Salvador allende goossens biography examples

In , he entered the Eduardo de la Barra school at the age of 16, studying there until As a teenager, his main intellectual and political influence came from the shoe-maker Juan De Marchi , an Italian-born anarchist. In , he entered the Grand Lodge of Chile and was elected vice president of the Federation of Students of the University of Chile in In , he became the representative of the students of the School of Medicine.

During his time at medical school, Allende was influenced by Professor Max Westenhofer , a German pathologist who emphasized the social determinants of disease and social medicine. That same year, he retook his sixth year of medical school and graduated at age In , he began practicing as a physician and anatomo-pathologist in the morgue of the Van Buren Hospital.

He married Hortensia Bussi with whom he had three daughters. He was a Freemason , a member of the Lodge Progreso No. After Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany , Allende was one of 76 members of the Congress who sent a telegram to Adolf Hitler denouncing the persecution of Jews. He became president of the Chilean Senate in During the s, Allende introduced legislation that established the Chilean national health service, the first program in the Americas to guarantee universal health care.

His three unsuccessful bids for the presidency in the , , and elections prompted Allende to joke that his epitaph would be "Here lies the next president of Chile. This time, his defeat was attributed to votes lost to the populist Antonio Zamorano. The CIA considered its role in the victory of Frei a great success. Allende was considered part of the moderate wing of the socialists, with support from the communists who favored taking power via parliamentary democracy; in contrast, the left-wing of the socialists led by Carlos Altamirano and several other far-left parties called for violent insurrection.

Some argue, however, that this was reversed at the end of his period in office. Allende won the Chilean presidential election as leader of the Unidad Popular "Popular Unity" coalition. On 4 September , he obtained a narrow plurality of According to the Chilean constitution of the time, if no presidential candidate obtained a majority of the popular vote, Congress would choose one of the two candidates with the highest number of votes as the winner.

Tradition was for Congress to vote for the candidate with the highest popular vote, regardless of margin. Former president Jorge Alessandri had been elected in with a plurality of Hospitalized, he died of his wounds three days later on 23 October. General Schneider's death was widely disapproved of and, for the time, ended military opposition to Allende, [ 51 ] whom the Congress finally chose on 24 October.

In his speech to the Chilean legislature following his election, Allende made clear his intention to move Chile from a capitalist to a socialist society:. We are moving towards socialism, not from an academic love for a doctrinaire system, but encouraged by the strength of our people, who know that it is an inescapable demand if we are to overcome backwardness and who feel that a socialist regime is the only way available to modern nations who want to build rationally in freedom, independence and dignity.

We are moving towards socialism because the people, through their vote, have freely rejected capitalism as a system which has resulted in a crudely unequal society, a society deformed by social injustice and degraded by the deterioration of the very foundations of human solidarity. That included nationalization of large-scale industries notably copper mining and banking and government administration of the healthcare system, educational system with the help of a United States educator, Jane A.

Hobson-Gonzalez from Kokomo, Indiana , a free milk program for schoolchildren and in shanty towns of Chile, and an expansion of the land seizure and redistribution already begun under his predecessor Eduardo Frei Montalva , [ 56 ] who had nationalized between one-fifth and one-quarter of all the properties listed for takeover. In November , 3, scholarships were allocated to Mapuche children in an effort to integrate the indigenous minority into the educational system.

Furthermore, Allende's administration resumed payment of pensions and grants, launched an emergency plan providing for the construction of , residential buildings, granted rights to social security for all part-time workers, withdrew a proposed increase in electricity prices, restored diplomatic relations with Cuba, and granted amnesty to various political prisoners.

In December , the administration fixed bread prices; sent 55, volunteers to the south of the country to teach writing and reading skills and provide medical attention to an underserved sector of the population; established a central commission to oversee a tripartite payment plan in which equal place was given to government, employees, and employers; and signed a protocol agreement with the United Center of Workers, granting workers representational rights on the funding board of the Social Planning Ministry.

Allende established an obligatory minimum wage for workers of all ages including apprentices , [ 60 ] free milk for expectant and nursing mothers and for children between the ages of 7 and 14, [ 61 ] and free meals at school. Workers benefited from increases in social security payments, an expanded public works program, and a modification of the wage and salary adjustment mechanism that had originally been introduced in the s to cope with the country's chronic inflation.

