Chile, 1970 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 25 March 1970, in the pre-election period before Chile's 4 September 1970 presidential vote, distinct from the post-election coup plotting later that year. Salvador Allende had been nominated in January 1970 as the candidate of the leftist Popular Unity coalition, running against conservative Jorge Alessandri and Christian Democrat Radomiro Tomic. Alarmed at the prospect of a Marxist president, the Nixon administration directed the CIA, through the 40 Committee, to carry out spoiling operations to prevent an Allende victory.
This Track I effort, active through the spring and summer of 1970, involved sustained anti-Allende propaganda, financial support for opposition media such as El Mercurio, and covert political action, with State Department and CIA meetings documented across April to June 1970. The March 1970 coding sits in this early spoiling phase, before Allende's September plurality triggered the more aggressive Track II coup plotting that culminated in the October 1970 Schneider assassination.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
15503251970
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The spoiling operations failed; Allende won a plurality in September 1970 and was inaugurated in November.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
New York Times
Washington Post
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →