This Day in History

Sept. 11, 1973: U.S.-Backed Coup in Chile

Time Periods: 1961
Themes: Imperialism, Latinx, US Foreign Policy, World History/Global Studies
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On Sept. 11, 1973 a U.S.-backed coup in Chile, led by General Augusto Pinochet, ousted and led to the death of Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende. What followed was a brutal, 17-year dictatorship by Pinochet.

Salvador Allende

Listen to author Ariel Dorfman describe those events in a Democracy Now! interview and an interview with an Allende advisor.

Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, Chile.

For more 9/11 anniversaries, watch “A Fateful Day: 9/11 Also Marks Important Anniversaries in India, Guatemala, Haiti and Attica, NY” on Democracy Now!

Related Resources
Articles

The Overthrow of Democracy in Chile — A Timeline

Article. Timeline by Bill Bigelow. 2023.
A timeline of the overthrow of democracy in Chile — the fall of Salvador Allende and the rise of Augusto Pinochet.

Articles

Disguising Imperialism: How Textbooks Get the Cold War Wrong and Dupe Students

Article. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. If We Knew Our History series.
Too often, when it comes to U.S. Cold War interventions, the official curriculum is sanitized and disjointed, leaving students ill-equipped to make sense out of their nation’s global bullying.

 

Film Clips

Rethinking the Economy: Ideas from Chilean Economist Manfred Max-Neef

Film clip. 2010.
Democracy Now! Interview with people’s economist Manfred Max-Neef on September 22, 2010.

Books: Non-Fiction

Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq

Book — Non-fiction. By Stephen Kinzer. 2007. 416 pages.
A history of U.S. government supported (often initiated) regime change around the world.

News

Henry Kissinger Is No Friend of Humanity

Did you see the Democratic debate last night? Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger became a point of contention. We can take this opportunity to introduce students to Kissinger. It was Kissinger who famously called anti-Vietnam War activist and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg “the most dangerous man in America.”

This Day in History

Sept. 11, 1990: Murder of Myrna Mack

Anthropologist Myrna Mack Chang was murdered in Guatemala by the U.S.-backed military due to her outspoken criticism of the Guatemala government’s treatment of the indigenous Maya. 

Films

Sept. 11, 2001: Orlando and Phyllis Rodriguez: “Not In Our Son’s Name”

Orlando and Phyllis Rodriguez spoke out against using September 11, 2001 as a pretext for war.