"If I had been able to
read between the lines, I could have concluded that Salvador Allende’s
government was doomed from the beginning. It was the time of the Cold War,
and the United States would not allow a leftist experiment to succeed in what
Henry Kissinger called “its backyard.” The Cuban Revolution was enough; no
other socialist project would be tolerated, even if it was the result of a
democratic election. On September 11, 1973, a military coup8
ended a century of democratic tradition in Chile and started the long reign of
General Augusto Pinochet. Similar coups followed in other countries, and soon
half the continent’s population was living in terror. This was a strategy
designed in Washington and imposed upon the Latin American people by the
economic and political forces of the right. In every instance the military acted
as mercenaries to the privileged groups in power. Repression was organized on
a large scale; torture, concentration camps, censorship, imprisonment without
trial, and summary executions became common practices."