Posts tagged allende

allende-capucha in the mix by Ian Cocquerel.

allende-capucha in the mix by Ian Cocquerel.

Pepsi vs Allende A fascinating read from Greg Palast about the U.S. plot to prevent Allende’s inauguration, as instigated by PepsiCo. I gives good insight into why there is so much mixed anti-U.S. and anti-capitalist sentiment from a large portion of the population here: Indeed, the October 1970 plot against Chile’s President-elect Salvador Allende, using CIA ‘sub-machine guns and ammo’, was the direct result of a plea for action a month earlier by Donald Kendall, chairman of PepsiCo, in two telephone calls to the company’s former lawyer, President Richard Nixon. Kendall arranged for the owner of the company’s Chilean bottling operation to meet National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger on September 15. Hours later, Nixon called in his CIA chief, Richard Helms, and, according to Helms’s handwritten notes, ordered the CIA to prevent Allende’s inauguration. You can hear more from U.S. Ambassador to Chile, Edward M. Korry, in Patricio Guzmán’s excellent documentary Salvador Allende, 2004 where he openly details just how much the U.S. government despised Allende. Photo: Current product branding used in Chile. 

Pepsi vs Allende

A fascinating read from Greg Palast about the U.S. plot to prevent Allende’s inauguration, as instigated by PepsiCo. I gives good insight into why there is so much mixed anti-U.S. and anti-capitalist sentiment from a large portion of the population here:

Indeed, the October 1970 plot against Chile’s President-elect Salvador Allende, using CIA ‘sub-machine guns and ammo’, was the direct result of a plea for action a month earlier by Donald Kendall, chairman of PepsiCo, in two telephone calls to the company’s former lawyer, President Richard Nixon.

Kendall arranged for the owner of the company’s Chilean bottling operation to meet National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger on September 15. Hours later, Nixon called in his CIA chief, Richard Helms, and, according to Helms’s handwritten notes, ordered the CIA to prevent Allende’s inauguration.

You can hear more from U.S. Ambassador to Chile, Edward M. Korry, in Patricio Guzmán’s excellent documentary Salvador Allende, 2004 where he openly details just how much the U.S. government despised Allende.

Photo: Current product branding used in Chile. 

I love this sculpture. Anyone from Chile will instantly recognise the significance of this object - amplified to 50x it’s original size as if to give due weight to its historic importance. The iconic glasses were formerly worn by Chile’s socialist leader Salvador Allende when he took a fatal bullet to the head during the military coup on September 11, 1973. 2011 saw a number of developments in this 38 year old case. Foremost was the exhumation of Allende’s remains for forensic analysis - to the surprise of no-one the results of the autopsy revealed the former leader had died as the result of a self inflicted gunshot. Also last year, the family of Allende filed a lawsuit for the return of the AK-47 used in the incident. The rifle was originally seized by the army, but now appears to have been lost in time. It should be easily recognisable due to the gold plate engraved with the words: “To my good friend Salvador from Fidel, who by different means tries to achieve the same goals”.  I love a good mystery, and the thought of this weapon stashed in a locked box in the back of someone’s closet fascinates me to the point of obsession. How much does this weigh on the mind of whomever knows of its location? The sculpture is located in the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry Office in Caracas. The original glasses are on display here in Santiago at the Museo Historico Nacional.

I love this sculpture. Anyone from Chile will instantly recognise the significance of this object - amplified to 50x it’s original size as if to give due weight to its historic importance.

The iconic glasses were formerly worn by Chile’s socialist leader Salvador Allende when he took a fatal bullet to the head during the military coup on September 11, 1973.

2011 saw a number of developments in this 38 year old case. Foremost was the exhumation of Allende’s remains for forensic analysis - to the surprise of no-one the results of the autopsy revealed the former leader had died as the result of a self inflicted gunshot.

Also last year, the family of Allende filed a lawsuit for the return of the AK-47 used in the incident. The rifle was originally seized by the army, but now appears to have been lost in time. It should be easily recognisable due to the gold plate engraved with the words: “To my good friend Salvador from Fidel, who by different means tries to achieve the same goals”. 

I love a good mystery, and the thought of this weapon stashed in a locked box in the back of someone’s closet fascinates me to the point of obsession. How much does this weigh on the mind of whomever knows of its location?

