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Bloodbath In Chile: A Background Perspective

By VVAW

As the smoke gradually clears from the Sept. 11th coup in Chile, the direct involvement of the U.S. government has become increasingly obvious. No matter how loudly the State Dept. screams about how they had nothing to do with the coup, even the casual observer is able to not the stamp "Made in U.S.A." on the face of the junta now in power.

The reasoning behind the U.S. decision to topple the Allende government was obvious. With some $1 billion in U.S. investments in Chile threatened with Allende's program of socialization and nationalization, investments that had earned a profit ten times the initial value, the U.S. clearly had a lot to lose financially.

The U.S. knew Allende inherited the largest per-capita foreign debt in the world when he took office. Thus, it proceeded to see that Chile could not get any credit to remedy the situation. The industrial world lives on credit, with debts or raw materials paid for with the income of the products they produce. The U.S. also forced private banks to cut back 85% of the aid they were then giving Chile. As a result of this, Chile's short term credit floats from $220 million to $35 million in 1971-72 alone. The U.S., in conjunction with the two largest U.S. investors in Chile, (Anaconda Copper and Kennecott Copper) forced the world price of copper down 20%. As Chile's primary source of income is copper, this was disastrous. There is no mystery as to why companies like Kennecott wanted to get back "their" copper mines in Chile so badly. In one year alone, 1969, Kennecott made an incredible 205% profit on its total investment in Chile!

There is no disputing the fact that when Allende took over, the economy was an absolute mess. But the economic chaos of Chile's last two years came from the combined assault of U.S. business, the CIA and their middlemen in the Chilean elite. They did all they could to sabotage economic stability. In rural areas crops were burned and fields left unseeded, cattle were slaughtered or shipped to Argentina. The Chilean rich tried to starve the poor Chileans into dislike of the Allende government. Then, for perhaps the first time in modern history, the owners of society went on strike against the workers. Merchants, business men, professionals, owners of small trucking companies, all repeatedly shut down in an attempt to topple the government.

ITT is a classic example of the sabotage directed at Allende's government. In a 1970 memo to the CIA, ITT offered $1 million to see that Allende never assumed office. With $200 million invested in Chile, ITT certainly had a lot to lose with nationalization. ITT wrote to Washington that a "realistic hope among those who want to block Allende is that the swiftly deteriorating economy will touch off a wave of violence resulting in a military coup."

On various occasions in the past 20 years, the U.S. has employed "coup teams" as one of its main weapons in combating strong anti-imperialist governments. These teams are composed of CIA operatives with expertise in overthrowing governments. Coup teams were employed in overthrowing the governments of Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, the Congo in 1961, South Vietnam in 1963, Brazil in 1964, Indonesia in 1965, Bolivia in 1971, and Uruguay in 1973. As Jack Anderson revealed in March of 1972, Nathan Davis (the Ambassador to Chile and Chile's former "Peace Corps" director) sent a memo to the White House proposing a plot designed to "create discontent so great that military intervention is overwhelmingly invited." Clearly the coup team of at least 10 clearly identified CIA agents in Chile did just that. The names of the faceless little men that produced the debacle in Chile, crop up in similar situations of political intrigue and right wing coups with the grim regularity of a smallpox epidemic. It was not coincidence that Ambassador Davis flew to the White House for consultation four days before the coup. Nor was it a coincidence that four U.S. Navy ships were steaming into Valpariso harbor the very day the coup began.

Chile is the perfect example of the new Nixon-Kissinger "low profile" strategy. Vietnam taught them that they must find new, "cleaner" ways of intervening in the affairs of other countries. Open armed force would only have the same negative results it did in Vietnam. In the case of Chile, however, we can see where an arms-length strangulation of the Chilean economy, coupled with the precision maneuvering of the CIA worked very successfully. This low profile strategy against underdeveloped countries trying to liberate themselves from the clutches of imperialism imposes an invisible economic blockade on them. Allende had said of this: "We are having to face forces that operate in the half-light, that fight with powerful weapons, but that fly no identifying flag and are entrenched in the most varied centers of influence...." These "legitimate" maneuverings are a new and subtle form of warfare that capitalizes on underdeveloped countries' need to pay off their past debts and their dependency on a limited number of exports. Chile was a vulnerable victim. In the end, all the U.S. needed was the Chilean military to actually do the killing for it -- a military that had been trained and funded by the U.S.

The present conditions in Chile can only be described as reminiscent of Nazi Germany during the 1930s The operation to seize the presidential palace and take Santiago was aptly named Plan Djakarta after the massacre of one million Indonesian leftists in 1965. The intent was a planned war of extermination. Thousands of Chileans have already been summarily executed or killed in fighting. Thousands more are suffering imprisonment and the most barbaric tortures imagineable at the hands of the Junta. One of the largest factories in Chile was bombed with over 500 workers killed. Working class housing areas have also been bombed, their inhabitants rounded up and summarily executed. And on it goes. Books are burned, people are forced to turn in their neighbors to the police. City ordinances are passed like Edict #10 of Temuco, a small town in the south of Chile, proclaiming that for "every innocent dead, 10 detainees will be killed!" The largest paper in Chile, El Mercurio, prominently displayed a "letter to the editor" calling for an end to the "Jewish communist conspiracy and for a "Jew hanging form every lampost." Even Hitler didn't move quite that fast.

Perhaps the most ominous situation is that of the fate of 10,000 or so political exiles that fled military dictatorships all over Latin America for the safety of Allende's Chile. All indications are that hose not already killed by the Junta will be shipped home to face execution or torture and long imprisonment.

The situation is desperate. All Americans must do everything in their power to demand that the U.S. put an end to the butchery. It was the U.S. that ordered it in the first place. But no matter how long the Junta will maintain its power in Chile, the people will never accept defeat. Just by pulling down Che's statue in Santiago, or by washing slogans off the walls, the will of the people will never be destroyed. As one Chilean worker said: We shall go back to work like good boys, keeping very quiet and getting ready for the next time... and then we shall have our revenge."

END THE BLOODBATH IN CHILE!

THE CHILEAN PEOPLE WILL NOT BE DEFEATED!