In a cable sent shortly after the killings, an FBI officer wrote: 'Operation Condor is the code name for the collection, exchange and storage of intelligence data concerning leftists, communists and Marxists which was recently established between the cooperating services in South America.' The note went on to mention 'a more secret phase' of Condor, which 'involves the formation of special teams from member countries who are to travel anywhere in the world to carry out sanctions, [including] assassinations.'
- Giles Tremlett, correspondent and author based in Madrid, Spain
Upon being informed of the inauguration of Salvador Allende, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were far from pleased, leading to the initiation of a multi-front economic war against Chile: the "Invisible Blockade"
The U.S. sold assets such as strategic copper reserves (248,000 short tons), bribed strategic persons/organizations, funded worker strikes, and spread propaganda in an effort to tank the Chilean economy.
[During] Allende’s presidency, demand outstripped supply, the economy shrank, deficit spending snowballed, new investments and foreign exchange became scarce, shortages appeared, and inflation reached an annual rate of more than 600%. By mid-1973, the economy and the government were paralyzed.
-Los Angeles Times, 2020
Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger [Credit: The New York (NY) Times]
Some claim the economy's poor performance was due to CIA money being provided to the country's main trucker union for them to strike. There are also claims that other money went to strategic sectors of the economy in order to buy allegiance against Allende.
- J.C. Scull, international researcher and journalist on Latin America
Transcription of Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms's handwritten notes of a conversation with Richard Nixon:
The United States must respect the rights of the people to develop the economy the way it should be and they want it to be.
- Chilean President Salvador Allende
DCI Richard Helms's handwritten notes of a conversation with Richard Nixon [Credit:National Security Archive]
After the failed attempts of the CIA to interact with the Chilean economy, the message to the U.S. became crystal clear: the U.S. needed to take control of Chile, thus beginning small prods in the military that would eventually begin a cascade of coups known as Operation Condor.
The CIA gave me $250,000 to help us get rid of Schneider.
-Colonel Paul Wimert, U.S. Embassy Santiago
The CIA was not far behind. General René Schneider, the popular army commander who defended Allende's constitutional rights, had to be removed from his post.
-The Battle of Chile documentary
Pinochet with his soldiers [Credit: The Economist]
It is a firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup.
- Declaration in a National Archives CIA file
The CIA quickly mobilized to make plans for a coup d'état and install right-wing Chilean General Augusto Pinochet and other right-wing military leaders.
Nixon and Kissinger’s concern was what they called the ‘Red Sandwich.’ Cuba was a communist country and the communists were trying to take over Chile - not by revolution but by an election. There was so much concern in the White House, especially when Allende won the election with 39% of the vote. The Nixon administration sent out instructions to our office [the CIA] to try and stop that from happening via a military coup.
- Jack Devine, Former Director of the Latin American Division of the CIA
Kissenger sent out a notice saying… help the opposition as much as possible to resist communists from taking over the country. This could be through propaganda, organized demonstrations, anything through the media to oppose the party.
- Jack Devine, Former Director of the Latin American Division of the CIA
On September 11, 1973, the La Moneda Presidential Palace was bombed by the CIA-backed Chilean Air Force, killing Allende. Official reports claimed it was a suicide, though it was largely believed he was executed with an AK-47.
I was in Santiago when [the coup] happened. From my house I heard the broadcast from President Allende, I recorded it on my [tape recorder] actually. My friends and I took a 40-minute walk into the area of town that we knew would still be controlled by the Allende government which was the working class area thinking that there would be resistance to the coup here. It was clear that the people were evacuating the factories and workers that we talked to said they didn’t have weapons, they couldn’t resist, people were going home.
We saw military trucks going by with soldiers in them. We thought the wise thing to do was to turn around and go back home. We went up on the balcony of the house and looked into the center of town and the bombing started. We could see the smoke from the burning palace from our house.
- John Dinges, Oppositional Journalist in Chile under the Pinochet regime
Chile's democratically-elected left-wing President, Salvador Allende, is overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the Chilean military. The presidential palace, known as La Moneda, is bombed repeatedly. By the end of the day, Allende is dead and Augusto Pinochet appoints himself President.
- Museum of Latin American Art
(Above) Bombing of La Moneda [Credit: NY Times]