Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende was born in 1908 in Valparaíso and trained as a physician. He co-founded the Socialist Party of Chile in 1933, served as health minister, and spent decades in the Senate. After three unsuccessful presidential bids, he won the 1970 election at the head of the Popular Unity coalition and became one of the first Marxists elected president through open elections. His government faced rising inflation, strikes and US covert opposition. He died in the presidential palace during General Augusto Pinochet's coup on 11 September 1973.

Allende remains a symbol for much of the Latin American and international left, who see him as a democratically elected reformer overthrown with US support, and his final radio address is widely remembered. Supporters credit his government with expanded social programs and the copper nationalization, which later governments kept. Critics, including the Christian Democrats of the time, argue that his policies produced shortages and high inflation, reaching 140 percent in 1972 by some estimates, and that his coalition strained constitutional limits. Historians continue to debate the balance of domestic and foreign causes behind the coup and the 17-year dictatorship that followed. Declassified US records published by the National Security Archive document covert action against his government, which continues to shape that debate.