The sculpture is located in the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry Office in Caracas. The original glasses are on display here in Santiago at the Museo Historico Nacional.

2011 was a big news year for Chile - occupying the headlines there was a destructive volcanic eruption, an air crash which killed one of its best known TV hosts, an exhumation and autopsy of former socialist leader Salvador Allende, and a few thousand more people added to the list of dictatorship-era victims. But I thought I’d close out the previous year properly by reviewing a few of the more unusual Chile related stories which made the media: Okay, so I may have engineered this whole post in order to make another Miss Chile reference - but it’s a good one! Who wouldn’t want to see Vanessa Ceruti dressed as a sexy miner in the national costumes segment of the 2011 Miss Universe Pageant. A touching tribute to Los 33. The unrest of the Arab Spring was followed by what came to be called a Chilean Winter, as a previously apathetic youth population took a confrontational stance toward the government and business elite. Two of the more unusual events were a kissing protest and an elaborately stage Thriller flash mob. In May, a Chilean base-jumper soared off a massive cliff in the Andes mountains on his motorbike, free-falling some 3000 feet before opening his parachute. ‘The idea is that Chile is known, because behind this sport there are great natural scenes. I want to show Chile is a good place for base jumping,’ he said. Not a great year for president Sebastian Pinera - the popularity boost from the 2010 mining rescue wore off and those pesky protesters stole the media attention. However, a bizzare moment occured in April when Czech president Václav Klaus was on an official visit to Chile and… well you can just watch the whole incident as it was caught on tape and went viral with over 2 million views. Still on Pinera - in December he further trolled his detractors by making a sexist joke about what women mean when they say ‘No’. While not quite on the same media scale as the miner resue, in October a bull was rescued from a two day ordeal after falling through an open manhole on the outskirts of Santiago. Somewhat inexplicably he was given the nickname ‘Frutilla’ (Strawberry). Following the tragic death of Amy Winehouse in July a private fashion museum in Santiago, Museo de la Moda, purchased the famous ‘Back to Black’ dress for £43,200. Proceeds of the sale went a new charity set up in the singer’s memory to help vulnerable young people.

2011 was a big news year for Chile - occupying the headlines there was a destructive volcanic eruption, an air crash which killed one of its best known TV hosts, an exhumation and autopsy of former socialist leader Salvador Allende, and a few thousand more people added to the list of dictatorship-era victims.

But I thought I’d close out the previous year properly by reviewing a few of the more unusual Chile related stories which made the media:

  1. Okay, so I may have engineered this whole post in order to make another Miss Chile reference - but it’s a good one! Who wouldn’t want to see Vanessa Ceruti dressed as a sexy miner in the national costumes segment of the 2011 Miss Universe Pageant. A touching tribute to Los 33.
  2. The unrest of the Arab Spring was followed by what came to be called a Chilean Winter, as a previously apathetic youth population took a confrontational stance toward the government and business elite. Two of the more unusual events were a kissing protest and an elaborately stage Thriller flash mob.
  3. In May, a Chilean base-jumper soared off a massive cliff in the Andes mountains on his motorbike, free-falling some 3000 feet before opening his parachute. ‘The idea is that Chile is known, because behind this sport there are great natural scenes. I want to show Chile is a good place for base jumping,’ he said.
  4. Not a great year for president Sebastian Pinera - the popularity boost from the 2010 mining rescue wore off and those pesky protesters stole the media attention. However, a bizzare moment occured in April when Czech president Václav Klaus was on an official visit to Chile and… well you can just watch the whole incident as it was caught on tape and went viral with over 2 million views.
    Still on Pinera - in December he further trolled his detractors by making a sexist joke about what women mean when they say ‘No’.
  5. While not quite on the same media scale as the miner resue, in October a bull was rescued from a two day ordeal after falling through an open manhole on the outskirts of Santiago. Somewhat inexplicably he was given the nickname ‘Frutilla’ (Strawberry).
  6. Following the tragic death of Amy Winehouse in July a private fashion museum in Santiago, Museo de la Moda, purchased the famous ‘Back to Black’ dress for £43,200. Proceeds of the sale went a new charity set up in the singer’s memory to help vulnerable young people.