An alternative take on Chilean history

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This post was prompted by Tomas Bradanovic, who writes:

Y ya que estamos en eso, la épica de nosotros los derechistas dice que en 1973 hubo un clamor nacional para que los militares dieran el golpe pero no fue así, la llegada de los militares fue porque simplemente vieron amenazadas algunas instituciones fundamentales de la República. No actuaron en respuesta a ningún clamor popular, porque también había bastante gente que -todavía- apoyaba a Allende en esos años.

To expand on that statement:

Many older Chileans, traumatized by the left-wing assault on every aspect of life here, wish that the Military would suspend Congress and take control of the country, as they did in 1973.
While they may believe that the military intervention was undertaken to save the country from Marxism, here’s my alternative explanation.

Allende had already made his accommodations with the military, and his cabinet included sympathetic figures such as General Bachelet and the Army CinC, General Carlos Prats. Although Prats suddenly stepped down in June 73, he was replaced by Augusto Pinochet, considered by Allende to be a safe choice.

A catalysing incident occurred in August 73, when Socialist Senator Carlos Altamirano boarded naval warships anchored in Valparaiso.
either to:
Investigate alleged “sedition” against the Allende government
or:
To incite a mutiny against the Officer Class, according to which version is preferred.

Durante su mandato presidencial, los máximos representantes del PS, del Mapu.OC y del MIR se involucraron en la “sublevación de la marinería”. El fin de semana del 4 y 5 de agosto de 1973, en el crucero Almirante Latorre y el crucero Blanco Encalada una cincuentena de suboficiales y marineros leales al Gobierno
preparaba una sublevación, el supuesto plan Alba, contra los oficiales golpistas.
La acción fue sofocada por los organismos de inteligencia naval y el 7 de agosto la Armada informó públicamente el movimiento subversivo. Entre los instigadores de la sedición se citaron el diputado del Mapu-OC, Oscar Guillermo Garretón; el secretario general del PS, Carlos Altamirano y el jefe del MIR, Miguel Enríquez.

This event occurring so close to home seriously alarmed the Naval high command, which had already decided to commit to a countercoup. Given the incendiary nature of extremist left-wing sentiment, impatient with Allende’s softly-softly approach to a Marxist takeover, and who were openly advocating a proletarian dictatorship, a conflict was seen as inevitable by that stage, with rumours of armed interventions sweeping the country.

"Así, el 11 de agosto de 1973, Luis Corvalán ante una multitud de militantes enardecidos declara: «Si la sedición reaccionaria pasa a mayores, concretamente al campo de la lucha armada, que a nadie le quepa dudas que el pueblo se levantará como un solo hombre para aplastarla con prontitud…"

In preparation, Admiral Jose Toribio Merino secretly contacted Pinochet, who until then had remained neutral. Pinochet and the Army decided to throw in their lot with the Navy in preference to Marxism, and the rest is history.

The alternative could have been a bloody civil war involving the Army, Navy and armed extremists in the Cordones Industriales. Curiously enough, one of the reasons given for the passivity of the latter group was that, despite their fiery rhetoric, they expected that the Army would remain loyal to Allende, and would quash the coup attempt without their assistance.

The military coup was successful only due to the conjunction of several events. The other possible outcome could have meant Civil War and the eventual imposition of a Cuban-style dictatorship. The Civil War of 1891, when the Army and Navy fought each other, resulted in more than 10,000 deaths.

My point in all the previous is that the Navy only reacted when their own command structure was threatened, not from any particular desire to save the country, which by then was in dire straits. So don’t hold your breath waiting for them to intervene again.

Nobody mentions the obnoxious Carlos Altamirano these days, who, while in exile, even the Russians found unpalatable. By “Jumping the gun”, he royally fucked up the Commies’ own revolutionary plans.

Some Links:

https://twitter.com/MuDiViMa

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I think there is actually more hope now than in 73.

Reason is in 73 there was not a previous 30 years of prosperity as a stark contrast.

Today there is. Not enough time has passed that people will just forget how good they had it even as recently as a mere few years ago. They will say why can’t we have that again? What is preventing us from learning from our socialist lemming insanity and just cutting bait on what is obviously not working and has never worked?

In 73…sure Allende had done a bang up job spraying diarrhea all over the country. It was worse than it has EVER been since then.

And there was a military intervention that like it or not was the catalyst for Chile’s economic golden age. No country in latin america had an overall better reputation than Chile. Not a one.

I have a hard time believing that the military in 73 were devout marxists and dutifully genuflecting to statues of Allende even while he was destroying the country right up to the golden coup and the only reason that the coup happend is they were threatened. I can see that in the beginning of Allende but the last 6 months?
It was total crazy town. Largely everyone in chile was directly or indirectly impaired from his antics.

That would mean they(mil) were incredibly selfserving while everything and everyone they loved around them was impaired with Allendes bad decisions. They and those they love would have to be somehow insulated from the damage and as a result total dirtbags. But that is impossible when imbeciles like Allende are destroying the entire fabric of the country cross-functionally. There is no real insulation from a supernova.

