Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende Gossens (July 26, 1908–September 11, 1973) was President of Chile from 1970 until 1973, when he died of a gunshot wound, under circumstances that remain a matter of dispute, during the violent Chilean coup of 1973.

Election

Allende finally won the 1970 Chilean presidential election as leader of the Unidad Popular ("Popular Unity") coalition. He obtained a narrow plurality of 36.2 percent to 34.9 percent over Jorge Alessandri, a former president, with 27.8 percent going to a third candidate (Radomiro Tomic) of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), whose electoral platform was quite close to Allende's. According to the Chilean Constitution, in cases where no presidential candidate obtained a majority of the popular vote, the Chilean Congress would have to choose the winner between the two candidates with the highest number of votes. The tradition was for the Congress to vote for the candidate with the highest popular vote, regardless of margin. Indeed, former president Jorge Alessandri had been elected in 1958 with only 31.6 percent of the popular vote, defeating Allende.

Related Topics:
1970 - Unidad Popular - Plurality - Jorge Alessandri - Radomiro Tomic - Christian Democratic Party - 1958

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However, after the 1970 election, the Central Intelligence Agency ran operations attempting to incite Chile's outgoing president, Eduardo Frei Montalva, to persuade his party (PDC) to vote in Congress for Alessandri. Under the plan, Alessandri would resign his office immediately after assuming it and call new elections. Eduardo Frei would then be constitutionally able to run again (since the Chilean Constitution did not allow a president to hold two consecutive terms, but allowed multiple non-consecutive ones), and presumably easily defeat Allende.

Related Topics:
Central Intelligence Agency - Eduardo Frei Montalva

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However, in the end the Congress rejected the plan and chose Allende as president, on the condition that he would sign a "Statute of Constitutional Guarantees" affirming that he would respect and obey the Chilean Constitution, and that his socialist reforms would not undermine any element of it.

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