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CHRONOLOGY - 1973
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SEPTEMBER 11, 1973
The Armed Forces violently overthrow the constitutionally elected Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende, who dies during the military attack on the presidential palace La Moneda. Led by Army Commander-in-Chief General Augusto Pinochet, the coup marks the beginning of 17 years of military rule in Chile.
SEPTEMBER 11, 1973
A state of siege throughout all Chilean territory is decreed. This state of exception is renewed every six months in the following years.
SEPTEMBER 12, 1973
The four commanding officers of the armed forces meet to constitute the governing Junta and designate cabinet ministers. The constitutional act, penned by the Navy auditor general and admiral, lawyer Rodolfo Vio, states that the commanders-in-chief of the different branches of the Armed Forces constitute the Junta for the purposes of "restoring the ruptured Chilean identity, justice and institutional framework." The Junta members are General Augusto Pinochet of the Army - designated president of the Junta - Gustavo Leigh of the Air Force, Cesar Mendoza of Carabineros and Jose Toribio Merino of the Navy. The first Cabinet is comprised of 10 military officials and four civilians. A separate article stipulates that the new regime would respect the independence of the judiciary.
SEPTEMBER 12, 1973
The National Stadium in Santiago is set up as a temporary prison camp, holding thousands of political prisoners. Red Cross International estimates some 7,000 prisoners were held in the National Stadium as of September 22, 1973. The Chile Stadium was also used for the same purpose after the coup. Between September and the end of 1973, temporary prison camps were set up in stadiums and military regiments throughout Chile. Simultaneously, the military set up several concentration camps in isolated areas to keep prisoners for longer periods, such as Pisagua, Chacabuco, Dawson Island and others.
SEPTEMBER 13, 1973
The Supreme Court declares its support for the coup in a document signed by Supreme Court president Enrique Urrutia Manzano. The judiciary is the only one of the three state powers that is not dissolved after the coup, partly because of the new regime’s desire to maintain a semblance of legality. In 1991, the Rettig report’s analysis of the role of the courts in the early period of the dictatorship concludes that it did not react energetically enough to defend human rights in this period.
SEPTEMBER 13, 1973
The Catholic Church of Chile calls on the governing Junta to respect the rights of its opponents, to proceed with moderation, to maintain the advances made for the working class and a prompt return to institutional rule. The declaration, issued by the Permanent Episcopate Committee, provokes a strong negative reaction in the Junta.
SEPTEMBER 14, 1973
The Junta dissolves the National Congress, through Decree Law No. 27, stating that its functionaries should leave their posts immediately. The justification given for this decision is the need for "greater expedition in carrying out the resolutions that the Junta has proposed."
SEPTEMBER 15, 1973
The Appeals Court of Santiago rejects the first protective writ (habeus corpus) since the coup, filed by Christian Democrat Bernardo Leighton on behalf of arrested Popular Unity leaders. This legal instrument proved to be ineffective in adequately protecting the rights of arrested individuals throughout the 1973-90 period.
SEPTEMBER 16, 1973
World renowned folk singer Victor Jara is killed after being tortured at the Chile Stadium.
SEPTEMBER 17, 1973
The ruling Junta exposes "Plan Z", an alleged plan by the Popular Unity (UP) government for a counter-coup, which included amassing large amounts of weaponry and political assassinations. Claiming to have found secret documents in the UP government’s Interior Ministry offices, the Junta publishes these in its Libro Blanco as justification for its persecution of leftists and for the coup itself.
SEPTEMBER 18, 1973
Thirteen people are killed by a civilian squad in Osorno, southern Chile. After curfew, the group of individuals is arrested by the local Carabineros police, who then leave them in the hands of armed civilians. These bring the prisoners to Pilmaiquén River, line them up along the edge of a bridge and shoot them at point blank range. One woman from the group of victims, Blanca Ester Valderas - mayor of Entre Lagos and Socialist Party member - survives and lives in hiding in the area for several years. Years later, she brings her testimony to the regional court.
SEPTEMBER 18, 1973
Spanish priest Joan Alsina is killed. Alsina is head of personnel at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Santiago at the time of the coup and is involved with the Worker’s Movement for Catholic Action (MOAC). He is arrested on the hospital grounds and badly beaten before being taken away. Alsina’s body is later found on the banks of the Mapocho River with ten bullet wounds in the back. Today, there is a small memorial on the Bulnes bridge, where Alsina died. Two other priests, Miguel Woodward of Valparaiso and Gerardo Poblete of Iquique, are also killed prior to Alsina.
SEPTEMBER 18, 1973
Nineteen people from the towns of Laja and San Rosendo near Los Angeles disappear after being arrested by the military. The group, which includes several workers from the pulp and paper company, Compania Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC), is forced into a company vehicle and driven away.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1973
The Nobel prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda dies of a heart attack in his Isla Negra home. A member of the Communist Party, Neruda had left his post as ambassador to France due to poor health and returned to Chile a year before the coup. One popular account of his death says the military is guilty of negligence, delaying the dispatch of an ambulance to the poet’s isolated residence, in effect leaving him to die unaided.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1973
Army officers conduct a 14-hour raid of the San Borja apartment buildings in downtown Santiago. They arrest dozens of people and burn books and other items considered "seditious."
SEPTEMBER 24, 1973
Eighteen farm workers from the El Escorial estate in Paine disappear after being rounded up by officials from the San Bernardo Infantry Regiment. Years later, morgue workers confirm some of those bodies arrived at the morgue with bullet wounds, and were later transferred to Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.
SEPTEMBER 25, 1973
The U.S. government officially recognizes Chile’s military Junta.
SEPTEMBER 26, 1973
The military Junta offers a reward of $500,000 escudos to anyone who can provide information as to the whereabouts of members of the former Popular Unity government.
SEPTEMBER 30, 1973
Former Army Commander-in-Chief Carlos Prats Gonzalez, is killed in Buenos Aires, Argentina by a car bomb alongside his wife Sofia Cuthbert. Prats, who fled to Argentina shortly after the military coup, was Pinochet’s predecessor in the Army and had been loyal to Salvador Allende’s government. As of April 1998, the Argentine courts investigating the crime have determined that the DINA was responsible for the murders. As of early 1998, only one DINA agent, Enrique Arancibia Clavel, has been apprehended.
OCTOBER 5-9, 1973
A military delegation kills 72 prisoners from five northern provincial cities. Sent by General Augusto Pinochet and led by General Sergio Arellano Stark, the committee’s official mandate is to review the War Council proceedings for political prisoners in the regions and bring "procedures" there in line with Santiago standards. Arellano Stark and his crew travel northbound and proceed to take political prisoners, many of whom had voluntarily turned themselves in to the military authorities, out of their cells and summarily execute them without the consent, and in some cases without the knowledge, of the officer in charge of the region. Known as the "Caravan of Death" Arellano Stark’s delegation passes through Cauquenes, La Serena, Copiapo, Antofagasta, Calama and at least one southern city.
OCTOBER 6, 1973
The Comite para la Paz, an ecumenical committee, is created to defend human rights and "attend the needs of those Chileans who, due to the latest political developments, are in grave economic or personal need." As a precursor of the Vicaria de la Solidaridad, the committee is comprised of specialized professionals who work to safeguard the rights of people persecuted by the military regime, seek the release of political prisoners and help the growing number of people who are dismissed from their jobs for political reasons.
OCTOBER 13, 1973
The Junta outlaws leftist political parties and organizations through Decree Law Nº 77. Four days later, this law is extended to all political parties. The assets of the political parties and other organizations become state property. Not until 1998 would a law allowing the return of this expropriated property to its original owners come into effect.
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