Chile, 1970 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 14 September 1970, in the days after Salvador Allende's 4 September 1970 plurality and at the outset of the covert U.S. effort to prevent his accession to the Chilean presidency.
Because Allende had won only a narrow plurality, the constitution threw the final choice to a congressional run-off on 24 October, with inauguration set for 3 November. On 8 September the 40 Committee met to assess options, and on 9 September CIA headquarters instructed its Santiago station to establish contacts with Chilean military officers to foster a coup. On 15 September, the day after this coded date, President Nixon personally ordered CIA Director Richard Helms to foment a military coup, launching the Track II effort.
This plotting culminated in the 22 October 1970 abduction attempt against constitutionalist army commander General Rene Schneider, who was shot and died three days later; the outrage rallied Chile behind Allende, who was confirmed on 24 October and inaugurated on 3 November.
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
15509141970
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The coup plotting failed; Allende was confirmed by Congress and inaugurated in November 1970.
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
The Guardian
Foreign Affairs
New York Times
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 →