On October 22, 1970, General Schneider, commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, slowly stopped at an intersection in his official car. In the tens of seconds of waiting for the red light, five masked killers armed with sledgehammers suddenly rushed out, used the sledgehammer to break the rear window of General Schneider's car, and then raised their guns and fired. Although the bodyguard in charge of protection immediately fired back, the bullet pierced General Schneider's spleen, left shoulder, and wrist. After a scuffle, his bodyguards immediately sent General Schneider to the hospital, but because of his serious injuries, General Schneider died in the local hospital in San Diego three days later, and it is said that Schneider continued to repeat four words before his death: "Uphold the Constitution." It is hard to imagine that the commander-in-chief of the national army was shot in the streets of his capital.
▲Schneider
In fact, this is not the first time that General Schneider has been assassinated, as early as October 16, 1970, a group of masked killers suddenly broke into General Schneider's home, but after searching for a circle, Schneider himself was not found, so the group of masked gangsters could only evacuate, it turned out that two days before the kidnapping, General Schneider went out on vacation, and finally returned to his home the day after the kidnapping. However, the group of killers did not give up, and soon after the killers received another internal report that General Schneider was about to attend a dinner party. The group then planned to assassinate Schneider on his way home after the dinner. It's just that Schneider has long been on guard after the last kidnapping, and left the scene in a private vehicle before the dinner was over, and the killer once again pounced.
▲ The military parade ceremony of the Chilean army similar to the three military parades of virtue
So what is the origin of this group of people, who dared to assassinate the commander-in-chief of a country's army three and five times. In fact, this group of people is loyal to the Chilean right-wing organization of General Roberto Vio, and behind them are Americans who are trying to interfere in Chile's internal affairs. After the failed assassination, the CIA sent a telegram to Roberto Vio, demanding that they take immediate action to get rid of Commander-in-Chief Schneider at all costs by October 20, and promising a large sum of money for General Roberto Vio and his associates. The culmination was the October 22 assassination on the streets of San Diego. So why did the Americans spend a lot of money to assassinate General Schneider, commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, all this has to start with Allende.
Allende and Castro
Salvador Allende was born in Chile in 1908 in a family of lawyers, his grandfather was an educator, his father was a lawyer, because of his birth family, these two people had a great influence on Allende, his grandfather was committed to educating poor Chilean children, his father often helped the poor to fight lawsuits, and gradually Allende was affected by this and gradually began to understand the poor, and when he grew up, he often led student movements to help Chile get rid of imperialist control. In 1933, Allende participated in the establishment of the Chilean Socialist Party and officially began his political career, and in 1937 began to enter politics, successively served as Chile's Minister of Health and Minister of Welfare, during his tenure Allende came into contact with Chile's high infant mortality rate, serious child nutrition, and almost zero medical services, so he wanted to reshape the country with new thinking in favor of the poor, and then Allende visited most of the world's socialist countries. Let's examine the feasibility of socialism in Chile.
▲Allende who visited everywhere
Allende, who eventually gained fame in 1952, 1958 and 1964, ran for president three times in a row, but there was always an insurmountable mountain in front of it - the United States! After all, if you want to engage in socialism in the backyard of the Americans, then the Americans will definitely block it in every way. When Allende ran for president, the opposition party supported by the Americans smeared Allende in various ways, even to the point of no lower limit, and even Allende looked like a girl when he was a child can be taken out to smear, which shows how much Americans do not want Allende to come to power. But Moscow soon took notice of the South American politician who wanted to seek change and immediately sent someone to contact Allende to promise support for his campaign.
▲Allende interviewed
Fast forward to 1970, the most involved and dark election in Chilean history, for which all the left wings in Chile were integrated into the Popular Unity Alliance, led by Allende, and then Cuba and the Soviet Union sent campaign funds for the Popular Unity Alliance, and East Germany sent agents to protect Allende. Their main opponents were the Chilean National Party, which was fully supported by the CIA, led by Jorge Alexandri supported by the United States, and another rival, the centrist Christian Democratic Party, led by Radomiro Tomic, which advocated a balance between the United States and the Soviet Union, so that both sides would take advantage and neither side would be guilty. In the end, under the propaganda of the full fire of both sides, the Chilean People's Unity Union temporarily ranked first with a narrow margin of 36.61%, followed by the Chilean National Party with 35.27% of the vote. Since neither side received more than 50% of the vote, Congress decided to face off in the top two at a later date.
