“At the Ministry of Defense, located on the Alameda, across from the Presidential Palace, the central headquarters was established with the High Command of the Armed Forces that coordinated the coup. It was Post No. 5.

Representing the Navy were: Patricio Carvajal, Vice Admiral, Chief of the Defense General Staff; Hugo Cabezas, Rear Admiral; Ladislao D'Hainaut, Navy Captain; and Frigate Captains Hernán Ferrer, Julio Vergara, and Rodolfo Calderón.

For the Army: Herman Brady, Brigadier General, Commander of the II Division and the Santiago Garrison; Ernesto Baeza, Division General, Chief of the Infrastructure Command; and Sergio Ñuño, Brigadier General of the National Defense General Staff.

For the Air Force

Nicanor Díaz Estrada , Deputy Chief of the Defense General Staff, Air Force General. Civilians also arrived at the Ministry of Defense: Federico Willoughby, journalist; Álvaro Puga, political commentator; and Sergio Arellano Iturriaga, lawyer and son of General Sergio Arellano Stark.

General Herman Brady, in charge of the Santiago Military Garrison, along with Arellano Stark, was responsible for the Santiago Center Combat Division or Group, including La Moneda. Herman Brady directed the troops from the Ministry of Defense, and Arellano Stark did the same on the street, entering and exiting the Ministry of Defense.

General Díaz Estrada 'put into action a nerve center: the Operations Center of the Armed Forces, COFA. Through that network managed by the Defense General Staff, contact was maintained with all the commanders of the jurisdictional zones into which the National Defense was organized for internal security purposes.'”

Source: Book Páginas en blanco (Blank Pages), September 11 at La Moneda

Book: "La Conjura" Chapter XXIV (Excerpt)

Originally published in 2000 by the director of CIPER, Mónica González, La Conjura (The Conspiracy) is an in-depth investigation into the plan to overthrow Salvador Allende. It reveals who truly devised the coup and who jumped on board at the last minute.

In 2012, the book was re-edited by Catalonia, with more than 100 extra pages of new data. Below is a chapter that recounts what happened on the day of the coup.

THE 11TH

In the early hours of September 11, Salvador Allende, surrounded by his inner circle, was concentrating his final efforts on a plebiscite with no destination. He was correcting the tone of the announcement when another call arrived at Tomás Moro.

It was from the La Moneda Broadcasting Office. The voice of René Largo Farías transmitted the report from the Aconcagua Intendency: –Troops are moving from the Guardia Vieja regiment in Los Ángeles and the Yungay regiment in San Felipe.

Allende made this known to Orlando Letelier, and the Minister of Defense decided to speak with General Herman Brady, Commander of the Santiago Garrison. –These are troops to prevent possible unrest due to the stripping of immunity of Senator Carlos Altamirano and Deputy Oscar Guillermo Garretón –replied General Brady, who, like Allende, was a Freemason and still held the President’s trust.

Pinochet was not sleeping either. He was trying to relax in the dim light. He was alone in his bedroom bed. His wife, Lucía Hiriart, and some of his children were already safe under the care of his friend, Colonel Renato Cantuarias Grandón, director of the Army’s High Mountain School in Río Blanco (Los Andes), very close to the border with Argentina.

A curious decision, that. Cantuarias was a prominent colonel known for his progressive principles, which he did not hide. His name had been recorded in General Arellano’s agenda on July 10, 1973, in an episode that portrays him: I preside over the Oath to the Flag ceremony in Portillo.

Due to the intense snowfall, it is impossible for me to return by helicopter or by land. I spend the whole day talking with the officers and non-commissioned officers, always with Colonel Cantuarias by my side.

The political topic arises, as is usual, and Cantuarias defends the Unidad Popular with such fervor that I must state firmly that our obligation is to defend the legally constituted government as long as it remains within its institutional channels, but in no case to support political tendencies or specific individuals.

And there I cut the discussion short. How was it possible that Pinochet chose precisely Cantuarias’s house to put his family "out of the line of danger"? The answer would be revealed dramatically days later.

At midnight, in Valparaíso, one of the owners of the Coup, Admiral José Toribio Merino, had just taken command of his institution. –The day before the battle is much worse than the battle –he said at the War Academy, surrounded by the Navy High Command.

Merino and his collaborators drank whiskey to loosen the tension and toast to the success of the conspiracy.[1] At 2:00 a.m., in Santiago, Sergio Arellano was in the dining room of his apartment on Latadía.

He ate something quick and then tried to sleep, but an hour and a half later, the phone pulled him out of bed. The call came from Concepción. –Sergio, what time does Aunt Juana arrive? –General Washington Carrasco asked him. –I put her on the night train, so I calculate she should arrive at 8:30. "H-Hour" had its cryptograms.

Arellano hung up the phone and went back to sleep. In Valparaíso, meanwhile, the first reveille put the "Operation Silence" squadron into action. It had to silence the radios and communication systems that linked the port to the capital.

Another picket, with engineers and radio operators, prepared to silence all radios affiliated with the Unidad Popular starting at 4:30 a.m. At the same time, preparations were being finalized for the start of the coup forces' network via Radio Agricultura[2] (of the business guild National Agricultural Society), in direct contact with the headquarters at the National Defense General Staff.

That entire operation was under the command of Colonel Sergio Polloni. In Santiago, at 4:30 a.m., another Navy team went into action at a house on Sánchez Fontecilla Street. Inside, Admiral Raúl Montero was sleeping.

He was unaware that he was no longer the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and that, in his yard, a Navy picket, composed of men who had sworn obedience to him, was cutting his phones and disabling his car.

After 4:30 a.m., the phone rang once more in Arellano’s ear. It was Arturo Yovane. In another coded lexicon, he asked him about the place designated for the concentration of detainees. The answer was laconic: –At the Tacna Regiment.

Arellano could no longer close his eyes. At about 5:00 a.m., he got up and slowly prepared for a long and unpredictable day. At 5:45 a.m., his driver was supposed to come. But at the appointed time, there was no vehicle or driver.

Arellano congratulated himself for having summoned a patrol instead, which did arrive in a jeep with punctuality. He dropped his wife off at the house of his friend and course mate, Colonel René Zúñiga Cáceres, a few blocks from his apartment.

On the fifth floor of the Ministry of Defense, the men who would take charge of the network that would lead the coup forces' broadcasts were already taking their positions. Sergio Arellano Jr. arrived accompanied by Colonel Polloni.

There, he found Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Guillard and two civilians: Álvaro Puga and Federico Willoughby, communications manager of the National Agricultural Society, which was led by Alfonso Márquez de la Plata and Sergio Romero[3].

In Concepción, at the Air Force’s Carriel Sur Base, shortly before 5:00 a.m., officer Mario López Tobar finished showering. There was little more than an hour left before he would assume the identity of Libra , the leader of the pilots selected to maneuver the twelve British-origin subsonic Hawker Hunter aircraft, purchased in 1966 for a different use than that decided by the conspirators.

Finally, four aircraft were chosen. They were armed with 32 Sura rockets, each 8 centimeters in diameter and with an explosive charge of about 350 grams. They also carried Sneb rockets, 6 centimeters in diameter, and 30-millimeter projectiles in the aircraft's four Aden cannons, with a 60-gram explosive charge.

The ammunition box had a capacity of 200 rounds and the cannons a rate of fire of 1,400 rounds per minute, which gave each Hawker Hunter the surprising total rate of fire of 5,600 explosive projectiles per minute.

The plane of the second-in-command of the Hawker Hunter pilots had been adapted with two modern French launchers, recently arrived in Chile, with 18 units each[4]. That second-in-command was Rufián , the war name of Fernando Rojas Vender (appointed Commander-in-Chief of the FACH in 1995 by President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle), who told the author in September 1999: -No one in flight knew who would be assigned the La Moneda target.

They invented that they had been American pilots, and they were only Chileans and not selected, because the bombing was being postponed, the planes were overflying, the plane has an action radius, in one sector it waited, some had to leave, others arrived, and whoever it fell to, it fell to…[5] At the Military School, at 6:00 sharp, Colonel José Domingo Ramos, Chief of Staff of the Military Institutes Command, presented himself before General Raúl César Benavides.

The previous night, a military patrol had transmitted his new boss's order: he had to interrupt his vacation and report to his command post at that time: –Today, the stripping of immunity of Altamirano and Garretón will take place.

We foresee unrest and disorder. We must put the internal security plan, "Plan A," into execution. Act accordingly –Benavides told him. "Plan A" established a state of alert to prevent unrest among the population.

Benavides also informed him that he would have a reinforcement of four officers from the third year of the War Academy. Among them was the young officer Luis Cortés Villa[6]. At 6:30 a.m., the rector of the State Technical University, Enrique Kirberg, woke up startled by the incessant ringing of the phone.

He had slept little. The previous day, until very late, he had prepared the great event of the 11th: that morning he would inaugurate the "Week of struggle against fascism, civil war, and for life," which Salvador Allende would preside over.

And from there, at 11:00 a.m., the President would call for a plebiscite. –A group of armed civilians has attacked the university radio facilities –he heard on the other end of the phone. –Are there any wounded? –They didn't hurt anyone.

They only disabled the antenna. Both because of the haircut and the weapons they were carrying and the truck that was waiting for them outside, it is clear that it was a Navy group. Kirberg went straight to the university, located in the Estación Central sector.

He decided that once there, he would call the Investigative Police. But no one answered. He knew something strange was happening… At 6:30, Arellano had already installed himself in the Ministry of Defense.

Patricio Carvajal and the Air Force General, Nicanor Díaz Estrada, the two chiefs of the National Defense General Staff; Herman Brady; and General Sergio Nuño had also done so. Afterward, Arellano met with all the unit commanders who would participate in the action.

They reviewed the missions and clarified doubts. –By 14:00 hours, all established objectives must be conquered. In that cold and misty dawn, at 6:30 a.m., General Yovane was heading to the Norambuena Building, where the Carabineros directorate operated.

He made a stop along the way. He inspected the small assault tanks and the contingent from the Non-Commissioned Officers School and the Special Forces, which were already warming up their engines. The light tanks would play a key role: they were to surround the government palace and serve as a shield for the infantry.

In Carriel Sur (Concepción), at 6:45 a.m., the planes were already ready to be operated. The first flock was to take off at 7:30 a.m. Their mission: to silence the radio station antennas in Santiago and then remain over the city for half an hour in case General Leigh ordered another target.

The weather report indicated at that time that Santiago was covered in clouds. The nervousness among the pilots was betrayed by their gestures and the silence with which they executed the maneuvers. It was the first time they had a real mission to attack ground targets.

In Tomás Moro, Allende was already aware that something was happening in Valparaíso. A call from Alfredo Joignant, Director of Investigations, transmitted more information to him: –Prefect Juan Bustos of Valparaíso reports that the Navy is seizing the city.

And then there was another confirming communication from the Carabineros chief of Valparaíso, Colonel Manuel Gutiérrez. The paradoxes of fate had made it so that it was precisely a staunch opponent of the UP government who was in charge of giving the alert from the official trench.

Only weeks earlier, Gutiérrez, whose two sons were members of Patria y Libertad, had been the object of government wrath when he ordered the dispersal of a left-wing demonstration with extraordinary harshness.

The government reprimanded him severely and notified him that his promotion to general was deferred[7]. What initially baffled Allende’s group of advisors was that, complying with the "Operation Unitas" program, the Squadron had set sail for the north.

But it was all a trick: the cruisers Prat and O’Higgins, the destroyers Cochrane, Blanco Encalada, and Orella, and the submarine Simpson had reached the waters off Papudo only to return to their base and position themselves in front of an occupied Valparaíso.

Only then was the ships' crew informed of the conspiracy. –Orlando, communicate with the commanders-in-chief to find out what is happening in Valparaíso –Allende ordered his Minister of Defense, still in his bed.

Letelier tried to speak with Admiral Montero: it was impossible. He called Pinochet: he was in the shower, they told him. He looked for Leigh and did not find him. An alarming picture was taking shape. Finally, he called his office. He expected to hear his aide, Commander González, but another voice answered him: that of Patricio Carvajal.

Orlando Letelier recounts

«He had the option of hanging up the phone, which would have meant that I realized there was something abnormal. He didn't. I told him I had information about troop movements in Valparaíso and the displacement of others to Santiago. “Look, Minister, I think that is incorrect information,” he said. “No, Admiral, I do not have any incorrect information,” I replied.

And then he said, stuttering: “I will try to find out.” His hesitation was such that I took the phone, brought it close to my wife’s ear, and whispered to her: “Listen to how a traitor speaks!” He tried to give me a thousand evasive explanations.

Finally, I told him: “Look, Admiral, I am going to the ministry immediately”»[8]. In Tomás Moro, Allende asked to be connected with General Brady. The latter replied that he would require information, that he had no knowledge of the events he mentioned.

In Concepción, at 7:05 a.m., the pilots boarded the four Hawker Hunters. Twenty minutes later, they took off one by one to meet in combat formation and head toward Santiago. At 35,000 feet, Mario López Tobar, Libra , tried to peer downward: only a thick layer of clouds. «My heart galloping like never before in my life.

None of this was normal or predictable. Only a miracle could have stopped that attack…» At about 7:00 a.m., at the Ministry of Defense, Brady received a new call from Allende. The President already knew what the "rumors" were about.

Brady tried to reassure him. –It seems to me that he was not satisfied with my explanations –Brady told Carvajal, Arellano, and Díaz Estrada as soon as he hung up. And he was right. Minutes later, Allende, wearing a turtleneck sweater and a tweed jacket, left Tomás Moro along with Augusto Olivares and Joan Garcés.

They were followed by the chief of the Carabineros escort, Captain José Muñoz, and a group from the GAP, led by Jaime Sotelo Barrera, better known as Carlos Álamos . They left at full speed toward La Moneda.

On the way, Sotelo and Juan José Montiglio ( Aníbal ) prepared the weapons. Among them were six AKA machine guns, all gifted by Fidel Castro to the GAP. Óscar Balladares and Manuel Mercado, both from the GAP, Dr.

Danilo Bartulín[9], and Dr. Ricardo Pincheira, a member of the CENOP, better known as Máximo , also took their places. Hortensia Bussi remained at Tomás Moro, under the protection of detective Jorge Fuentes Ubilla[10] and an escort led by Domingo Bartolomé Blanco.

Bruno had been a founding member of the GAP and its chief since 1972, when the MIR abandoned presidential security due to political differences with the government. Sociologist Claudio Jimeno, of the CENOP, had already been warned by Máximo Pincheira about what was happening.

Like all members of Allende’s secret group of advisors, he had fresh in his memory the sarcastic comment made by the President on the day of the "Tanquetazo." That June 29, the group arrived at La Moneda once the uprising was controlled: "The CENOP shone by its absence!" he told them.

They promised each other it would not happen again. –Fatty, we have to go to La Moneda immediately –Jimeno told Felipe . –What’s happening? –There is saber-rattling, and now this is for real. Isabel has a problem with the car and can't take me, so you pick me up.

Afterward, we’ll pick up Jorge (Dr. Jorge Klein). At 7:40, Pinochet arrived at the Peñalolén troop command. He was received by General Oscar Bonilla, uneasy about his delay. He gathered all the commanders and initiated the action.

Major Osvaldo Zabala, aide to the Army chief, and previously in that same position with Prats, informed him that he was in deep disagreement with the decision adopted by the Armed Forces. He was detained in an office at the troop command while adrenaline flowed in torrents around him.

Orlando Letelier arrived at the Ministry of Defense to try to take control of the situation. Arellano was alerted instantly. He wrote later: «At 7:30 a.m., Minister of Defense Orlando Letelier[11] arrived.

His aide, Lieutenant Colonel Sergio González, informed him that he was no longer minister and brought him into my presence. I ordered his transfer to the Tacna Regiment with a patrol. He was the first detainee of September 11».

The chief of the presidential security Investigations team, Inspector Juan Seoane, had been awakened by a phone call from Tomás Moro with the first alarm signal. He immediately called his colleagues. From there, he went in search of Sub-inspector Carlos Espinoza, detective José Sotomayor, Sub-inspector Fernando del Pino, detective Juan Collío, and Sub-inspector Douglas Gallegos.

After passing by Tomás Moro and confirming that the President had already left for La Moneda, they left for the presidential palace. In front of the Hotel Carrera, David Gallardo and Luis Henríquez joined them. 18 detectives entered La Moneda. Only one of them left before it was all over. Juan Seoane

«Only four were missing. They saw that the situation was very difficult and did not dare to face it. At 8:00 a.m., when we entered, the atmosphere was very convulsed; Carabineros barriers and light tanks surrounded the place, protecting it.

I immediately presented myself to the chief of the Military House and spoke with the Director of Investigations, Alfredo Joignant, who ordered me to remain by the President’s side. We did not hesitate for a minute to stay.

There was the legally constituted government that we had sworn to defend. We had done the same on June 29 for the “Tanquetazo.” And that day they congratulated us. We were not heroes, nor did we want to immolate ourselves for a political ideal.

We were public servants, very afraid, but with enough clarity to understand that if we abandoned our post, we would be a fraud as police officers». At that same hour, General César Mendoza passed in front of La Moneda in the direction of the Norambuena Building.

With astonishment, he contemplated the deployment of the Carabineros light tanks in a defensive position. He entered the building in search of Yovane and asked him: –Who has control of that force that is at La Moneda? –Just stay here.

Everything is under control! The light tanks will withdraw when I order it –replied Yovane, who was in command of the radio center from where he communicated internally with Patricio Carvajal at the central command in the Ministry of Defense.

Allende found himself at La Moneda with increasingly alarming information. By his side were his secretary Osvaldo Puccio and his son Osvaldo, a law student and member of the MIR. At 7:55 a.m., Chileans learned through Allende’s first address that something serious was happening.

In homes, movements froze. –What I want is for the workers to be attentive, vigilant, to avoid provocations. As a first stage, we have to see the response, which I hope will be positive, of the soldiers of the homeland who have sworn to defend the established regime.

Some left quickly to occupy their combat posts, others began to experience a feeling of relief and satisfaction: the end of the Unidad Popular was approaching. General Carlos Prats listened, dismayed, to Allende’s words.

Installed at the intersection of Pocuro and Tobalaba, in the apartment of his friend, General Ervaldo Rodríguez, Military Attaché in Washington, he would no longer detach himself from the radio receiver.

At 8:00 a.m., Valparaíso was totally controlled by the Navy. Merino launched his first proclamation: «The Armed Forces cannot remain impassive before the collapse of our Homeland. This is not a Coup d'État; only the re-establishment of a Rule of Law is sought.

We have no commitment; only the most capable and honest will govern. We are trained in the school of civility, of respect for the human person, of coexistence, of justice, of patriotism…». At the Military School, and when the clock in his office marked 8:00 a.m., Benavides ordered his Chief of Staff, Colonel José Domingo Ramos, to summon the entire headquarters to a meeting.

Ramos saw the nearly 20 officers arrive in a few minutes in a state of excitement. He already knew Ernesto Videla as an excellent officer. He thought he was a good reinforcement sent by the War Academy.

Silence fell, and Benavides began to speak: –The Armed Forces, from now on, are taking charge of the country. From this moment, we are the government. This operation has been underway since the early hours of this morning; later you will know what it is about.

In all units of the country, orders have been given to take the governorships, the intendencies, and to take charge of all government offices and dependencies. If there is anyone who wants to say something, this is the moment because we will not take a single step back.

Ramos looked around. No one opened their mouth. –I ask for the floor –he said. Benavides made everyone leave. Ramos spoke: –Look, General, I do not share the solution that has been adopted for the national problems.

If you had asked me a week earlier, I would have given all my reasons and would have explained the ways to act in such a case, because that is what they have prepared us for, that is why we have a profession and a specialization in command.

But now that you have said that you will not take a single step back, everything I would have to say no longer makes sense. General, dispose of me, because I will not accompany you. This is not the path; it goes against my principles and those of the institution, those of non-intervention in national politics.

Benavides only said

–Your retirement is accepted, Colonel! You may hand over your post! Then he ordered him to go to a side room. Ramos understood that this meant being detained. –No, I will not go to that office. I only ask to hand over my post immediately.

Minutes later, Ramos called his wife and asked her to send him the only civilian suit hanging in his closet. In his office, Commander Roberto Soto Mackeney, his replacement, was already there. Shortly after, he left the Military School on foot.

He did not imagine that it was also the definitive break with his "military family." At 8:20 a.m., Allende spoke to the country again. He still had the hope that the uprising was only limited to the Navy and Valparaíso, and that the massive concentration of workers in the occupied industries would make those who wanted to unleash the massacre hesitate.

At those same moments, the Hawker Hunters had reached the Maipú sector to begin a rapid penetration toward Radio Corporación. They dropped more than 15,000 feet per minute and crossed the thick layer of clouds. Between five and six thousand feet, the four planes flying almost wing-to-wing broke formation to head each to its target under the command of Libra

–Firing distance! –ordered López Tobar. He pulled the trigger, and eight rockets sought the target, which blew to pieces. – Libra Leader to Gato Control! Corporación is already completely off the air, over… –Received, Libra Leader .

Libra 2 has also already hit its target. We still need to know about 3 and 4. Give me your position and altitude, Libra Leader . Over… –I am orbiting over the center at 20,000 feet. What has happened? –The resistance has been almost nil, but the President is still in La Moneda.

There are people shooting from there and also from the roof of the Banco del Estado building and some ministries. But that is the business of the military who are on the scene. The UH-1H (helicopters) of Group 10 will take care of those on the rooftops.

In the Radio Corporación studios, announcers Sergio Campos and Julio Videla were frantically looking, along with Erick Schnacke, for how to stay on the air. Radio Magallanes continued calling on Chileans to defend the government and remain at their workplaces.

Campos and Videla concentrated their attacks on the Navy, the only one that, until that minute, had announced the uprising. In Valparaíso, docked at the pier, a Cuban ship was unloading sugar when its captain realized what was happening.

