Chile: the balanced view : a recopilation of articles about the Allende years and after

constitutional amendment. He was later criticized for not calíing the plebiscite at the time when the regime's popularity was at its highest point,(7) but in retrospect it does not appear at all certain that he would have won-particularly since by the time that the constitutional prerequisites for such a vote had been fulfilled, the economic and political situation would have been much less favorable. . The period after the municipal elections now appears to have been cruciál for the long-term survivai ofthe regime. The Right was still in disarray, the Christian Democrats had elected a compromise Jeadership which was not committed to either of the party's wings, and the short-run economic and political indicators were favorable. Yet, instead of taking action on the economic front to stem the loss of foreign reserves and to dampen inflationary pressures -and on the political front to prevent the movement of the Christian Democrats into an alliance with the right-wing opposition parties- the regime continued its previous policíes, confidently assuming that in the long run "the people" would support it and ignoring the warning of "bourgeois" economists that the loss of foreign reserves, the expansion of demand, and the sharp decline in investment would produce disastrous consequences in the fo1l0wing year. POLITICAL POLARIZATION . The, harden'ing of the Christian Democratic position began in mid-1971. It was accelera– ted in JLIne by the assassination of the former Christian Democratic Interior Minister,. Edmundo Pérez Zujovic, by extremists, at least one of whom had been released from prison by Allende upon his accession to power. A month later in a by-election in Val paraíso, the victorious Christian Democratic candidate received the support of the Riqhl. The tacit all iance with the Right led to the secession from the PDC of eight dep.utíes and a number of other party leaders to form the pro-Allende Izquierda Cristiana (Christian Left). Thís was counterbalanced however, by a splít in the other direction within the Allende coalition. Five ofthe ¡;leven Radical senators (including two former presidential candidates) and 7 of the 19 deputies left the Radical Party (PR), and formed thePartido de la Izquierda Radical (Party of the Radical Left-PIR) in protest agaínst the Marxist orientation of a PR policy resolution which the dissidents described as "completely removed from the characteristic and dístinctive ídeology of our party" and opposed to "the interest of the middle social strata" whom the party had always represented.(8) For a time, the PIR continued to support the Allende government, but within ayear it had entered the ranks of the opposition. In July 1971, the Christian Democrats had voted in favor of the constitutional amend– ment naUonalizing the copper mines, but from that point forward, the pattern was one of polarization of Chilean politics and society into two opposing blocks. The Allende forces controlled the executive and pursued an increasingly vigorous ideological purge ofthose who were not entirely sympathetic to the government. The opposition controlled the legisla– iur8, ano in Octoner 1971 the Christian Democrats and the rightist parties attempted to assert legislative control over the expansion of the public sector by voting in favor of a constitutionar amendment limiting the use of the intervention and requisition procedures and requiring thul all transfers of private enterprises to the "social" or mixed sectors be carried out in accordance with specific legislation qpopted by the Congress. This legisla– :tív'e act, referred to as an amendment on the 'Three Areás of Property", became the focus of . a continuing deadlock between the President and Congress that lasted until Allende's overthrow in Septem~er 1973. Allende's refusal to accept the amendment or to call a plebíscite to resolve his differencas with the Congress appeared to the congressional opposition to be a'decisive (7JSee, e.g., PauJ M. Sweezy. "Chile: The Question 01 Power," Monthly Review (New York. London) December 1973, pp. 1-11. . (8JEI Mercurio. Aug. 8, 1971, p. 37. 25.