Word: chileanization
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...political graffiti, the demonstrations, the gray-brown tones of city and people, the tension and resignation underlined the realities of Chilean life in March 1972. Allende's Popular Unity Party had just gained more seats in the congressional elections, against the predictions of domestic and international political seers. The "Chilean road to socialism" was still being paved, but no one really knew where it would lead. Inflation was climbing above 200 percent. The black market thrived like a parasite on the rationed existence of the people. International credit was all but nonexistent. Copper prices had fallen on the world market...
Over all this lay something more. Two weeks before a North American newspaperman named Jack Anderson had told the world what Allende had been telling Chileans for years. ITT, an American corporation, had attempted to influence the electoral process in Chile through the CIA. Moreover, ITT was involved in efforts to provoke the Chilean military into a coup, and to cut off all international financial aid to Chile. ITT had also funded Allende's major opponent in the press, the newspaper E1 Mercurio, owned and operated by the Edwards family, which was popularly identified as Chile's most capitalistic...
March 1972 was the beginning of the end for Allende's Chile. The congressional electoral victory had set Allende's opponents firmly in motion to destroy him after they realized he would not be voted out of office by the Chilean people. Though no one knew it at the time, the ITT disclosures were not so much cause for future hope as they were indications of future tragedy...
After Allende's election plurality of 36 per cent in the presidential race of 1970, the world waited for a month to see if the Chilean Congress would vote for the first democratically elected Marxist in history. It did by a majority vote of 78 per cent. On October 24, 1970 Chile inaugurated a constitutionally elected Marxist pledged to forge a socialist state. One of Allende's first moves was to open discussions on the expropriation of the Chilean Telephone Company, owned by ITT. Allende wanted more telephones for the poor and claimed ITT had run the telephone system carelessly...
Barely one week after the toppling of Salvador Allende's regime last year, Chilean authorities set about arresting drug smugglers. During the Allende years, according to Interpol, Chile had played host to the world's largest cocaine-trafficking operation, and the U.S., which was at the receiving end of the line, was not at all happy. The new junta and American narcs quickly worked out a cozy arrangement. Five federal drug agents flew to Chile to finger smugglers. Chilean police arrested and eventually expelled the suspects on a nonstop flight to the U.S.-often after days of torture...