British Government Welcomed Chilean Coup : Melbourne Indymedia

The British Government welcomed the 1973 coup in Chile according to documents released by Britain's national archive yesterday.

British ambassador Reginald Seconde wrote a report just three weeks after the September 11 coup took place.

He wrote, "The current regime has infinitely more to offer British interests than the one which preceded it."

"The new leaders are unequivocally on our side and want to do business in its widest sense with us."

He described the military officers in charge of the country as "decent professionals, with no political experience, and little subtlety or idea of public relations."

"Their twin aims are to root out Marxism and to restore order."

"Their instinct will be to do this by disciplinary means and they are likely to be heavy-handed."

Documents relating to the actual day of the coup itself have been withheld, fueling speculation that they contain incriminating evidence about the role countries like the United States played in the coup.

More than 3000 people were killed after the democratically elected Salvador Allende government was overthrown.

Pinochet's regime particularly targeted students, trade unionists and left wing intellectuals. Many were tortured and their bodies dumped in the Pacific Ocean or in the Mopocho River which flows through the Chilean capital of Santiago.

The regime went on to implement an extreme form of neo-liberal economic policy - one which was later emulated by Pinochet's admirers Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

Here is an excerpt from Chris Harman's Book - "A Peoples History of the World." (Bookmarks, London, 1999). It gives some context to the events:

'In Chile the parliamentary Socialist Party was the beneficiary of the new militancy. One of it's leaders, Salvador Allende, was elected president in 1970, and the right wing majority in parliament agreed to him assuming office in return for a constitutional guarantee that he would not disturb the military chain of command.

Important US business interests were not happy at this, and two years into Allende's term of office they were joined by major sections of the Chilean ruling class. There was an attempt to drive him from office in the autumn of 1972 through a 'bosses' strike' spearheaded by lorry owners. It was thwarted by workers seizing their factories and setting up cordones - similar to the workers councils of 1917 and 1956 - to link the factories.

An attempted coup in June 1973 failed due to splits in the armed forces and massive street protests. But the Communist party and main sectors of the Socialist party told people to wind down the cordones and trust in the 'constitutional' traditions of the army. Allende brought generals, including Augusto Pinochet, into his government, believing this would placate the right and maintain order.

In September Pinochet staged a coup, bombarded Allende in the presidential palace and murdered thousands of worker activists. While the workers movement was being lulled to sleep in Europe by it's own leaders, it was drowned in blood in southern Latin America.'