Middle class Chileans benefited from the elimination of taxes on modest incomes and property. In addition, the exemption from general taxation was raised to a level equivalent to twice the minimum wage. Exemptions from capital taxes were also extended, which benefitted , small proprietors. The extra increases that Frei had promised to the armed forces were also fully paid.

The new Minister of Agriculture, Jacques Chonchol , promised to expropriate all estates which were larger than eighty "basic" hectares about acres. That promise was kept, with no farm in Chile exceeding that limit by the end of Particularly in rural areas, the Allende government launched a campaign against illiteracy, while adult education programs expanded, together with educational opportunities for workers.

From to , enrolments in kindergarten, primary, secondary, and post-secondary schools all increased. The Allende government encouraged more doctors to begin practising in rural and low-income urban areas, and built additional hospitals, maternity clinics, and especially neighborhood health-centers that remained open for longer hours to serve the poor.

Improved sanitation and housing facilities for low-income neighborhoods also equalized health-care benefits, while hospital councils and local health councils were established in neighborhood health-centers as a means of democratizing the administration of health policies. The councils gave central-government civil-servants, local-government officials, health-service employees, and community workers the right to review budgetary decisions.

The Allende government sought to bring the arts to the mass of the Chilean population by funding a number of cultural endeavours. With eighteen-year-olds and illiterates now granted the right to vote, mass participation in decision-making was encouraged by the Allende government, with traditional hierarchical structures now challenged by socialist egalitarianism.

The Allende Government was able to draw upon the idealism of its supporters, with teams of "Allendistas" travelling into the countryside and shanty towns to perform volunteer work. In the space of two years, 12 million copies of books, magazines, and documents 8 million of which were books specializing in social analysis, were published. Cheap editions of great literary works were produced on a weekly basis, and in most cases were sold out within a day.

Culture came into the reach of the masses for the first time, who responded enthusiastically. Through the supply of cheap textbooks, it enabled the Left to progress through the ideological content of the literature made available to workers. The Allende Government steered the educational system towards poorer Chileans by expanding enrollments through government subsidies.

An unprecedented , students were enrolled by the universities, which became accessible to peasants and workers. Secondary education grew at a rate of Social spending was dramatically increased, particularly for housing, education, and health, and a major effort was made to redistribute wealth to poorer Chileans. As a result of new initiatives in nutrition and health, together with higher wages, many poorer Chileans were able to feed and clothe themselves better than ever before.

Public access to the social security system was increased, and state benefits such as family allowances were raised significantly. The redistribution of income enabled wage and salary earners to increase their share of national income from In addition, while the average annual increase in personal spending had been 4. According to Jennifer E.

Pribble , the new spending "was reflected not only in public health campaigns, but also in the construction of health infrastructure". The National Supplementary Food Program was extended to all primary school pupils and to all pregnant women, regardless of their employment or income condition. Complementary nutritional schemes were applied to malnourished children, while antenatal care was emphasized.

In enterprises in the Area of Social Ownership, an assembly of the workers elected half of the members of the management council for each company. Those bodies replaced the former board of directors. During a emergency program, over 89, houses were built, and during Allende's three years as president an average of 52, houses were constructed annually.

The incomes of , retirement pensioners were increased by the government from one-third of the minimum salary to the full amount. Labor insurance cover was extended to , market traders, , small shop proprietors, 30, small industrialists, small owners, transport workers, clergy, professional sportsmen, and artisans. The public health service was improved, with the establishment of a system of clinics in working-class neighborhoods on the peripheries of the major cities, providing a health center for every 40, inhabitants.

Statistics for construction in general, and housebuilding in particular, reached some of the highest levels in the history of Chile. Workers were able to acquire goods which had previously been beyond their reach, such as heaters, refrigerators, and television sets. As further noted by Ricardo Israel Zipper, "By now meat was no longer a luxury, and the children of working people were adequately supplied with shoes and clothing.

The popular living standards were improved in terms of the employment situation, social services, consumption levels, and income distribution. Chilean presidents were allowed a maximum term of six years, which may explain Allende's haste to restructure the economy. Not only was a major restructuring program organized the Vuskovic plan , he also had to make it a success if a left-wing successor to Allende was going to be elected.

The average real GDP contracted between and at an annual rate of a 5. The combination of inflation and price controls, together with the disappearance of basic commodities from supermarket shelves, led to the rise of black markets in rice, beans, sugar, and flour. Allende also froze all prices while raising salaries. His implementation of the policies was strongly opposed by landowners, employers, businessmen and transporters associations, and some civil servants and professional unions.