Without hesitation, he ordered to set sail, dragging the cranes that were doing the unloading. The alarm went off at Merino’s headquarters. Some officers became convinced that Carlos Altamirano and some "notorious Marxists" had escaped on board and ordered to go in pursuit of the ship.

Despite the precise order that was issued, the Commander-in-Chief of the Squadron and a ship commander did not react promptly. Their negligence would be harshly punished later. At 8:30 a.m., the war began.

Ten minutes later, Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Guillard opened fire through the airwaves of Radio Agricultura. From his command, on the fifth floor of the Ministry of Defense, he broadcast the first proclamation of the Coup: «…Bearing in mind: first, the very serious social and moral crisis that the country is going through; second, the government’s inability to control the chaos; third, the constant increase of paramilitary groups trained by the Unidad Popular parties that will lead the people of Chile to an inevitable civil war, the Armed Forces and Carabineros of Chile…» Movements in the streets, offices, industries, universities, and homes became petrified once again. Guillard’s voice became more intimidating when he announced the demands of Pinochet, Leigh, Merino, and Mendoza: –First, that the President of the Republic must proceed immediately upon the handover of his high office to the Armed Forces and the Carabineros of Chile. Second, the Armed Forces and the Carabineros Corps of Chile are united to initiate the responsible mission of fighting for the liberation of the homeland from the Marxist yoke and the restoration of order and institutionalism. Third, the workers of Chile must have the assurance that the economic and social achievements they have attained to date will not suffer fundamental modifications. Fourth, the press, radio stations, and channels addicted to the Unidad Popular must suspend their informative activities from this instant; otherwise, they will receive aerial and ground punishment. –The people of Santiago must remain in their homes in order to avoid innocent victims –was the final order. The FACH General, Alberto Bachelet, who was the National Distribution Secretary since January of that year, was held at gunpoint by his colleague, Air Force General Orlando Gutiérrez. Together with Commanders Raúl Vargas and Edgar Ceballos, he was notified of his arrest. The former violently stripped him of his service weapon and the latter ripped the telephones from the room. Along with other prisoners, he was taken to the basement of the Air War Academy. "They tied our hands, blindfolded us, and put a hood over our heads. We had to remain standing, without moving and without speaking. Whoever did not would receive a bullet in the legs," he would later recount. In the Parque Forestal, the CENOP Felipe , his wife, Jimeno, and Klein were in their car heading to La Moneda. Upon seeing that heavily armed military patrols were emerging from all sides to seize the sector, they decided to stop the vehicle to continue on foot. Jimeno and Klein got out first. –I’ll park and meet you –Felipe told them. He saw them give him an affectionate gesture with their hands and Felipe turned around to say goodbye to his wife: "When I looked at her, her face had changed. 'You, you fool, you are not going anywhere! You are coming back with me!', she told me. The argument was terrible and in the least appropriate place and moment. She kept repeating: 'You cannot leave me alone here!' And her face reflected all the desperation of the moment... I stayed by her side...". When Jimeno and Klein passed through the door of La Moneda, the leadership of the PS, headed by Carlos Altamirano, was already gathered at the headquarters of the Urban Improvement Corporation (CORMU), a few meters from the high command of the Coup. Along with Altamirano were Carlos Lazo, Adonis Sepúlveda, Rolando Calderón, Ariel Ulloa, and Hernán del Canto. In contact with them, but in another part of Santiago, was Arnoldo Camú. A small group of socialists knew him as Commander Agustín, responsible for that party's military policy. The men were evaluating the situation. Camú was in communication with Eduardo Coco Paredes and Ricardo Pincheira, Máximo , who were installed in La Moneda, and with the GAP group that still remained in Tomás Moro. Furthermore, he was issuing instructions to activate the security apparatus, which included an important resistance group at INDUMET, a metallurgical industry in the "San Joaquín Cordón" that had been intervened by the State. But Camú knew of its precarious capabilities. The socialist leadership believed that the best course of action was for Allende to leave La Moneda. It was decided to send Hernán del Canto to speak with him to find out what his disposition was. In La Moneda, Allende heard the first coup proclamation and reacted immediately with a new message over the airwaves of Radio Magallanes and Radio Corporación, which had managed to go on the air through the frequency modulation antenna. His voice sounded calm: –That proclamation urges the President of the Republic to resign. I will not do so. I notify the country of the incredible attitude of soldiers who fail to keep their word and their commitment. I state my irrevocable decision to continue defending Chile in its prestige, in its tradition, in its legal norms, in its Constitution… At 9:15, Arellano received the first report from the provinces. It was from San Antonio. The voice of Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Contreras sounded triumphant: –City taken, my General. All the interveners are prisoners. I have already enabled a men's prison and a women's prison, and they are also occupied. At that precise moment, the leader of the Hawker Hunters received a new order: – Libra Leader , this is Gato . Pass through Los Cerrillos and land there. Over. At 9:20, Libra and his team landed in Cerrillos. Half an hour earlier, in La Moneda, an event had occurred that took on dramatic proportions. When Miria Contreras (la Payita ) was alerted that morning to the ongoing Coup, she quickly drove down from "El Cañaveral" in her small white Renault, accompanied by her son Enrique Ropert, a 20-year-old Economics student and militant of the Socialist Party. When she arrived at the Tomás Moro residence, she learned that the President had already left for La Moneda. She then requested that ten members of the private guard (GAP) travel with her to the government palace. Domingo Blanco Tarres ( Bruno ) decided it was time to leave and chose his group. The rapid journey through the avenues Apoquindo, Providencia, and Alameda ended a few meters from the goal: the door at Morandé 80. La Payita got out hurriedly. Gunshots could be heard. Seconds later, a group of Special Forces Carabineros who had just defected to the rebel forces, led by Lieutenants José Martínez Maureira and Patricio de la Fuente, burst in from the side of the Intendencia building and surrounded the pickup truck and the small car that Enrique Ropert was driving. When Miria turned her head to look at her son, she observed with horror that he was being brutally pulled from the car by the armed group. She turned back to try to free him; it was impossible. Screams and struggles were useless. Powerless, she watched as the rebels dragged him along with the group and entered the Intendencia building. Through that door, she saw her son disappear, along with Domingo Blanco and the GAP members: Juan Garcés Portigliatti, Oscar Marambio Araya, Jorge Orrego González, William Ramírez Barría, José Carreño Calderón, Carlos Cruz Zavala, Luis Gamboa Pizarro, Gonzalo Jorquera Leyton, and Edmundo Montero Salazar. Miria entered the presidential garage, opposite the Morandé 80 door, and from there she communicated with the palace. She spoke with Eduardo Coco Paredes. The desperation increased minute by minute. Paredes told her that the President, informed of the events, asked her to come up to his office to act from there. The Morandé door was already hermetically sealed. She entered through the main door of La Moneda. On the way, she crossed paths with Allende's Naval aide-de-camp. She asked him for help. Both returned toward the Intendencia. But once on the street, the sailor gave up. In a few minutes, she was with Allende and, opposite them, General José María Sepúlveda, General Director of the Carabineros. Obtaining the release of Enrique Ropert and the young GAP members was the request. Knowing that the life of her son and eleven young men was at risk and that she had to rescue them, la Paya did not wait. She left the palace again and only General Urrutia –second in command of the Carabineros– agreed to carry out the request. A few minutes later, he returned crestfallen: "I am sorry, but they no longer obey my General Sepúlveda. They only take orders from General Mendoza." La Payita re-entered La Moneda through the main door. The doors closed… The person who was able to reach La Moneda was the socialist Hernán del Canto. Allende's reception was not warm. The President had conflicting feelings in those moments when the Carabineros' tanks, which he believed were commanded by troops loyal to the government, turned around, initiating their retreat. Added to this was the news of the arrest of Bruno with the GAP group and Miria Contreras's son. There was no longer any doubt: the noose was tightening around him and the men who had decided to resist by his side. Over the airwaves of Radio Magallanes, the voices of Quilapayún tore through the air with El pueblo unido jamás será vencido and then the proclamation of the CUT. –Stop the fascist Coup! There was a strange cut and then, for the third time that morning, Allende's voice broke through. His tone remained serene, but the steely metal of his voice betrayed how far he would go. –At this moment, the planes are passing by. It is possible that they will machine-gun us. But let them know that we are here, at least with our example, that in this country there are men who know how to fulfill their duty… Patricio Carvajal called La Moneda. He asked to speak with Allende. He reiterated what his Air aide-de-camp, Roberto Sánchez, had already communicated to him: he had a plane available to leave the country with his family. –The President does not surrender! Aide-de-camp Sánchez entered La Moneda through the side door, the only one of the three who had been with Allende since the beginning of his term. In a hallway, he met with the other two aides-de-camp: Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Badiola, of the Army, and for the Navy, Frigate Commander Jorge Grez. They had been ordered to insist on the offer of the plane. Allende's collaborators and escorts tried to prevent them from being left alone with him. But the President's commanding voice made his men withdraw. –If you do not accept, Mr. President, the Air Force will bomb the palace. Thus ended the speech of one of the aides-de-camp. The silence was atrocious, until Allende broke it: –Tell your commanders-in-chief that I am not leaving here and I will not surrender. If they want my resignation, let them come and ask me for it themselves here. Let them have the courage to do so personally. They will not take me out alive, even if they bomb.

Aide-de-camp Sánchez would later say

-Allende had a submachine gun in his hands. He pointed it at his palate and told us: "Yes, I am going to commit suicide, because they will not take me out of here alive." He looked at me and said: "I thank you, Commander Sánchez, for the offer, but tell General Leigh that I am not going to use the plane, nor am I going to leave the country, nor am I going to surrender." It was about 10 in the morning...[12].

The President said goodbye to his three aides-de-camp, who left La Moneda without problems. Carvajal was immediately informed of the result of the effort. Through the internal channel, he communicated with the head of the Army: –You know that this guy is crooked.

It's the other way around. If he wants, he can go to the ministry to surrender to the three commanders-in-chief –said Pinochet. –I spoke personally with him. I ordered him to surrender in the name of the commanders-in-chief and he answered me with a series of insults –said Carvajal. –That means that at 11 they are going up there and they will see what is going to happen. –If the women evacuate La Moneda, it will be easy to storm it. –Once bombed by the aviation, we will storm it with the Buin and the Infantry School.

That must be told to Brady...[13] Shortly after 10 in the morning, the four Hawker Hunters took off for Concepción. But while flying over Constitución, Libra received an urgent call from Gato . General Leigh had ordered the aerial attack on La Moneda and the presidential house of Tomás Moro. When they landed in Concepción, they set about preparing the attack. Libra

recounted

"One of the pilots told me that rockets should be used and not bombs, given the proximity of tall buildings in the downtown area. I agreed because if bombs were dropped, the destruction would be total and the shrapnel would reach all the nearby buildings, so the possibility of many dead and wounded was very feasible.

Therefore, I agreed that the decision involved the use of Sura P-3, an anti-armor weapon capable of piercing the thick walls of the building. Two planes would attack La Moneda and two others Tomás Moro.

The attack on La Moneda would be from north to south and that on Tomás Moro from west to east." In the Ministry of Defense, the final instructions were issued to prepare the target for the Hawker Hunters.

Through the network of coup-supporting radio stations, Guillard's voice broke through with a new military proclamation and an ultimatum: –If there is no surrender, La Moneda will be bombed at 11 in the morning...

The group of detectives who remained in La Moneda learned that the three presidential aides-de-camp had withdrawn from the palace, but that the vast majority of the Carabineros who formed the presidential escort remained at their posts, led by their director, General José María Sepúlveda.

Outside, the troops commanded by General Javier Palacios had taken position. The fire began. The palace defense replied. Allende went through all the rooms giving orders. –If you want to leave the place, this is the moment, but leave your weapons.

We are going to need them! –he told General Sepúlveda. An officer brought helmets and submachine guns. The head of the Carabineros escort, José Muñoz, handed his helmet to the President. In the Red Room, Sub-officer Jorquera, assistant to the Air aide-de-camp, gave the President's secretary a telephone number. –Communicate with Commander Badiola.

They wanted to transmit a new message: immediate surrender and for Allende to go and speak with the Junta at the Ministry of Defense. Puccio asked Badiola to wait and informed Allende. –A President of Chile does not surrender and receive [orders] in La Moneda.

If Pinochet wants me to go to the ministry, let him not be a coward and let him come and get me personally! –he told Puccio to respond. Inspector Seoane became uneasy upon learning that the Carabineros chiefs were also withdrawing.

Suddenly, he heard Allende calling him: "He was in the Toesca Room, sitting on a large table. He told me that I and my people could withdraw. He insisted that I should inform my men that they were free.

When I told him that I would stay, he responded something like he knew that would be my decision. It was nothing grandiloquent. I transmitted the message to the staff and everyone decided to stay. Without big words, without melodramas: we were fulfilling our duty. We were already 17, since one of ours had withdrawn. Later I learned that they had seen him on a patrol boat crying."

Detective Luis Henríquez

"If there was anyone who was very clear about what was coming and what had to be done, it was the President. I did not see him waver at any moment, nor did I see him falter. When Seoane told us that the President was leaving us with freedom of action, but that our mission obliged us to remain in the palace until the final consequences, no one doubted.

I heard Garrido argue that with what face were we going to present ourselves before our families and comrades if we abandoned our mission. The opinion and certainty of the most senior prevailed. We all stayed." The departure of the Carabineros caused a sudden silence.

Then, the gunfire again. The encirclement was now almost total. General Sergio Arellano, at his command post, was following the withdrawal of the Carabineros' tanks attentively: The coordination with the Carabineros was very important.

The evacuation of the La Moneda Guard was coordinated with General Yovane. It had to be done with great skill since suspicion could not be aroused among the extremists and the GAP who had placed automatic weapons at the main points of the palace.

I was rushing Yovane because the attack by the Hawker Hunter planes and then the final attack by my forces could not be delayed any longer. In small groups, the Carabineros were abandoning La Moneda and heading to the Santiago Intendencia building.

For this, the arrival of the first tanks in the area was taken advantage of. An hour or so had passed, and we were already in full combat, when three Carabineros tanks advanced to Morandé 80, creating great confusion.

They exposed themselves to the fire of snipers and our own troops. Through the intense gunfire, it was seen that someone was getting into one of the tanks, after which they quickly abandoned the place.

A few moments later, the unit covering the Alameda sector with Manuel Rodríguez called me by radio: they had the three tanks detained, and in one of them was the Carabineros General José María Sepúlveda, who had been taken out of La Moneda by Yovane's order.

I immediately called Yovane to point out the unnecessary risk that had been run by not coordinating that action and exposing us to a clash between the Carabineros and the Army over a man who did not deserve it[14].

At INDUMET, its intervener, the socialist economist of Ecuadorian nationality, Sócrates Ponce, married to a daughter of Carabineros General Rubén Álvarez, spoke before the assembly of workers. He informed them of what was happening and told them that they had decided to resist, but that those who wanted to leave could do so immediately.

Less than a hundred men remained at their posts. In La Moneda, someone spoke with aide-de-camp Badiola, who was at the Ministry of Defense, and offered to negotiate to stop the bombing. Carvajal communicated with Pinochet and heard from his mouth: –Unconditional surrender.

No negotiating. Unconditional surrender! –Very well. Agreed. Unconditional surrender in which he is taken prisoner, offering nothing more than to respect his life, let's say... –His life and his physical integrity, and immediately he will be dispatched elsewhere. –Agreed.

So the offer to take him out of the country is maintained. –The offer to take him out of the country is maintained. And the plane will crash, old man, when it is flying... Carvajal laughed. In La Moneda, there was no room for distraction.

Allende went to his desk and picked up the magneto telephone. –Hello, hello, Radio Magallanes –he repeated several times. On the sixth floor of the building located at 235 Estado Street, journalists Guillermo Ravest and Leonardo Cáceres, plus the radio controller Amado Felipe, were trying to escape the imminent danger of an assault on the offices to stay on the air.

All other pro-government radios had been silenced. Only they remained. Ravest picked up the phone. He heard the President's voice: – I need you to put me on the air, immediately, comrade... – Give me a minute to set up the recording... – No, comrade. I need you to put me on the air immediately, there is no time to lose...

Guillermo Ravest

-Without taking the receiver from my ear, I shouted to Amado Felipe to install a tape to record him and to Leonardo Cáceres to run to the microphone to announce the President, whom I asked: "Count to three, please, comrade, and start." Despite the nervousness of those moments, Amado Felipe –a hyperkinetic and jovial fat man, son of Spanish refugees– had the cold blood to start broadcasting the first chords of the National Anthem, to which Leonardo Cáceres's voice was mixed, announcing the constitutional President[15].

Around Allende, nearly 40 people gathered. By his side was his daughter Beatriz ( Tati ). Allende did not have a single text in his hands. It was almost ten in the morning when a voice emerged over the airwaves of Radio Magallanes. –This is the President speaking...

And that voice was like a sting in the midst of the thunder: "Compatriots: it is possible that they will silence the radios, and I say goodbye to you. Perhaps this is the last opportunity I will have to address you.

The Air Force has bombed the towers of Radio Portales and Radio Corporación. My words do not have bitterness but disappointment, and they will be the moral punishment for those who have betrayed the oath they took: soldiers of Chile, titular commanders-in-chief, Admiral Merino, who has self-proclaimed himself, General Mendoza, a groveling general who only yesterday expressed his solidarity, has also named himself General Director of Carabineros." "Faced with these facts, I can only say to the workers: I will not resign.

Placed in a historical transition, I will pay with my life for the loyalty of the people. And I tell you that I have the certainty that the seed that we have planted in the dignified conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be able to be definitively reaped.

In the name of the most sacred interests of the people, in the name of the homeland, I call upon you to tell you to have faith. History does not stop with repression or crime. This is a stage that will be overcome.

This is a hard and difficult moment; it is possible that they will crush us. But tomorrow will belong to the people, it will belong to the workers. Humanity advances toward the conquest of a better life." "Workers of my homeland: I want to thank you for the loyalty you always had, the trust you placed in a man who was only an interpreter of great longings for justice, who pledged his word that he would respect the Constitution and the Law, and he did so." "This is the definitive moment, the last one in which I can address you.

But let them take advantage of the lesson. Foreign capital, imperialism united with reaction, created the climate for the Armed Forces to break their tradition, which Schneider pointed out and Commander Araya reaffirmed, victims of the same social sector that today will be in their homes waiting, with someone else's hand, to conquer power to continue defending their perks and their privileges.

I address myself above all to the modest woman of our land, to the peasant woman who believed in us, to the worker who worked more, to the mother who knew of our concern for the children. I address myself to the professionals of the homeland, to the patriotic professionals, to those who for days have been working against the sedition sponsored by the professional associations, class-based associations to also defend the advantages of a capitalist society." "I address myself to the youth, to those who sang and gave their joy and their fighting spirit.

I address myself to the man of Chile, to the worker, to the peasant, to the intellectual, to those who will be persecuted, because in our country fascism has already been present for many hours, in the terrorist attacks, blowing up bridges, cutting railway lines, destroying oil pipelines and gas pipelines, in the face of the silence of those who had the obligation to act.

They were compromised. History will judge them." "Surely Radio Magallanes will be silenced and the calm metal of my voice will not reach you. It does not matter, you will continue to hear me. I will always be with you, at least my memory will be that of a dignified man who was loyal to the homeland.

The people must defend themselves, but not sacrifice themselves. The people must not let themselves be razed or machine-gunned, but neither must they humiliate themselves." "Workers of my homeland, I have faith in Chile and its destiny.

Other men will overcome this gray and bitter moment where treason seeks to impose itself. Keep going, knowing that, much sooner rather than later, the great avenues will open again where free men will walk to build a better society.

Long live Chile!, long live the people!, long live the workers!" "These are my last words, having the certainty that the sacrifice will not be in vain. I have the certainty that, at least, there will be a moral sanction that will punish felony, cowardice, and treason." -There is no more, comrade, that is all –Allende told Ravest, upon finishing. [1] Posthumous interview conducted by the team from the Universidad Finis Terrae. [2] According to Federico Willoughby in his book La Guerra , being informed from the beginning of the development of the Coup and its date, the radio studios, located in the heart of the capital, were armored by German experts sent by Paul Schäffer, leader of Colonia Dignidad. Security was also in charge of a team from Schäffer. [3] Alvaro Puga ( Alexis ) would become Undersecretary of Government and a member of the Psychological Department of the DINA. He arrived that day, the 11th, replacing Carlos Ashton, a former Navy officer and director of Radio Agricultura, who would be, immediately after the Coup, head of Communications for the Foreign Ministry, from where he would play a role in the moments when General Carlos Prats and his wife were assassinated in Buenos Aires (1974). Márquez de la Plata was a minister under Pinochet and to this day continues to be part of the support groups for Pinochet and the military officers who carried out the Coup. Once democracy was restored, Sergio Romero was a senator for Renovación Nacional and in 2010 was appointed ambassador to Spain by President Sebastián Piñera. [4] From the book El 11 en la mira de un Hawker Hunter , by General Mario López Tobar, Libra . [5] Report published in the newspaper Clarín of Argentina, on Sunday, September 5, 1999. [6] Cortés Villa reached the rank of general and throughout his career was one of Pinochet's favorite officers. When he retired in 1998, he joined the Pinochet Foundation, of which he was executive secretary for many years. He remains one of its directors. [7] Interview with General Arturo Yovane in Cosas magazine. Colonel Manuel Gutiérrez was called to retirement shortly after the Coup and did not reach the rank of general. [8] From the recording he made recounting his last ten days as Minister of Defense. [9] Danilo Bartulí, doctor and personal friend of Allende, who was also a friend of his parents who lived in Chiloé. [10] Detective Jorge Fuentes Ubilla managed to get Hortensia Bussi out of Tomás Moro, in the midst of the bombing, through a back passage. [11] At the door, he was stopped by Navy Intelligence officer Daniel Guimpert, who joined the commission of the Joint Staff of National Defense headed by Nicanor Díaz Estrada and from there fabricated the confessions of the socialist worker Luis Riquelme to implicate him in the assassination of Allende's Naval Aide-de-Camp, Arturo Araya. [12] Interview in Análisis magazine No. 194. [13] From the transcript of the secret recordings of the Coup, revealed by Análisis magazine No. 122, of December 24, 1985. [14] Excerpt of what General Sergio Arellano wrote in his agenda about what happened on September 11, 1973. [15] Account by journalist Guillermo Ravest, published in Rocinante magazine No. 58, of August 2003, along with a testimony from journalist Leonardo Cáceres, at the time director of press for Radio Magallanes. Go up Comments (11)

RONALD SEPULVEDA VERDUGO07.09.2013

The chapter only confirms one thing: Pinochet's underhanded attitude regarding his political position and his boarding at the last minute, when the coup was already decreed.

