Could this be the hidden and hardly conceivable reason destiny has decided that the first contemporary attack on the essence and core of the United States, would transpire precisely on the very anniversary that commemorates the military takeover in Chile; a takeover that a government in Washington nourished and sustained in the name of the American people? Could it be a way to mark the immense challenge that awaits the citizens of this country, particularly its young, now that they know what it really means to be victimized, now that they can grasp the sort of collective hell survivors withstand when their loved ones have disappeared without a body to bury, now that they have been given the chance to draw closer to and comprehend the multiple variations of the many September 11s that are scattered throughout the globe, the kindred sufferings that so many peoples and countries endure?
The terrorists have wanted to single out and isolate the United States as a satanic state. The rest of the planet, including many nations and men and women who have been the object of American arrogance and intervention reject—as I categorically do—this demonization. It is enough to see the almost unanimous outpouring of grief from most of the world, the offers of help, the expressions of solidarity, the determination to claim the dead of this mass murder as our dead.
It remains to be seen if this compassion shown to the mightiest power on this planet will be reciprocated. It is still not clear if the United States—a country formed in great measure by those who have themselves escaped vast catastrophes, famines, dictatorships, persecution—if the men and women of this nation, so full of hope and tolerance, will be able to feel that same empathy toward the other outcast members of our species. We will find out in the days and years to come if the new Americans, forged in pain and resurrection, are ready and open and willing to participate in the arduous process of repairing our shared, damaged humanity. Creating, all of us together, a world in which we never again lament another, terrifying September 11.
March 25, 1970
A meeting of the White House “Committee of 40,” headed by Henry Kissinger and in charge of US plans to prevent Allende’s ascendancy to the presidency or, failing that, to destabilize his regime until a military coup can overthrow him, approves $125,000 for a “spoiling operation” in Chile.
I Begin by Invoking Walt Whitman
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, is Chile’s most famous poet and his poetry is loved throughout the world. He died in Santiago de Chile on September 23, 1973, just days after the coup.
Because I love my country
I claim you, essential brother,
old Walt Whitman with your gray hands,
so that, with your special help
line by line, we will tear out by the roots
this bloodthirsty President Nixon.
There can be no happy man on earth,
no one can work well on this planet
while that nose continues to breathe in Washington.
Asking the old bard to confer with me
I assume the duties of a poet
armed with a terrorist’s sonnet
because I must carry out with no regrets
this sentence, never before witnessed,
of shooting a criminal under siege,
who in spite of his trips to the moon
has killed so many here on earth
that the paper flies up and the pen is unsheathed
to set down the name of this villain
who practices genocide from the White House.
Last Words Transmitted by Radio Magallanes, September 11, 1973
Salvador Allende
It is Chile’s darkest hour, one that Allende prophetically says will bring down “infamy” on the heads of “those who have violated their commitments.” Inside La Moneda, the Presidential Palace, Allende and a handful of followers defend themselves with bazookas and machine guns, repeatedly refusing to surrender. The 65-year-old president uses a palace hookup with a radio station to address the Chilean people one last time before bombers force the station off the air. In what he calls “this gray and bitter moment,” Allende persists in his “faith in Chile and its destiny.” The “calm metal” of his voice intones to Chile’s workers: “Much sooner than later the great avenues through which free men walk to build a better society will open.” Allende’s press secretary Frida Modak later recalls: “I shall never forget the last time I saw Allende, his head covered by a helmet, his hand holding the machine gun.”
I will pay with my life defending the principles that are so dear to this homeland. Infamy will descend upon those who have violated their commitments, have failed to live up to their word, have broken the doctrine of the armed forces.
The people must be alert and vigilant. You must not let yourselves be provoked, not let yourselves be massacred, but you must also defend your conquests. You must defend the right to construct, through your own effort, a dignified and better life.
A word for those who, calling themselves democrats, have been instigating this uprising; for those who, saying they are representatives of the people, have been confused and acting stupidly to make possible this step that flings Chile down a precipice.
In the name of the most sacred interests of the people, in the name of the homeland, I call to you to tell you to keep faith. Neither criminality nor repression can hold back history. This stage will be surpassed; it is a hard and difficult moment.
It is possible they will smash us, but tomorrow belongs to the people, the workers. Humanity advances toward the conquest of a better life.
Compatriots: It is possible that they will silence the radios, and I will take my leave of you. In these moments the planes are flying overhead. They may riddle us with bullets. But know that we are here, at least with this example, to show that in this country there are people who know how to meet their obligations. I will do so, as commanded by the people and by my own conscientious will, that of a president who bears the dignity of his charge… [interruption]
Perhaps this is my last opportunity to address myself to you. The air force has bombed the towers of Radio Portales and Radio Corporación. My words are not tainted by bitterness, but rather by deception. I hope there may be a moral punishment for those who have betrayed the oath they took as soldiers of Chile… Admiral Merino, who has designated himself commander of the navy; Mr. Mendoza, the callous general who only yesterday declared his loyalty to the government, and has been named director general of the Carabineros [Chilean national police].
In the face of these facts, the only thing left for me to say to the workers is: I will not resign! I say to you that I am sure that the seed that we now plant in the dignified conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans cannot be definitively buried.
They have the power, they can smash us, but social processes are not detained, not through crimes or power. History is ours, and the people will make it.
Workers