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

election in 1971. It should also be noted that an investigation by prominent laculty members 01 Santiago's prestigious Catholic University concluded that massive Iraud had occurred in the .1973 elections, possibly accounting lor live percent 01 the Popular Unity vote. The conclusion is inescapable. President Allende and the Popular Unity never represented the majority 01 the Chilean people, and they were even larther Irom majority support in 1973 than they had been two years earlier. Though he continued to speak and act lor "the people", Allende rarely had congressional support lor his poi icies and never dared to call lor a plebiscite since he knew the majority 01 "the people" opposed his more revolutionary programs. AII the talk in Chile, the United States, and elsewhere about Allende's so-called "popular mandate" rellects the wishlul thinking 01 Popular Unity supporters rather than Chilean reality. Many commentators have also maintained that Salvador Allende's revolution was a legal and constitutional revolution. The evidence all seems to indicate that it was no!. One 01 the most striking characteristics 01 the Allende period was the tremendous increase in policies and events which were unquestionably illegal or 01 highly dubious legality. Indeed, one 01 the most serious charges that can be levelled at Allende was his lailure to keep the revolution within legal and constitutional bounds. Some have argued that, given the powerlul pressures on him Irom the ultra-Ieft, many 01 whom were within his ruling coalition, the president was unable to insist on strict obser– vance 01 legal Ilorms lor lear 01 splitting his alliance and provoking an open ultra-Ieftist revolt against his governmen!. Others have concluded that Allende tried to carry out a lairly legal revolution on the surface but gave his approval to MIR-type activities in order to keep all revolutionary options open. I don't propose to argue one line or the other, but merely to suggest the extent to which illegal activities increased in Chile after 1970. Who is to say when laws have been broken and the sometimes imprecise'constitution violated? The most authoritative bodies in the Chilean institutional system said so: the courts, including the Supreme Court, the Comptroller General, and the national congress. Finally, and most decisively, the armed lorces. It just won't do to claim respect lor the constitution and then, as many 01 Allende's supporters have done, proclaim that all 01 the institutions created by the constitution (except, 01 course, the executive), are staffed by reactionaries who represent only a minority 01 the Chilean people and loreign imperialism. In one 01 its many messages to President Allende, the Supreme Court stated in May 1973 that top government officials were obstructing justice and demonstrating an "overt obstir)acy in rebelling against judiCial decisions". Three weeks belore -the coup, on August 22, the Chamber 01 Deputies passed a resolution directed to President Allende, his state ministers, and the armed lorces. The resolution stated that according to the constitution, a government which assumes rights not delegated to it is engaging in sedition. The resolution continued, and I quote in part: "It is a lact that since its inception, the present government 01 the republic has been engaged in achieving total power with the obvious purpose 01 subjecting everyone to the strictest state economic and political control, to achieve in this way the installation 01 a totalitarian system absolutely opposed to the representative democratic system which the constitution establ ishes. "To achieve this end, the government has not committed isolated violations 01 the constitution and 01 the law; rather, it has made 01 these violations a permanent system 01 conduct, arriving at the extreme 01 systematically ignoring and abusing the powers 01 the other branches 01 the government, habitually violating the guarantees which the constitu– tion assures to all inhabitants 01 the republic, and allowing and abetting the creation 01 illegitimate parallel powers which constitute a grave danger to-the nation. AII 01 these actions have destroyed essential elements 01 institutionality and 01 the state ofiaw." This resolution passed in the Chamber 01 Deputies by a vote 01 81 to 47. The Chilean congress which had passed this resolution had been elected by ·the people only live months earlier. What has happened cOJ1stitutionally in the United States recently is as 59