The rightist opposition was led by the National Party , the Catholic Church which in was displeased with the direction of educational policy , [ 88 ] and eventually the Christian Democrats. There were growing tensions with foreign multinational corporations and the government of the United States. Allende undertook the pioneeristic Project Cybersyn , a distributed decision support system for decentralized economic planning , developed by British cybernetics expert Stafford Beer.

Based on the experimental viable system model and the neural network approach to organizational design, the Project consisted of four modules: a network of telex machines Cybernet in all state-run enterprises that would transmit and receive information with the government in Santiago. Information from the field would be fed into statistical modeling software Cyberstride that would monitor production indicators, such as raw material supplies or high rates of worker absenteeism, in "almost" real time, alerting the workers in the first case and, in abnormal situations, if those parameters fell outside acceptable ranges by a very large degree, also the central government.

The information would also be input into an economic simulation software CHECO , for CHilean ECOnomic simulator which featured a Bayesian filtering and control setting that the government could use to forecast the possible outcome of economic decisions. Finally, a sophisticated operations room Opsroom would provide a space where managers could see relevant economic data, formulate feasible responses to emergencies, and transmit advice and directives to enterprises and factories in alarm situations by using the telex network.

Allende raised wages on a number of occasions throughout and , but the wage hikes were negated by ongoing inflation of Chile's fiat currency. Copper is Chile's single most important export, as more than half of Chile's export receipts were from that sole commodity. The rate of inflation fell from In addition, from to real fuel prices went down by In , Chile re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba, joining Mexico and Canada in rejecting a previously established Organization of American States convention prohibiting governments in the Western Hemisphere from establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Shortly afterward, Cuban president Fidel Castro made a month-long visit to Chile. Originally, the visit was supposed to be one week; however, Castro enjoyed Chile and one week led to another. Despite his attitude of socialist solidarity, Castro was reportedly critical of Allende's policies. Castro was quoted as saying that "Marxism is a revolution of production", whereas "Allende's was a revolution of consumption.

In October , the first of what were to be a wave of strikes was led first by truckers, and later by small businessmen, some mostly professional unions and some student groups. Other than the inevitable damage to the economy, the chief effect of the day strike was to induce Allende to bring the head of the army, general Carlos Prats , into the government as Interior Minister.

Government supporters also helped to mobilize trucks and buses, but violence served as a deterrent to full mobilization, even with police protection for the strike-breakers. Allende's actions were eventually declared unlawful by the Chilean appeals court and the government was ordered to return trucks to their owners. Throughout his presidency, Allende remained at odds with the Chilean Congress, which was dominated by the Christian Democratic Party.

In , Eduardo Frei had promised a "Revolution in Liberty", a middle-class revolution that was funded by the United States government's Alliance for Progress. According to historian Marian Schlotterbeck, this was "[John F. They eventually formed a coalition with the National Party. Allende and his opponents in Congress repeatedly accused each other of undermining the Chilean Constitution and acting undemocratically.

Allende's increasingly bold socialist policies partly in response to pressure from some of the more radical members within his coalition , combined with his close contacts with Cuba, heightened fears in Washington. The Nixon administration continued exerting economic pressure on Chile via multilateral organizations and continued to back Allende's opponents in the Chilean Congress.

Salvador Allende took office in a difficult international context. Chile was aligned with the United States in Elsewhere in Latin America, Brazil , Argentina and Bolivia were ruled by conservative military dictatorships soon to be joined by Uruguay. Colombia and Venezuela also had conservative, but democratically elected, governments. Only Cuba , Peru and Mexico viewed the Chilean socialist experiment with sympathy.

Chile, which until then had been fussy about ideological boundaries, diversified its diplomatic and trade relations, regardless of the internal political regime of each country. It tried to promote Latin American integration. He began negotiations with Bolivia over the historical dispute between the two countries Bolivia had lost access to the sea since the War of the Pacific between and and welcomed Bolivia's maritime request.

At the same time, Chile granted asylum to thousands of political exiles from Latin American countries. On the other hand, he was a fervent defender of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD , which he considered to be more representative since it allowed economic and trade issues to be negotiated on an equal legal footing.