Before Allende, it wasnt like the last 30 years of chiles golden age, but it wasnt bad either. Just median south america. A race to the middle. A little variation among the continents neighbors but more or less status quo.

So it just shows how much Allende had to poop the bed to cause a coupe despite all his machinations to the contrary and despite what a decent start he had.

Today though? Chile sees itself as far more precious than the 70s. It has had decades of validation and affirmation and outright praise and accolades internationally.

Chile remembers what we had and knows there are only bullshit reasons why we cant have that golden age restored again and even to a greater degree.

I dont think there is any purist devotion to masochistic marxism among the military today that would veto their own lives and their loved ones unable to buy gas for their cars, food for their children, pellets for their houses, medicine for their elderly, etc

I have hope that they will look around, determine what are the obstacles to restoration.
Then remove the obstacles to get the country back on track.

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Oh dear. I can only repeat Tomas Bradanovic’s quotation:

Y ya que estamos en eso, la épica de nosotros los derechistas dice que en 1973 hubo un clamor nacional para que los militares dieran el golpe pero no fue así, la llegada de los militares fue porque simplemente vieron amenazadas algunas instituciones fundamentales de la República.

It was a power conflict at the highest levels, where popular opinion is completely irrelevant. Tomas Bradanovic maintains the military acted when the state and its institutions were threatened, whereas I tend to believe that they acted to preserve their own skins, remembering what happened to the officer class in Russia when the Bolsheviks took over. (A lot of them were shot!)

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It is not that I am asserting that public opinion in 1973 drove the military to intervene reluctantly as if the “public” and the “military” are seperate. Granted in typical discourse we see these as seperate…public versus private…civ versus mil

But holistically…Rather…the military themselves are part of the “public” or better said the people or population of chile. The only difference is they have the ability to veto everyone and everything else through force.

And that all of chile did feel and does feel the pain albeit on a spectrum.

Just as we on this forum all feel this pain in different ways. It drives us to rant and vote and make plan b’s and consider what can we each do to make a difference or improve our situation.
We each find ourselves in unique positons to contribute again albeit on a spectrum.

We each have our own “red lines”. Just as I see fundamental institutions and even the country itself at risk others may see merely there own livelihood at risk. Or merely their own property.
Just as we have red lines we also have unique sacred cows

I think tomas and we are saying very similar things in slightly different ways. Their own skin is a red line. So is mine. The prosperity and stability of chile is important to many, even a sacred cow.

Whether the mil acts out of cynical myopic selfishness or out of noble regard for the preservation of chile or out of (Literally insert any tenuous justification)…
Will it really matter…as long as they act before the point of no return?

It wont matter nearly as much which red line/sacred cow or whose red line or sacred cow was crossed or sacrificed. As long as it solves to an action which restores chile to the country it was before and should resume being, so this rough patch we are in is just a cautionary tale in the rear view mirror.

On the one hand the leaders of chile have been a big let down (but now even we see how good we had it before). So one can understand the doubt. Why should we expect that there are people of integrity (people that give half a damn in the mil) and courage (courage to even save their own skin) anymore when we have had such a bad run at all levels.
It is true and the odds favor the cynical view. Likely it will just be more limpwristed time wasting nonsense that will drive this place into the ground

Still on the other hand, the freshness of stability and prosperity may be a boon for us toking hopium and remebering how much better, easier, prosperous, stable, and less irritating/angering chile used to be before 2019.

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Question to the historical experts: This time around, do Maya Alejandra Fernández Allende (grandchild of you guessed it), the subsec to her Galo Mauricio Eidelstein Silber (first Chile commie party member ever to hold that position), Tellier and company have the proper screws in place to prevent a military coup?

Pessimistically, I think that civil war is a real possibility this time (beginning to the countdown being an APRUEBO win) with more direct participation of middle and working class Chileans from within the military and the general public.

I remember back in the first terrifying week kicked off by 18 October, I ironically posited on a certain famous expat forum that Chile would have martial law before the USA and now possibly civil war.

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Given that Congress had already declared Allende’s actions unconstitutional, one justification for the golpe is that the Armed Forces acted to defend the 1925 Constitution. Allende had proposed drafting a new constitution for the same reason the Commies want to do it again - to concentrate power in their hands.

It could be argued that the Armed Forces already have enough justification to declare the actions of the Boric government unconstitutional, viz:

Es deber del Estado resguardar la seguridad nacional, dar protección a la población y a la familia, propender al fortalecimiento de ésta, promover la integración armónica de todos los sectores de la Nación y asegurar el derecho de las personas a participar con igualdad de oportunidades en la vida nacional.*

(Constitución Política, Cap1, Art.1)

By all lights, this government is failing to fulfil its obligations as stipulated in the current Constitution, in fact it’s doing its utmost to destabilize the nation.
However, the night of 04/09 will be crunch time…VOTE RECHAZO

It won’t come to that, the Mils are the only professionals in Chile and will try other approaches first. Remember that Pinocho avoided war with the Argies using diplomacy, not guns. And hopefully they are resisting Commie infiltration…

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