CHRISTIAN MARTIN09.09.2013

My parents on one side and then imprisoned... Days of sorrow and bitterness, without forgiveness or forgetting.

NEPO DE LA TORRE11.09.2013

I would like to know where to get the book in Buenos Aires, thank you very much in advance.

JAVIER SÀNCHEZ13.09.2013

I have read very good comments about the book, but in Colombia, where can it be obtained? I congratulate its author.

LUIS NUÑEZ28.10.2013

Shameless military. "Brave" against defenseless civilians, why didn't Human Rights act here? Everything was orchestrated and financed and planned by Nixon and Kissinger. What must the suffering of the families in Chile have been like, who passed through those genocidal hands?

JAIME04.01.2014

THIS BOOK, WHICH I HAVE JUST FINISHED READING, IS THE TYPICAL COMMERCIAL BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR MONICA GONZALEZ, AIMED AT THE BUYING POPULISM, EAGER TO HEAR ADVENTURES AND STORIES THAT FAVOR THEM, ENTERTAIN THEM, AND GIVE THEM A REASON THEY DO NOT HAVE, AND TOTALLY REMOVED FROM REALITY.

THE AUTHOR'S LEFTIST TENDENCY IS CLEARLY EXPRESSED AND THE LACK OF IMPARTIALITY IN HER WRITINGS. JUST ONE EXAMPLE: WHY DOES THE AUTHOR OMIT PROVIDING DETAILS OF WHY THE GROUP CALLED "INTELLECTUAL GAP" COMMITTED SUICIDE IN LA MONEDA ON SEPTEMBER 11? .....HE WHO HAS CLEAN HANDS AND A CLEAR CONSCIENCE, IF HE HAS TO DIE...DIES FIGHTING...HE WHO HAS SOMETHING TO HIDE AND THE SHAME, FOR THE ACTS COMMITTED IN HIS PERSONAL LIFE, WHICH WILL COME TO LIGHT, WILL NOT ENDURE THE SHAME THAT WILL COME...HE WILL NOT WANT TO LIVE TO ENDURE IT....IF THE SHOE FITS...WEAR IT...

JAIME04.01.2014

TYPICAL COMMERCIAL BOOK, AIMED AT THE BUYING MASSES. NOT VERY OBJECTIVE, NOT VERY IMPARTIAL, AND FANCIFUL, VERY FAR FROM THE REALITY OF THE TIME. WRITTEN IN SUCH A WAY ONLY TO ENSURE ITS SALE AND THE AUTHOR'S ECONOMIC SUCCESS.

ANYONE WHO WANTS TO READ A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OR A WAR AND SPY NOVEL, LOOK FOR SOMETHING MORE ENTERTAINING.

PABLO 05.06.2014

The summary itself is full of historical imperfections with the goal of encouraging a reading that is almost on the verge of fiction. It has no more historical basis than "Adiós al séptimo de línea." Pure fantasy in the details in order to sell a general historical fact.

CLAUDIO JEMIO 30.08.2014

Jaime, Pablo, it is easy to make a comment in anonymity. And note that you are the only ones out of everyone who has commented who do not use your first and last names.

ARIELA GONZALEZ 12.09.2014

A historical document, precise, well-documented. Excellent. Congratulations to its author Mónica González. A question: the Mr. Claudio Gimeno mentioned here was my cousin. We never knew how he died, nor where, nothing. Would you have more information regarding this? Thank you.

GUILLERMO 25.12.2014

Can anyone deny the chaos? When I read these accounts I realize that politics is the dirtiest thing that could exist... phrases like: "Military branch of the Socialist Party," "Secret group of friends of the president," "Removal of Altamirano's parliamentary immunity," etc... it terrifies me.

Saying: "Brave soldiers who swore to defend the homeland" is total emotional blackmail... it is like going to war and using children as shields and accusing the opponent who fires at children. Incredibly, one reads the same names of current politicians... those same "revolutionaries" who after tens of years still do not change the AFPs and Isapres, the same names that do not provide guarantees to the workers.

Could the former president Allende have had innovative and beneficial ideas for the people? YES... but his advisors were the same as today... cowardly rats who left for exile and today, thanks to that, are bourgeois.

The UP was an erroneous and misplaced ideology. We can still see Mr. Patricio Aylwin asking for military intervention... later the first president in democracy... summary: INEPT POLITICIANS OF YESTERDAY.. TODAY AND ALWAYS. Anything to add?

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Source: ciper.cl, September 6, 2013

National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) Chile

Immediately after the coup of September 11, 1973, General Nicanor Díaz Estrada of the Air Force was given the responsibility of coordinating the different security agencies belonging to the various branches of the Armed Forces (FF.AA.), which until that moment had functioned autonomously.

To this end, Díaz Estrada gathered the directors of the different agencies – the Military Intelligence Service (SIM), the Naval Intelligence Service (SIN), the Carabineros Intelligence Service (SICAR), and the Air Force Intelligence Service (SIFA) – and assigned priority tasks for each service in relation to the repression of the left.

As part of this process, Army Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda pushed for the creation of an agency above the different intelligence services that would be in charge of organizing information processing and repressive work.

Before obtaining the agreement of the heads of the different branches of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Contreras had already begun to request the personnel rosters of those institutions. There were doubts regarding the creation of the nascent National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) given that this agency lacked legal status and would also mean the loss of relative importance for the other intelligence services.

However, the Military Junta, and especially General Augusto Pinochet, chose to support the initiative, and at the end of November 1973, Contreras received the personnel he had requested – selected officers and soldiers – at the Tejas Verdes regiment, which was at that time under his command.

Meanwhile, the nascent DINA had already assumed the task of interrogating, classifying, and separating detainees from some of the main detention centers that existed at that time. Between that period and June 1974, the DINA trained its personnel and carried out repressive actions effectively.

Between 1974 (officially) and 1977, the DINA took charge of the repressive work of the Chilean State under the command of the then-head of the Junta, Augusto Pinochet. According to the National Security Doctrine – adopted by the military regime from its inception to justify the coup d'état – there was an internal war in Chile that provoked the repression and elimination of sectors and individuals perceived as enemies of the State.

Within this context, the DINA acted as the main agency of repression, detaining, torturing, executing, and forcibly disappearing its "enemies," and effectively carrying out what is termed State terrorism, that is, crimes against humanity executed by State agents.

To carry out its repressive work, the DINA used various detention, interrogation, and torture centers, whether clandestine or not, about which there is knowledge through testimonies of survivors who were held in those places and other people, such as Villa Grimaldi in Santiago – one of the main DINA detention and interrogation centers –, Cuatro Álamos, Londres 38, José Domingo Cañas, la Venda Sexy, and the Simón Bolívar barracks, where the Lautaro Brigade operated, a unit created in April 1974 to provide protection to the head of the DINA, Colonel Manuel Contreras, and later an extermination center for the leaders of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh) and militants of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). The DINA also installed its own clinic on Santa Lucía street and a network of safe houses for its agents, informants, and some prisoners of "special treatment." Abroad, the DINA's operational team was strengthened with the creation of an anti-subversive network whose goal was to coordinate the continent's secret services. Under the name "Operation Condor," the security services of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia coordinated with the DINA to act in the detention and neutralization of alleged subversive cells and individuals, exchanging prisoners, data, and facilitating resources. Among the best-known DINA operations abroad is the so-called Operation Colombo, which was carried out as part of Operation Condor, and which in mid-1975 killed 119 Chileans in Argentina who had previously been detained by agents of the Chilean State. In addition, there are other cases, such as the assassination in September 1974, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, of the man who had been commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army during the democratic period and Vice President of the Republic, General Carlos Prats González, who was in exile in that country, and who died as a result of a bomb placed in his car, which upon exploding killed the general and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert. On October 6, 1975, a DINA commando machine-gunned the former Vice President of the Republic of Chile and member of the Christian Democratic Party, Bernardo Leighton Guzmán, and his wife, Ana Fresno, in Rome. In these international actions, several international far-right leaders, anti-Castro Cubans, and Michael Townley, a DINA/CIA agent, collaborated with the DINA, among others. In September 1976, the assassination of former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier and his American assistant Ronnie Moffitt occurred on the streets of Washington, D.C., United States, due to a bomb placed in their car. The activities of the DINA were carried out in secret. People were kidnapped preferably at night; if the arrests were during the day, care was taken that there were no witnesses. This modus operandi allowed agents to practice interrogations and torture without having to answer to anyone. As a result of the torture applied, many kidnapped persons died, thus adding to the list of the forcibly disappeared. There are numerous testimonies from those released who saw or heard in the aforementioned torture centers companions who have never been heard from again. In addition, all kinds of abuses were perpetrated (robberies in raided homes, actions such as intimidation and continuous surveillance) so that family members would give up the search for the kidnapped person. On August 13, 1977, by Decree Law No. 1878, the DINA was dissolved, being replaced by the National Intelligence Center (CNI), with powers and functions similar to those of its predecessor, but now dependent on the Ministry of the Interior. The CNI continued the repressive work of the DINA and during its existence became the most important intelligence service of the State. Regarding the political framework after the dissolution of the DINA, it is known that the decline of this entity began with the assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffitt in 1976, in Washington, the federal capital of the United States of America. When the DINA's involvement in the crime became clear, and the United States Government requested the extradition of some of its top leaders, it became evident to those higher authorities of the regime who did not yet know, or who had not sufficiently weighed it, the power and audacity of the group and the secret entity, as well as the immense damage they could cause, not only to their victims, but to the regime itself and the country.

Source: atom.ippdh.mercosur.int, August 1, 2014

By Blood and Fire: The Day the Civil-Military Dictatorship Began

The chronicle "By Blood and Fire: The Day the Civil-Military Dictatorship Began," published by El Mostrador on September 11, 2013, on the 40th anniversary of the Coup d'État, and which is published again today, on its 45th anniversary, is based on file Roll No. 1032-73 of the First Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago.

The investigation was carried out by military prosecutor Joaquín Erlbaum Thomas and is significant because it began in the first hours after the Coup. *This article, in the form of a chronicle, recounts the details of the investigation by the First Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago, in which survivors of the attack on the La Moneda Palace gave statements and were eyewitnesses to the hours lived then.

In addition, in this process, all the military personnel who entered La Moneda that day and those who besieged it on all sides with their weaponry gave statements. The aforementioned file disappeared from the Military Justice system.

The original of about 300 pages was never found again. For a long time, it was sought by various people interested in knowing that valuable piece of Chile's history. In 2011, Judge Mario Carroza initiated a process regarding the death of President Salvador Allende, at the request of lawyers Roberto Celedón, Matías Coll, and Roberto Ávila.