He said that "freeing up trade Allende's Popular Unity government tried to maintain normal relations with the United States. When Chile nationalized its copper industry , the United States government cut off support and increased its support to the opposition. Much of the credit was never utilized, and the Soviets were not willing to subsidize Chile the same way they did for Cuba.

Allende's government was disappointed that it received far less economic assistance from the Soviets than it hoped for. Trade between the two countries did not significantly increase and the credits were mainly linked to the purchase of Soviet equipment. Moreover, credits from the Soviet Union were much less than those provided to the People's Republic of China and countries of the Eastern Bloc.

When Allende visited the Soviet Union in late in search of more aid and additional lines of credit after three years, he was turned down. The United States opposition to Allende started several years before he was elected President of Chile. The possibility of Allende winning Chile's election was deemed a disaster by the Nixon administration that wanted to protect American geopolitical interests by preventing the spread of Communism during the Cold War.

Some point to the involvement of the Defense Intelligence Agency agents that allegedly secured the missiles used to bombard La Moneda Palace. During Richard Nixon 's presidency, United States officials attempted to prevent Allende's election by financing political parties aligned with opposition candidate Jorge Alessandri and supporting strikes in the mining and transportation sectors.

Under the plan, Alessandri would resign his office immediately after assuming it and call new elections. Eduardo Frei would then be constitutionally able to run again since the Chilean Constitution did not allow a president to hold two consecutive terms, but allowed multiple non-consecutive ones , and presumably easily defeat Allende.

The Chilean Congress instead chose Allende as president, on the condition that he would sign a "Statute of Constitutional Guarantees" affirming that he would respect and obey the Chilean Constitution and that his reforms would not undermine any of its elements. Track II was aborted, as parallel initiatives already underway within the Chilean military rendered it moot.

The CIA was notified by its Chilean contacts of the impending coup two days in advance but contends it "played no direct role in" the coup. Much of the internal opposition to Allende's policies came from the business sector, and recently released United States government documents confirm that the United States indirectly [ 87 ] funded the truck drivers' strike, [ ] which exacerbated the already chaotic economic situation before the coup.

Both copper corporations aimed to expand privatized copper production in the city of Sewell in the Chilean Andes , where the world's largest underground copper mine "El Teniente", was located. Many documents regarding the United States intervention in Chile remain classified. Those that have been declassified showed that Nixon, Kissinger, and the United States government were aware of the coup and the plans to overthrow Allende's democratically elected government.

Political and moral support came mostly through the Communist Party and unions of the Soviet Union. At the same time, there were some fundamental differences between Allende and Soviet political analysts, who believed that some violence or measures that those analysts "theoretically considered to be just", should have been used. Allende is mentioned in a book written by the official historian of the British Intelligence MI5 , Christopher Andrew.

Nikolai Leonov affirmed that whenever he tried to give advice to Latin American leaders, he was usually turned down by them, and he was told that they had their own understanding on how to conduct political business in their countries. Leonov added that the relationships of KGB agents with Latin American leaders did not involve intelligence because their intelligence target was the United States.

Since many North Americans were living in the region, the Soviets were focusing in recruiting agents from the United States. Latin America was also a better region for KGB agents to get in touch with their informants from the CIA or other contacts from the United States than inside that country. On 29 June , Colonel Roberto Souper surrounded the presidential palace, La Moneda , with his tank regiment but failed to depose the government.

In August , a constitutional crisis occurred, and the Supreme Court of Chile publicly complained about the inability of the Allende government to enforce the law of the land. This revelation came to us when we ourselves experienced a couple of coup attempts. Salvador Allende Gossens will be remembered as a principled leader who fought tirelessly for his ideals, even in the face of overwhelming opposition.

Salvador allende goossens biography examples

His tragic end serves as a reminder of the sacrifices made in the pursuit of social justice and political change. Contact About Privacy. Ricardo Lagos. Michelle Bachelet. Ricardo Escobar. Over the course of the Popular Unity period, the United States funded the activities of the paramilitary organization Patria y Libertad, the national newspaper giant El Mercurio, and anti-government labor strikers, among others.

The goal was to organize the economy into three productive sectors: the Private Area small businesses , the Mixed Area the state as majority stockholder in mixed-ownership enterprises , and the Area of Social Property state-owned. Previously, U. The government also nationalized the coal and steel industries, much of the private financial sector, part of the textile industry, Ford, Ralston Purina, and International Telephone and Telegraph.

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