Allende

Salvador Isabelino del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Allende Gossens (Spanish pronunciation: [salβaˈðoɾ aˈʝende ˈɣosens]; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America.[1]

Allende's involvement in Chilean political life spanned a period of nearly forty years. As amember of the Socialist Party, he was a senator, deputy and cabinet minister. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in the 1952, 1958, and 1964 elections. In 1970, he won the presidency in a close three-way race.

He adopted the policy of nationalization of industries and collectivization. Amidst strikes by the far-right Patria y Libertad and CIA opposition under the Nixon administration, protestswere held in Chile against Allende's rule.[2] The Supreme Court criticized Allende for subordination of the judicial system to serve his own political needs; and the Chamber of Deputies formally implored the military to intercede and restore rule of law on August 22, 1973. Less than a month later, on September 11, Allende was deposed[3] by the military, thus ending the Popular Unitygovernment.[4][5] As the armed forces surrounded La Moneda Palace, Allende gave his last speech vowing not to resign,[6] but he was said by the U.S. to have committed suicide later in the day.[7] Another theory is that Allende's Cuban advisors, fearful that Allende would either surrender to the Chilean military or seek asylum in a foreign embassy, murdered him with a machine gun presented to him by FidelCastro.[8]After Allende's ouster, General Augusto Pinochet refrained from returning authority to the civilian government, and Chile became led by a junta.

In late January 2011, a Chilean judge ordered an inquiry into Allende's death.[9]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Early life
* 2 Relationship with the Chilean Communist Party
* 3 Election
* 4 Presidency
* 5 Foreign relationsduring Allende's presidency
* 6 Foreign involvement in Chile during Allende's Presidency
o 6.1 US involvement
o 6.2 Soviet involvement
* 7 Crisis
o 7.1 Supreme Court's resolution
o 7.2 Chamber of Deputies' resolution
o 7.3 President Allende's response
* 8 The coup
o 8.1 Death
* 9 Family
* 10 Allende in popularculture
* 11 See also
* 12 References
* 13 Other sources
* 14 External links

[edit] Early life

Allende was born on June 26, 1908 in Valparaíso.[10] He was the son of Salvador Allende Castro and Laura Gossens Uribe. Allende's family belonged to the Chilean upper class and had a long tradition of political involvement in progressive and liberal causes. His grandfather was aprominent physician and a social reformist who founded one of the first secular schools in Chile.[11] Salvador Allende was of Belgian and Basque[12] descent.

Allende attended high school at the Liceo Eduardo de la Barra in Valparaíso. As a teenager, his main intellectual and political influence came from the shoe-maker Juan De Marchi, an Italian-born anarchist.[11] Allende was a talented athletein his youth, being a member of the Everton de Viña del Mar sports club (named after the more famous English football club of the same name and which regularly competes at the highest level in Chilean football), where he is said to have excelled at the long jump.[13] Allende then graduated with a medical degree in 1926 at the University of Chile.[11]

He co-founded section Socialist Party ofChile (founded in 1933 with Marmaduque Grove and others) in Valparaíso[11] and became its chairman. He married Hortensia Bussi with whom he had three daughters. In 1933, he published his doctoral thesis Higiene Mental y Delincuencia (Crime and Mental Hygiene) in which he criticized Cesare Lombroso's proposals.[14]

In 1938, Allende was in charge of the electoral campaign of the Popular Front...