The case was definitively dismissed by the Supreme Court. However, during the investigation by Minister Carroza, the former military prosecutor Joaquín Erlbaum, who had been the instructor of the aforementioned military inquiry, appeared before the judge and handed over his own copy of the file.

Journalist Jorge Escalante managed to access that historical piece at the time to construct the account that El Mostrador is republishing today due to the relevance that the date of September 11 has for Chile. Especially today, when 45 years have passed since the beginning of that tragedy. *Editor's Note

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"By Blood and Fire: The Day the Civil-Military Dictatorship Began" The morning of that Tuesday and the alerts at dawn in La Moneda. The phone calls to break Salvador Allende's resistance. The blackened hands of the President, lying there after having fired an AK rifle several times.

The unfulfilled hope that the workers would take to the streets. The last flower thrown by Hortensia Bussi for the dead Allende, in a lackluster ceremony. That was the last day of the Popular Unity in power and the first of 17 years of military dictatorship.

By Jorge Escalante At 07:45 in the morning of September 11, 1973, the deputy director of the Carabineros School, Colonel Onésimo Muñoz Conejeros, gave an order to Captain Manuel Mardones Rodríguez. –Gather your people and leave in a bus to reinforce the La Moneda Palace Guard.

Something strange is happening there. Mardones followed the order and at 08:20 left that School in a bus with 30 to 40 troops from the Machine Gun Squadron. He was accompanied by Lieutenant Hernán Arangua Valdivia.

Upon arriving at La Moneda, he reported to Carabineros Major Claudio Venegas Guzmán, head of the Palace Guard that day. The troops were distributed around the Palace without yet knowing the reason for the reinforcement.

President Salvador Allende was already at the location. He had arrived from his residence on Tomás Moro street shortly after 07:00. He was alerted to the Navy's uprising in Valparaíso. He changed the elegance of his attire that morning for combat clothing.

A tweed jacket and pants with leather knee pads. A high-necked diamond-patterned sweater and thick shoes. The only touch of elegance was the blue handkerchief with red polka dots that he placed in the outer left pocket of his jacket.

Before leaving Tomás Moro, he took his helmet. It was a gift from his naval aide-de-camp, Navy Captain Arturo Araya Peeters. He gave it to him before being assassinated on July 26, 1973. A sniper shot him from the second floor of a nuns' school located on the corner of Pedro de Valdivia and Providencia.

Of the two shots, one caused his death when the aide-de-camp leaned out onto the balcony on the second floor of his house on Fidel Oteíza street. The crime was part of a plot by high-ranking Navy officers to give the final push for that institution to lead the Coup d'État.

To camouflage the attack, the members of the admiral corps resorted to leaders of the far-right movement Patria y Libertad. A group of them provoked Captain Araya's exit to the balcony that night. Two of them fired toward the balcony, but their bullets did not touch the Navy Captain.

He was a friend of the President. The helmet had a history and the initials J.M.F. It had been given to Commander Araya by the American Navy commander with the surname Munic in 1966 in the port of Philadelphia.

That year, Araya drove the submarine Thompson from Valparaíso for its reconditioning. On June 29, 1973, tanks from the Armored Regiment No. 2 rose up, and Commander Araya gave it to Allende so he could protect himself.

They were traveling in a car from Tomás Moro to La Moneda. Finally, Allende responds to the three aides-de-camp: "I want to be very clear, I am not going to surrender. I could indeed dialogue with the three commanders-in-chief if certain conditions are met.

I hope that each of you will communicate this once you leave this room. I will not be a prisoner President or in exile. You will not take me out of here alive. With this submachine gun that I have here in my hand, I will defend myself until the end.

And I will save the last shot for myself. I am going to give it to myself here, in the mouth." –If there is an attack against La Moneda, you gather your men and bring them to the second floor –Allende told Captain Mardones that morning of the 11th in one of the courtyards of the seat of Government.

The President began to summon some of his ministers to La Moneda. Others arrived when they found out early on the radio what was happening. Several members of the Group of Personal Friends, Allende's mythical GAP, also arrived early at the Palace.

Around 06:45 that morning, Allende's air aide-de-camp, Air Force Group Commander Roberto Sánchez Celedón, received a phone call. –Commander, come to my office immediately, it is urgent –the secretary to the commander-in-chief of the Air Force, Colonel Eduardo Fornet, told him.

Commander Sánchez arrived at 07:30 at Colonel Fornet's office. –Commander, you must inform President Allende that, at 08:30, the Armed Forces and Carabineros are beginning the seizure of power. He must surrender unconditionally –was Fornet's order.

At 07:50, Sánchez headed to the Tomás Moro residence to report the order. Through the vehicle's radio, he learned that Allende was already at La Moneda. He called the Palace to communicate with the President.

He waited a few minutes on the line for Allende to finish speaking to the population on a radio station. Allende himself came to the phone. –I already know, commander, I am perfectly informed. I need you to come to La Moneda immediately –was the President's response. 'La Payita' Arrives From her residence El Cañaveral in the foothills of Santiago, Miria Contreras Bell, Allende's private secretary known as La Payita, leaves early that morning in a narrow vehicle to go to La Moneda.

The previous night she had been at the seat of Government until nearly 02:00 following the President's instructions. She was coordinating a series of matters, several related to the plebiscite that Allende would announce that day, September 11.

Miria Contreras travels with her son Enrique Ropert and the head of the GAP, Domingo Blanco Tarrés, whose political name was Bruno. Seven members of the GAP also go. The doors of La Moneda had already been closed and the coup was unequivocal.

Shortly before reaching the seat of government, the vehicle was stopped by carabineros. They were taken out of the car and led to the Intendencia building. The police guard for that location was there.

Miria Contreras managed to get out of the Intendencia by using a ruse. She crossed Morandé street with the intention of entering La Moneda through that door to ask for help to free the detainees. At the closed door, she met Commander Sánchez.

She asked him to intervene so they would free her son, Bruno, and the others. But Sánchez refused and entered the Palace. Miria did the same with the hope that Allende could manage to get them freed. The President could not either.

With the Three Aides-de-Camp The first of Allende's three aides-de-camp to arrive at La Moneda that morning was Army Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Badiola Broberg. He arrived at 08:30. From there, he called Commander Sánchez to come urgently to the Palace.

He told him that he already knew and was on his way. He also called the naval aide-de-camp, Frigate Captain Jorge Grez Casarino. The three aides-de-camp asked to speak alone with Allende. They were clear about the situation.

The President's only option was to hand over power to the Armed Forces. Before entering Allende's private room, the GAP blocked their path. Threatening, submachine gun in hand. Allende came out upon hearing the commotion.

He ordered the GAP to let them in. They did not obey immediately. Allende shouted at them to clear the path for the three aides-de-camp. The first to speak was Commander Sánchez. He brought the information he had communicated to Allende by phone a little earlier in more detail. –President, my General Gustavo Leigh is the one who is now in command of the Air Force.

General César Ruiz Danyau has been dismissed. My General Leigh offers you a plane that is ready to depart at Cerrillos airport. It is for you and your family to leave the country to the place you decide, but it must be within the American continent.

I myself will go to take you to the plane, President. Allende did not respond and let the other two aides-de-camp speak first. –President, the three branches of the Armed Forces and Carabineros are acting united in this seizure of power.

It makes no sense for you to attempt any resistance. We have the country under control –said Lieutenant Colonel Badiola. Captain Grez of the Navy agreed and was brief. –It makes no sense to resist, President.

The Navy started taking control of the entire province of Valparaíso from the early hours of this morning. Allende kept silent for a moment. He was calm. He did not allow his indignation to betray him.

It was still early. It was not yet 09:30. The President thought that there could still be a solution. He thought of the Industrial Cordons that grouped the factories by sector. They would resist. The people would take to the streets to defend their Government.

There had been hundreds of thousands in the massive rallies. The people were organized in the Communal Commands integrated by social organizations, commune by commune in the country. There was weaponry in some sectors of the population.

And General Carlos Prats had been his loyal Minister of the Interior and commander-in-chief of the Army who supported him to reduce the rebels on June 29. Even though he had been in retirement for two weeks, he had great influence within the Army.

Perhaps he could advance toward La Moneda with a constitutionalist sector of the Army. Produce a break. Something Prats must be plotting, he thought. The Previous Night The previous night, Allende had gathered at Tomás Moro his Minister of Defense Orlando Letelier; the Minister of the Interior, Carlos Briones; and some political advisors.

In the meeting, Allende tells them that he preferred to postpone until the next day, the 11th, the announcement of calling a plebiscite. Let the citizenry decide if he should continue or not as President of Chile.

Allende had accepted some conditions proposed by the Christian Democratic Party, in order to broaden the social base of support for his Government. In the last parliamentary elections of March 1973, the Popular Unity had notably increased its citizen support, achieving over 42 percent of the votes.

Informed of the intention of the President, the managers of the military uprising decided to advance the coup to the next day, Tuesday, September 11. That night, at Tomás Moro, the President receives the first information about strange troop movements.

The director of Investigations, Alfredo Joignant, calls Allende and informs him that the troops of the Santiago Military Garrison are quartered. Letelier calls the commander of that Garrison, General Herman Brady Roche.

He confirms the quartering, but gives him false information. Finally, Allende responds to the three aides-de-camp. –I want to be very clear, I am not going to surrender. I could indeed dialogue with the three commanders-in-chief if certain conditions are met.

I hope that each of you will communicate this once you leave this room. I will not be a prisoner President or in exile. You will not take me out of here alive. With this submachine gun that I have here in my hand, I will defend myself until the end.

And I will save the last shot for myself. I am going to give it to myself here, in the mouth. The three aides-de-camp withdrew, convinced that Allende would keep his word. The President left the room before them and spoke aloud to those who had gathered outside it, alerted by that meeting. –I have ordered the three aides-de-camp in no uncertain terms to withdraw from La Moneda and return to their institutions.

Let them leave. That is what happened. It was nearly 10:00. Telephone Dialogues The inspector of the Investigative Police, Juan Seoane, was already at the Palace. He was the head of the detachment of 17 civil police officers assigned to La Moneda.

But after 10:00, the director of the civil police Alfredo Joignant was replaced by Army General Ernesto Baeza Michelsen. Allende authorized Seoane to leave La Moneda with all his people, but he chose to stay.

He was now waiting for instructions from his new director. General Baeza had forbidden him, and his entire detachment, from firing a single shot against the Armed Forces. As the morning progressed, the uncertainty of the outcome grew at La Moneda.

General Ernesto Baeza was that day the delegate of the commander-in-chief of the Army, General Augusto Pinochet. Once the aides-de-camp left the Palace, Baeza spoke twice with Allende, ordering him to surrender.

He received responses similar to those of the three aides-de-camp. After 10:00, those who minutes later would form the Military Government Junta already knew that it would be difficult for them to reduce the President.

From the Ministry of Defense, diagonally across from La Moneda, crossing the Alameda on the south side, Admiral Patricio Carvajal insisted with Allende by phone. –President, I know you have told your aides-de-camp that you are not going to surrender, but I am calling you in the name of the three commanders-in-chief of the Armed Forces to insist on requesting your surrender.

