with the right-wing parties that controlled Congress and with the judiciary.

Later that day, Salvador Allende died by suicide in his office.

Salvador Allende was the son of Salvador Allende Castro and Laura Gossens Uribe.

Salvador Allende's family belonged to the Chilean upper middle class and had a long tradition of political involvement in progressive and liberal causes.

Salvador Allende's grandfather was a prominent physician and a social reformist who founded one of the first secular schools in Chile.

Salvador Allende became the union leader of the Valparaiso doctors, becoming 1st Regional Secretary in Valparaiso.

In 1933 Salvador Allende co-founded with Marmaduque Grove and others a section of the Socialist Party of Chile in Valparaiso and became its chairman.

Salvador Allende married Hortensia Bussi with whom he had three daughters.

Salvador Allende was a Freemason, a member of the Lodge Progreso No 4 in Valparaiso.

In 1938, Salvador Allende was in charge of the electoral campaign of the Popular Front headed by Pedro Aguirre Cerda.

In 1945, Salvador Allende became senator for the Valdivia, Llanquihue, Chiloe, Aisen and Magallanes provinces; then for Tarapaca and Antofagasta in 1953; for Aconcagua and Valparaiso in 1961; and once more for Chiloe, Aisen and Magallanes in 1969.

Salvador Allende became president of the Chilean Senate in 1966.

Salvador Allende was considered part of the moderate wing of the Socialists, with support from the Communists who favored taking power via parliamentary democracy; in contrast, the left-wing of the Socialists and several other far-left parties called for violent insurrection.

Salvador Allende won the 1970 Chilean presidential election as leader of the Unidad Popular coalition.

Salvador Allende assumed the Presidency on 3 November 1970 after signing a Statute of Constitutional Guarantees proposed by the Christian Democrats in return for their support in Congress.

Salvador Allende intended to improve the socio-economic welfare of Chile's poorest citizens; a key element was to provide employment, either in the new nationalized enterprises or on public-work projects.

Price controls were set up, while the Salvador Allende Government introduced a system of distribution networks through various agencies to ensure that shopkeepers adhered to the new rules.

Particularly in rural areas, the Salvador Allende government launched a campaign against illiteracy, while adult education programs expanded, together with educational opportunities for workers.

The Salvador Allende government encouraged more doctors to begin practising in rural and low-income urban areas, and built additional hospitals, maternity clinics, and especially neighborhood health-centers that remained open for longer hours to serve the poor.

The Salvador Allende government sought to bring the arts to the mass of the Chilean population by funding a number of cultural endeavours.

The Salvador Allende Government was able to draw upon the idealism of its supporters, with teams of "Allendistas" travelling into the countryside and shanty towns to perform volunteer work.

The Salvador Allende government worked to transform Chilean popular culture through formal changes to school curriculum and through broader cultural education initiatives, such as state-sponsored music festivals and tours of Chilean folklorists and nueva cancion musicians.

The duration of maternity leave was extended from 6 to 12 weeks, while the Salvador Allende Government steered the educational system towards poorer Chileans by expanding enrollments through government subsidies.

Not only was a major restructuring program organized, he had to make it a success if a socialist or communist successor to Salvador Allende was going to be elected.

The Salvador Allende government announced it would default on debts owed to international creditors and foreign governments.

Salvador Allende undertook the pioneeristic Project Cybersyn, a distributed decision support system for decentralized economic planning, developed by British cybernetics expert Stafford Beer.

Salvador Allende instructed the government to commandeer trucks to keep the nation from coming to a halt.

Salvador Allende's actions were eventually declared unlawful by the Chilean appeals court and the government was ordered to return trucks to their owners.

Salvador Allende raised wages on a number of occasions throughout 1970 and 1971, but the wage hikes were negated by ongoing inflation of Chile's fiat currency.

The Christian Democrats, continued to accuse Salvador Allende of leading Chile toward a Cuban-style dictatorship, and sought to overturn many of his more radical policies.

Salvador Allende began negotiations with Bolivia over the historical dispute between the two countries and welcomed Bolivia's maritime request.

Salvador Allende openly rejected the influence of the Organization of American States, a body close to the US government, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which favored the interests of more developed countries.

Salvador Allende's government was disappointed that it received far less economic assistance from the USSR than it hoped for.

When Salvador Allende visited the USSR in late 1972 in search of more aid and additional lines of credit after 3 years, he was turned down.

The United States opposition to Salvador Allende started several years before he was elected President of Chile.

The possibility of Salvador Allende winning Chile's 1970 election was deemed a disaster by a US administration that wanted to protect US geopolitical interests by preventing the spread of Communism during the Cold War.

Much of the internal opposition to Salvador Allende's policies came from the business sector, and recently released United States government documents confirm that the United States indirectly funded the truck drivers' strike, which exacerbated the already chaotic economic situation before the coup.

The most prominent United States corporations in Chile before Salvador Allende's presidency were the Anaconda and Kennecott copper companies and ITT Corporation, International Telephone and Telegraph.

For instance, Salvador Allende received the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1972.

Salvador Allende is mentioned in a book written by the official historian of the British Intelligence MI5 Christopher Andrew.

For months, Salvador Allende had feared calling upon the Carabineros, suspecting them of disloyalty to his government.

Specifically, the Socialist government of President Salvador Allende was accused of:.

Salvador Allende argued he had obeyed constitutional means for including military men to the cabinet at the service of civic peace and national security, defending republican institutions against insurrection and terrorism.

Salvador Allende further argued that the legislature was usurping the government's executive function.

Salvador Allende concluded by calling upon the workers, all democrats and patriots to join him in defending the Chilean Constitution and the revolutionary process.

In early September 1973, Salvador Allende floated the idea of resolving the constitutional crisis with a plebiscite.

Just before the capture of La Moneda, with gunfire and explosions clearly audible in the background, Salvador Allende gave his farewell speech to Chileans on live radio, speaking of himself in the past tense, of his love for Chile and of his deep faith in its future.

Salvador Allende stated that his commitment to Chile did not allow him to take an easy way out, and he would not be used as a propaganda tool by those he called "traitors", clearly implying he intended to fight to the end.

Shortly afterwards, the coup plotters announced that Salvador Allende had been killed by them.

Salvador Allende was found dead with that gun, according to contemporaneous statements made by officials in the Pinochet regime.

Many Chileans and independent observers refused to accept on faith the government's version of events amid speculation that Salvador Allende had been murdered by government agents.

The ongoing criminal investigation led to a May 2011 court order that Salvador Allende's remains be exhumed and autopsied by an international team of experts.

British ballistics expert David Prayer said Salvador Allende died of two shots fired from an assault rifle that was held between his legs and under his chin and was set to fire automatically.

The definitive and unanimous results produced by the 2011 Chilean judicial investigation appear to have laid to rest decades of nagging suspicions that Salvador Allende might have been assassinated by the Chilean Armed Forces.

Memorials to Salvador Allende include a statue in front of the Palacio de la Moneda.

The broken glasses of Salvador Allende were given to the Chilean National History Museum in 1996 by a woman who had found them in La Moneda in 1973.

Salvador Allende is seen as a significant historical figure in Chile.