Chile conmemorated the 38° anniversary of Allende’s overthrow

Chile, September 11, 2011

Today, Chile commemorated the 38th anniversary of the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende and installed the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, which would last for 17 years. In this way, and remembering the more than 3000 victims of the regime, the demonstration ended with 20 arrested in clashes with police at a date which is controversial. 

The Association of Relatives of Disappeared called to thousands of people to gather in downtown Santiago to march to a memorial in memory of the 3225 victims that the Pinochet dictatorship left.

The demonstration was developed at first quietly, with Chilean flags and posters for public education, source of mass marches in recent months in Chile and they do not approached to the palace of La Moneda, which was surrounded by police strongly.

On September 11, 1973, in the same presidential palace, the socialist Salvador Allende, died due to the attack held by Pinochet’s coup forces that bombed the building. However, thanks to a research that is still ongoing, it became known that Allende committed suicide with a rifle that his friend Fidel Castro gave him.

Although the demonstration took place peacefully, the incidents happened near the memorial, when a group of hooded men began to confront with the police.

Protesters threw stones to the police, burned tires and other objects and attacked some journalists and photographers displayed on the site, while police fired jets of water and tear gasses to disperse them.

In this sense, they stopped 20 people for “disorders and injuries,” according to AFP news agency.

Pinochet never came to be convicted by the Justice, since he died on December 10, 2006, at age 91 and with several ongoing processes of human rights violations committed during his dictatorship.