You know that there is an Air Force plane waiting for you in Cerrillos. Do not complicate things further. –Look, Admiral, go to hell, all of you. I already said, you will not take me out of here alive.

I am going to resist until the end. Do not insist again on asking for my surrender. The clock was moving rapidly. It was 10:15. Outside La Moneda, the first shots from the troops of the Non-Commissioned Officers School and the Tacna regiment against the structure of the Palace could already be heard.

Forces from the San Bernardo Infantry School under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Iván de la Fuente Sáez were advancing to occupy the perimeter between Plaza Italia, the Mapocho Station, and the Plaza de Armas.

On the south side of La Moneda, after 10:00, Major Enrique Cruz Laugier installed himself with heavy artillery pieces from the Tacna regiment. At 06:00, Cruz received command of the regiment from its commander, Colonel Joaquín Ramírez Pineda.

Shortly before 10:30, Allende called an urgent meeting in the Toesca room. At that hour, the President was already carrying his AK-47 submachine gun slung over his shoulder. Soviet manufacture, 7.62 millimeter caliber, 625 rounds per minute, effective range 400 meters, barrel threaded to screw on a grenade launcher, and serial number PL-1651.

A gift. On the right side of the wooden grip, a metal plate: "To Salvador, from his Comrade in Arms. Fidel Castro." He passed it to journalist Carlos Jorquera to hold for him for a while. About 40 people arrived at the room.

Among them, the still general director of Carabineros, José María Sepúlveda Galindo. The President spoke clearly to them. He said he would not leave there alive. That his decision was to fight alongside the GAP.

The meeting was brief. It was Allende's first contact with the majority of those who were at the seat of Government at that hour. He recovered his submachine gun and left the room surrounded by the GAP, who did not leave his side.

Ready for the shootout. Determined to die. Just minutes later, his GAP installed a .30 caliber machine gun on one of the second-floor balconies. There was plenty of ammunition. There were also a couple of bazookas and some rockets.

It was 10:30. The director of the Carabineros School, Colonel José Sánchez Stephens, called Major Claudio Venegas, head of the Palace Guard, at La Moneda. –Withdraw all your people. Let not a single carabinero remain in La Moneda.

We are with the Armed Forces on this. Take out all your weaponry. What you cannot remove, disable by hitting it with whatever you have. The Guard troops prepared their withdrawal stealthily. The chaos that reigned in La Moneda was an ally for this.

They wrapped weaponry in blankets and disabled another part with hammer blows. But some automatic rifles still remained. They all left without being noticed. General Sepúlveda later informed Allende of the abandonment. –You too –said laconic

the President to the general. Bazooka on his shoulder José Tohá, Clodomiro Almeyda, and Carlos Briones were trying to speak with Allende alone. They wanted to convince him to negotiate. To find a reasonable way out with the military.

But the President avoided them several times. He was aware of what his ministers were seeking. And at those moments, he was in a position to resist, returning the gunfire that was already increasing from outside, fired by Army troops. –"Where is a suitable window to fight these cowards!" –Allende remarked to some of his GAP (Presidential Security Group), moving through one of the courtyards of La Moneda.

In view of the fact that the ground attack was already unleashed outside, including the artillery pieces of the Tacna regiment on the southern front under the command of Major Cruz Laugier, José Tohá picked up a phone and called Admiral Carvajal at the Ministry of Defense. –"Admiral, I am calling to inform you that with ministers Almeyda and Briones, we are trying to speak with the President to find a way out of all this.

It has not been possible for us until now because the ground attack outside is increasing. Therefore, I request that you intercede so that there is a quick truce and the attack is stopped. The President is more concerned now with returning fire." The admiral told him that he had already spoken with Allende and that the latter had covered him in insults.

But that he would try to achieve that truce. Minutes passed and nothing happened. The President's hands were blackened with gunpowder from the shots he was firing with his AK rifle. The rattling of the .30 caliber machine gun was deafening from one of the second-floor balconies, responding to the military's gunfire.

Allende asked one of the GAP to hand him a bazooka. He unslung his AK rifle and placed the heavy weapon on his shoulder. He aimed, and the rocket blew up the upper part of one of the tanks. Like a child, the President celebrated the shot with those around him.

They cheered him. Outside, from the Intendencia de Santiago, the Ministry of Public Works, the Correos de Chile building, the Banco del Estado, and from other adjacent terraces, snipers loyal to the Government were firing heavy fire at the insurgents.

There was no truce. Tohá called Admiral Carvajal again. –"It is not possible, Mr. Tohá, there is no turning back nor parliament. La Moneda will be bombed in ten minutes by Air Force planes and then it will be taken by military forces.

Inform Mr. Allende that he has ten minutes to surrender with all his people and leave La Moneda with his hands up and a white flag." It was 11:10 hours. Tohá went down to one of the first-floor courtyards where Allende was with a group of his GAP and informed him.

From then on, immense disorder broke out at the seat of Government. They had to take refuge in safe places to withstand the bombing. Allende went up to the second floor with the intention of speaking with his wife, Hortensia Bussi, who was at the Tomás Moro residence.

He called from the intercom in his office that connected directly to the house. However, he realized that the line had been tapped. It had been connected directly to the Army General Staff at the Ministry of Defense.

On the other end, he clearly heard the voice of General Ernesto Baeza, who commented in a harsh tone: "these people must be killed like ants, let no trace of any of them remain, especially Allende." Pinochet was in a hurry Meanwhile, Pinochet was installed at the Army Telecommunications Command in the heights of the Peñalolén commune.

The area was guarded by at least one hundred "black berets" from the Paratrooper School under the command of their commander, Alejandro Medina Lois. From there, Pinochet interacted by radio with Admiral Carvajal, the new commander-in-chief of the FACh (Chilean Air Force), General Gustavo Leigh, FACh General Nicanor Díaz Estrada, the commander of the Santiago Military Garrison, General Herman Brady, and General Sergio Arellano Stark, who was the commander of the rebel forces in the Santiago-Centro Group.

The bombing with the four FACh Hawker-Hunter planes that would take off from Concepción was planned for 11:10. Pinochet held heated discussions with Admiral Carvajal about what Allende's fate should be once he was taken prisoner in the assault on La Moneda after the bombing.

He insisted that Allende should be taken prisoner and taken immediately to the plane that was waiting for him in Cerrillos. Carvajal stated that some in the Ministry of Defense did not agree because that would allow Allende to "travel the world" discrediting the new military government.

Finally, General Leigh supported Pinochet and it was decided that way. –"Let him leave the country with his family and only with some of his ministers, because some of those bastards must be left here to be judged.

But the plane will crash, old man" –Pinochet said ironically to Carvajal. The head of the Army was worried about the delay in the bombing. And he received news that upset him even more. –"The bombing will only be possible at 11:40 because the planes had a fuel loading problem in Concepción" –Leigh informed.

In La Moneda, the more than 70 people who were there began to disorderly seek refuge in the face of the imminent air attack. Allende had previously convinced his daughters Beatriz and Isabel to leave the place along with other female employees who had arrived early that day for their usual tasks.

In the group, the journalists who were advisors to the President, Verónica Ahumada and Frida Modak, left. The one he could not convince was his secretary, Miria Contreras. They knew nothing there of the delay in the bombing announced by Leigh.

