Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende was the first Marxist elected president anywhere in a free vote, and was overthrown three years later. Born in Valparaíso in 1908 into a middle-class family of Radical Party politicians, he qualified as a doctor, wrote a thesis on mental illness and crime, and helped found the Chilean Socialist Party in 1933. He was minister of health in 1939 and introduced significant welfare legislation. He ran for president in 1952, 1958 and 1964 and lost each time, narrowly in 1958. He won in September 1970 with 36.6 per cent, a plurality in a three-way race, and was confirmed by Congress after agreeing to a statute guaranteeing constitutional liberties. His programme was to reach socialism by legal means. He nationalised copper — unanimously, including the right's votes — along with banks and large firms, accelerated land reform, raised wages and froze prices, and distributed free milk to children. The first year produced growth and popularity. The second produced inflation above 140 per cent, shortages, black markets and a strike by lorry owners that paralysed distribution. The United States, under Nixon and Kissinger, had tried to prevent his inauguration, funded the opposition and press, and squeezed credit — Nixon's instruction was to make the economy scream. The army moved on 11 September 1973 under Augusto Pinochet. Allende refused safe conduct, broadcast a final address from La Moneda as it was bombed, and shot himself with a rifle Castro had given him. Some three thousand people were killed or disappeared under the dictatorship that followed.
- Lived: 1908 CE – 1973 CE
- Nationality: Chilean
- Roles: head_of_state, politician
