How did the Chile revolution began?

Answer 1

Although many leftists at the time and in the following years hailed president Allende - against whom the revolution was directed - as a Socialist saint and benefactor to his people, thwarted and possibly killed by reactionary forces within the military, the story runs rather differently, viewed with more distance and hindsight.

Allende first of all was not elected by popular choice: only a minority of Chileans had voted for him and in the end the Chilean Congress had to choose between him and two other candidates who also both had not managed to gain a majority. Allende nevertheless started a policy of nationalizations and collectivations that would have been controversial in any case, but all the more so with a majority of the electorate not supporting him to begin with.

Knowing that he could not count on Congress' support and knowing that there was little foundation in law for his policies, Allende often resorted to rule by decree to push through his measures, which quickly turned Congress and the Judiciary against him.

It finally came to a point where the Christian Democratic party withdrew their support from him and Congress declared his rule 'unconstitutional'. Allende however refused to step down, and the Congressional majority called in the support of the Chilean army to force Allende to step down.

This by the way was unconstitutional too, since Allende had every right to serve his full term of office, even if he could no longer count on a majority for his policies in Congress. On the other hand, Congress from past experiennce had good reason to fear that they would otherwise be sidelined by unilateral presidential decrees or by an (inconstitutional) plebiscite that Allende was considering to push through legislation.

The army stormed the presidential palace. Allende was offered a safe conduct out, but he decided to choose 'death before dishonor', so to speak. He got his wish, committing suicide. Then however the army decided not to return power to Congress, but run the coutry itself through a Junta under general Pinochet.