▲ Right-wing leader Jorge Alexandria
After the results came out, the morale of the People's Unity Alliance was strong, according to this momentum, it is very likely to win the presidential throne in one go, after seeing this result, the Americans were completely panicked, they will definitely not allow Allende to become the president of Chile, nor will they allow another Cuba in South America, US President Kennedy is even more furious, ordering Allende to become the president of Chile at all costs. Seeing the boss's rage, the CIA decided to take a desperate gamble and played its best coup trick. Then the CIA first found the right-wingers of the Chilean army and asked them to immediately stage a military coup and directly skip Allende to seize power in Chile with the help of the Americans.
▲Schneider inspects the Chilean Army
But the Americans underestimated the difficulty of launching a military coup in Chile, because there was always an unshakable mountain in front of them, that is, General Schneider, then commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, Schneider was a very spineless soldier, he advocated that the army must not interfere in politics, although he himself hated Allende very much, and expressed this hatred in public many times, but if the people and Congress chose Allende, even if he himself was not happy, he would accept it. Before the assassination, Schneider, who smelled the danger, urgently convened a meeting of the General Staff, at which Schneider knocked on the forces that were about to move, and said in his own words: "The armed forces are not the path to personal political power, nor is it the road to replace this power!" In the face of the CIA, Schneider also maintained a high degree of vigilance and resolutely resisted his subordinates' attempts to launch a military coup.
▲Allende attended Schneider's funeral
Only then did the CIA realize that Schneider was a staunch defender of "constitutionalism" who must be eliminated if it was to successfully stage a military coup. Finally, there was the assassination on October 22, 1970, Schneider's assassination caused a national shock in Chile, and the killer could not be more obvious, and the Popular Unity Alliance was in the upper hand to be stupid enough to cause trouble at this juncture. After the assassination, the President of Chile, who was about to retire, immediately took control of the situation and made Carlos Platz, a staunch follower of Schneider, the commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, and Carlos Platz inherited Schneider's will to firmly defend the constitution, and there was a feeling of "Cui Zhu killing his king". At Schneider's funeral, hundreds of thousands of Chilean people spontaneously came to the funeral, and Allende had a solemn expression at the scene, because he understood that this person who hated himself ended up paying with his life.
▲Allende after taking office
More importantly, after Schneider's assassination, the conspiracy of the West and the right was made public, and the Chilean nation was shocked and sided with the Popular Unity Alliance, and finally on October 24, Allende won by an overwhelming margin of 153 votes to 35. However, it is a pity that during Allende's tenure, the biggest project, Chile's land reform, could not be carried out, and the domestic economy was on the verge of collapse due to the complex political environment. Finally, on September 11, 1973, the Chilean army staged a military coup, Chilean army, navy, air and police forces rushed to the presidential palace, Allende also picked up an AK-47 to face the rebels, without the slightest idea of surrendering, and finally Allende, who knew that he was powerless to return to the sky in the sound of gunfire, sat on the sofa and committed suicide by holding an AK-47 between his legs.
▲Photo of the 1973 coup d'état
Perhaps feeling sorry for Schneider, Carlos Platz resigned as commander-in-chief of the army after the coup d'état, Pinochet became commander-in-chief, and then became president of Chile and began a dictatorial career that ruled Chile for 17 years, Pinochet first dissolved the Chilean parliament and then took all the power into his arms. During his tenure, the smell of blood permeated the whole of Chile, with more than 2,000 killed and more than 130,000 arrested. But on the other hand, during his tenure, Pinochet created a miracle of the Chilean economy, personally participated in the formulation of Chile's new constitution in 1980, and ordered a referendum in 1988, if he received a majority of votes, he would continue to serve until 1997, and vice versa, and resumed normal presidential elections in 1989, which brought Chile's democracy back on track at the last minute. Pinochet, who lost the 1988 referendum, followed the results and handed over most of the power, preserving himself as commander-in-chief until 1998, when Pinochet died in polarizing assessments in 2006.
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