Opponents were disappeared - over 3000 of them. Some were executed; others were drugged, tied up and thrown alive from helicopters into the sea. Stadiums became prisons. Torture centres spread across the country. R*pe was used systematically against political prisoners.

From the start, the USA worked to destabilize Allende’s government by cutting credit and funding fuel strikes.

The aim: to “make the economy scream”.

Chile was made ungovernable while the media framed the crisis as Allende’s failure.

#RedHotHistory

On 11 September 1973, the military moved, backed by the CIA. Jets bombed the presidential palace.

Allende died inside La Moneda as the coup took power. They called it suicide.

Augusto Pinochet emerged as head of a new regime. A murderous dictator.

I’ve little time for the elitist gong system. With occasional exceptions, it rewards those already privileged & who reinforce the establishment rather than challenge it. A scattering of minor honours for the underpaid/volunteers is moral camouflage for rewarding compliance & for flattering power.

Then Pinochet and the CIA built a cross-border killing machine, Operation Condor. Intelligence services across South America shared lists of leftists, tracked exiles, kidnapped people abroad, tortured and murdered them.

The message: even peaceful challenges to US power would be met with terror.