“A great black cloud rises from the flaming palace. President Allende dies at his post. The military kills thousands throughout Chile. (…) Señora Pinochet declares that the tears of mothers will redeem the country. Power, all power, is assumed by a military junta of four members, formed in the School of the Americas in Panama. Heading it is General Augusto Pinochet.”
Eduardo Galeano's words outline what happened on September 11, 1973, one of the most deeply engraved dates in the history of Chile, and of Our America. That day, after several hours of siege and bombing of Santiago de Chile's La Moneda Presidential Palace, Chilean President Salvador Allende died under the fire of the coup plotters.
How did Allende die? The Military Junta declared the following day, September 12, 1973, that he had taken his own life.
Like a “glorious dead figure… riddled and ripped to pieces by the machine guns of Chile's soldiers, who had betrayed Chile once more,” wrote Pablo Neruda from his deathbed on September 14.
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