Salvador Allende

Lionised by the Left, the Chilean president refused to moderate his Marxist aims in the face of economic chaos.

Sebastian Milbank

FIFTY YEARS AGO, ON 11 SEPTEMBER 1973, General Augusto Pinochet overthrew Chile’s elected government. He went on to lead the country for 17 brutal years, during which inequality soared, the economy boomed, and leftist opponents of the regime were quietly suppressed, imprisoned and killed in their thousands. On that fateful September day, Salvador Allende, Chile’s socialist president, killed himself with a rifle given to him by Fidel Castro. Allende the man, his nation in chaos, died by his own hand. But Allende the icon, the myth, the martyred hero, was born. As with Christian saints, the kingdom of the paragons of the far Left is not of this world and is distinguished by public defeat more often than worldly triumph. But where the paths diverge is that Marxists claim the…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 2024

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