Discussion in the kitchen Allende went to one of the kitchens on the first floor that seemed like a good place to take refuge. With him went the Minister of the Interior Carlos Briones, the Undersecretary of the Interior Daniel Vergara, the Minister Secretary General of Government Fernando Flores, Allende's private secretary, Osvaldo Puccio, and his son Osvaldo, "La Payita," the doctor Eduardo "Coco" Paredes, former director of the Investigative Police, the Undersecretary of Government Arsenio Poupin, and the journalist Augusto Olivares, "El Perro." Shortly before, the sub-inspector of the Investigative Police, Fernando del Pino Abarca, arrived at that place seeking refuge. In those tense minutes, a heated argument took place in the small space. Some, like Briones, Flores, and Puccio, insisted to Allende on the need to negotiate with the Armed Forces. The President refused once again, raising his voice. "Coco" Paredes and Poupin supported him in resisting until the end. The start of the aerial bombing put an abrupt end to the discussion. Everyone threw themselves to the floor. Allende fell heavily on top of Del Pino, who heard him mutter indignation, breathing heavily. The bombing ended, and a bitter atmosphere of defeat filled the small room. Everything was lost. They left the place quickly to check the damage. Parts of the second floor began to burn. The group went up to the second floor. There were still intact places. "El Perro" Olivares stayed behind. He did not come out. He took out his pistol and shot himself in the temple. He lay on a chair. His blood began to form an imperfect circle on the floor. He was still breathing when the doctors Sergio Arroyo, Carlos Guijón, and Arturo Jirón arrived, alerted by someone. They laid "El Perro" on the floor so he could breathe better. He died just a couple of minutes later. His pistol was left lying on the floor to one side. Moments before, he had emptied two magazines from his machine gun firing from the second floor alongside Allende and the GAP. Allende buys time In the Independencia hall, which was intact, Allende spoke with Puccio, Vergara, and Flores. After the bombing, the idea arose in the President's head that those who were with him in La Moneda should leave the Palace and surrender. But first, he wanted to play his last card. He told the three that it was necessary for them to go and negotiate at the Ministry of Defense. To do this, he wrote a note with six points, addressed to the commanders-in-chief of the three branches of the Armed Forces. –"Bring this back to me signed by the Armed Forces" –he warned them. First, the Armed Forces must suspend the air and ground attack they were carrying out against some neighborhoods and factories in Santiago. Second, the ground attack on La Moneda must be suspended to allow everyone inside to leave. Third, the Military Junta must be composed only of military personnel, without civilians in it. Fourth, respect for unions and workers' rights. Fifth, the left must not be repressed, and Sixth, contact must be maintained between the President and the new military authorities to continue dialogue, but he is determined to hand over command to the Armed Forces. Fernando Flores called the Ministry of Defense and spoke with Admiral Carvajal. He informed him that Allende had written a letter, which he, along with Daniel Vergara and Osvaldo Puccio, had to deliver to that Ministry. For this, they needed a vehicle to be sent from there to pick them up. It was a note for negotiation. To open a negotiated way out of the crisis. Carvajal informed Pinochet of this by radio. He was indignant. –"Be careful with that letter, this guy is crooked and is buying time, he is maneuvering. There is no parliament or anything. Let him surrender unconditionally and be taken prisoner" –was Pinochet's response. It was already 13:00 hours. The fire on the second floor was advancing rapidly. From outside, military personnel began to throw a large number of tear gas bombs into the seat of Government. Added to the smoke from the fire, the air became heavy, and the gas masks that the President had asked General Sepúlveda to have the Palace Guard leave before withdrawing appeared. From the adjacent buildings, snipers continued to fire. Two helicopters flew over the roofs of those buildings, trying to shoot down those who were firing. The combat continued. From La Moneda, the GAP and the President's advisors continued to fire at the insurgents. Some members of the civil police detachment assigned to La Moneda disobeyed the instructions of their new chief and also fired. Few. The majority followed the order. From the second floor, Allende ordered everyone to begin forming a line to go down a staircase toward the door at Morandé 80. –"Paya, you lead the line with a white flag held high. Find something to make that flag. This is a massacre." One of the doctors passed his white apron. Someone arrived with a stick from which they hung the apron. The surrender was underway. The political project of the "Chilean-style revolution with empanadas and red wine" was collapsing. The Military Junta had already issued its first decrees, broadcast in a chain by the radio stations that, having quickly joined the Coup, were not silenced, led by Radio Agricultura. Military marches were the only music that could be heard. Shortly before 14:00, an Army jeep with Commander Dörner, Major Cowell, and the captain of the Non-Commissioned Officers School, René Cardemil Figueroa, arrived at La Moneda to pick up the two ministers and Secretary Puccio. They took them to the Ministry of Defense with the President's letter. Allende's conditions were not accepted, even though the three were received by Admiral Patricio Carvajal. In the brief meeting held on the fifth floor, Generals Sergio Nuño Bawden and Ernesto Baeza Michelsen and FACh General Nicanor Díaz Estrada were also present. The latter was also the head of the Air Force Intelligence Service, SIFA. After the meeting, the three ministers remained detained in that place. In that Ministry, also for the Navy, coordinating the attack, were Rear Admiral Hugo Cabezas Videla, Captain Ladislao D’Hainaut, Frigate Captain Hernán Ferrer, and Frigate Captain Julio Vergara, head of the Naval Intelligence Service of the II Naval Zone of Talcahuano. Taking positions At the doors of La Moneda on Morandé, the detachments of the Non-Commissioned Officers School, the Tacna, and the San Bernardo Infantry School were ready to enter the Palace. At 13:20, the captain of the Non-Commissioned Officers School, René Cardemil Figueroa, left the Ministry of Defense with a detachment from that School to head to La Moneda for the final assault. Along with him went General Javier Palacios, in charge that morning of the takeover of the seat of Government. Second Lieutenant Jorge Herrera López of the Tacna Regiment joined them with a section from that barracks. Lieutenant Colonel Iván de la Fuente Sáez also advanced toward the Palace with his men from the Infantry School. With him were Lieutenants Armando Fernández Larios, Eduardo Catalán Brunet, and Jorge Moya Domínguez, Second Lieutenant Eduardo Aldunate Hermann, and Sergeant Major Julio Billiard Bustos. Shortly after 13:30, the captain of the Infantry School, Juan Carlos Salgado Brocal, advanced with another section of the Infantry School toward La Moneda along Teatinos street, but had to stop his advance. The endless fire from snipers loyal to the Government made it impossible for him to continue his march. One soldier fell dead and five others collapsed wounded. The captain changed his course and decided to cross the Plaza de la Constitución to approach La Moneda via Morandé street. At the same time, the captain of the Non-Commissioned Officers School, Julio Quiroga Báez, advanced with a detachment along the Bulnes promenade with orders to enter La Moneda through the Teatinos street entrance. Along with him went Lieutenant Gonzalo del Real Amthauer. They had to divert toward Lord Cochrane street due to the shots from the snipers who attacked them from the Banco del Estado at the corner of Alameda and Morandé. Via Cochrane, they entered the Alameda, but as soon as they appeared, they were met by another focus of fire from the buildings facing the Government Palace on the west side. The detachment became disorganized, and some personnel took refuge behind a newspaper kiosk. Others advanced toward the central median of the Alameda and took cover in some rubble and bushes. They had to wait more than an hour for a tank to arrive so they could move toward their objective. Another detachment of the Non-Commissioned Officers School under the command of Lieutenant Hernán Ramírez Hald was also trying to advance to take La Moneda via Teatinos. The combat continued. The snipers kept firing. From inside La Moneda, some continued to return the military personnel's attack. The smell of gunpowder, the smoke from the fire, and the tear gas bombs prevented those who still remained in the Palace from thinking. Only spontaneous action prevailed. The disorder was total. With the high temperature caused by the fire, large-caliber bullets that were lying on the floor began to explode. Allende tried to cross via Morandé to the Ministry of Public Works building to continue resisting, but it was impossible. "Allende does not surrender, damn it!" From the second floor, the President began to organize the line so that everyone who wanted to surrender would go down the staircase that led to the door at Morandé 80. Military forces were preparing to enter through it. Amid the chaos, the President raised his voice, agitated. –"And the people, where are the people! Where are the people! Where are the people, man!" –"There is nothing left to do, President, the Industrial Belts have been defeated" –Arnoldo Poupin and "Coco" Paredes replied in unison. The 120 machine guns that had been brought from the Investigative Police headquarters to the Indumet factory, part of the Vicuña Mackenna Belt, were not enough to reverse the military uprising. That morning, forces from the left-wing parties and the MIR were resisting there. From the Ministry of Defense, they informed General Palacios that, through the Morandé 80 door, those who remained inside would come out in minutes with a white cloth as a sign of surrender. The line was already formed when the President gave a shout, at the same time that he took off the helmet gifted to him by Commander Arturo Araya. He had to shout loudly due to the deafening noise of the bullets. –"Listen everyone, before leaving I ask for a minute of silence for the death of my dear friend, 'El Perro' Olivares." The silence was only broken by the gunfire and the crackling of the flames. It was not a minute, but the tribute to "El Perro" was made. –"Now start going down, I will be the last in line" –Allende shouted again. Having said that, the President turned around and disappeared at a brisk pace through the door of the Independencia hall, very close to the start of the staircase. The door remained ajar. In those seconds, Dr. Patricio Guijón moved forward to take his place in the line. He looked through the opening of the hall door and noticed that Allende was leaning over to sit in a dark red armchair. He saw the submachine gun between his hands. He watched him sit down and place the weapon between his legs. He aimed the barrel at his chin and shouted deeply. –"Allende does not surrender, damn it!" The shout overcame the thunder of the gunfire. Many who were in the line heard it. Two shots rang out in sequence. Guijón ran to the hall. Detective Pedro Valverde Quiñones also did so. Guijón stood motionless in front of the President's body. The head shattered, tilted to the right, pressed against the thorax. The smoking rifle. The doctor took the rifle and placed it to one side of the armchair. One of the projectiles that crossed the President's head remained embedded in the wall. Valverde leaned through the door and let out a scream of horror. –"The President committed suicide!" Hand-to-hand struggle Arnoldo Poupin was meters from the entrance to the hall. He entered quickly and went mad. He reproduced the policeman's shout with heartbreaking screams. –"The President committed suicide! The President committed suicide!" His last shout broke into tears. In front of Allende's corpse, he unslung his submachine gun from his shoulder. At that instant, Valverde lunged at him with his whole body. He sensed his intention to shoot himself and wanted to take the weapon from him. In the struggle, they fell to the floor. Valverde seized the weapon and threw it a few meters away. Poupin struck him a few times and broke free from the arms that were imprisoning him. Jumping, he left the hall shouting the news. Valverde followed him. Poupin slipped away, turned around, and re-entered the hall. In front of Allende, he took a pistol from his waistband and raised it to his head. The detective lunged at him and they fell to the floor again. He managed to take the pistol from him and threw it far away. He grabbed Poupin by the waist and dragged him outside. Both stepped on the first steps of the staircase to begin descending. In the line, the shouted weeping of the Palace Intendant Enrique Huerta was heard. –"The doctor killed himself! The doctor killed himself!" The soldiers kicked the door at Morandé 80 and managed to open it. The first to come out was Miria Contreras, with the medical apron held high tied to a stick. They came out in order despite the tension, receiving the first blows from the soldiers. Some were forced to lie on the floor and others were placed against the wall of La Moneda. Lying on the sidewalk with her hands on the back of her neck, "La Payita" felt someone touch one of her legs with their shoe. –"Paya, what are you doing here!" It was the Army dental health officer Jaime Puccio, brother of Allende's secretary, Osvaldo. At that instant, an ambulance arrived at the Morandé door, called to pick up the wounded on the second floor. –"Play dead, Paya, I'm going to put you in this ambulance!" –Puccio told her. He ordered a nurse who was in the vehicle to take her and put her inside. An officer wanted to know why they had picked her up from the ground where she was lying, but it was too late. The ambulance left quickly with the rear doors still open. The officers go up It was 14:00. The first to go up that staircase to the second floor were captains René Cardemil and Sergio Núñez Cabrera, Lieutenant Eduardo Catalán Brunet, and Second Lieutenant Jorge Herrera López. Faced with the resistance that still existed from the second floor by those who remained disobeying Allende's order, Cardemil began throwing hand grenades upward while climbing. Upon reaching the last step, he had emptied two magazines from his SIG assault rifle. Immediately afterward, General Javier Palacios, his aide the lieutenant colonel of the Paratrooper School, José Quinteros Masdeu, Lieutenant Colonel Iván de la Fuente Sáez, the lieutenants of the Infantry School Juan Carlos Salgado Brocal, Armando Fernández Larios, and Jorge Moya Domínguez, and Second Lieutenant Eduardo Aldunate Hermann went up. The group of officers continued throwing hand grenades and exhausting the magazines of their SIGs toward the second floor while they ascended. A bullet grazed one of General Palacios's hands, and another grazed the neck of Second Lieutenant Herrera, who received three other projectiles in his helmet. Fernández Larios ran to help Palacios. He took a white handkerchief from his combat pants and bandaged the hand that was bleeding. Palacios ordered all the rooms of La Moneda to be searched, especially those on the second floor from where they continued to be fired upon. General Palacios began to tour the rooms of La Moneda. He ordered that the weapons found be gathered in a single point to show them later to the press. The lieutenant colonel of the Infantry School, Iván de la Fuente, was one of the first to enter the Independencia hall. He was surprised to see that a person remained standing, looking calmly out the window with his back to the door. –"Who are you!" –"I am Dr. Patricio Guijón." –"Tell me where Allende is!" –"His Excellency the President of the Republic is in that armchair" –he replied, pointing with his hand to the motionless body of the President. The officer approached the corpse to observe it closely. He took one of his hands and confirmed that it was still warm. Immediately, he communicated by radio with General Javier Palacios and informed him of the discovery. Only then did the military know what the fate of the President had been, whom Pinochet assumed was leaving with his hands up along with those who went down the staircase to surrender. Now, in the taken La Moneda, only the crackling of the fire from the unleashed blaze and the shouts of the officers' orders could be heard. Palacios ran toward the hall. He stopped his run in front of Allende's body and also took his hand. He received the same warmth. But he also noticed that the President's hands were blackened with gunpowder from the repeated shots that Allende fired with Fidel Castro's AK rifle. –"Bring that screen and put it here in front of the corpse" –he ordered his aide. –"You, Lieutenant Salgado, stay on guard protecting the body." Palacios communicated with General Herman Brady and reported Allende's death. Brady was the commander of the II Army Division and the Santiago Garrison. Under him was the command of all the action in Santiago that day. Along with him, General Sergio Arellano Stark commanded the Santiago-Centro Group, in charge of the actions in the center of the capital. –"Mission accomplished, Moneda taken, President dead" –Palacios said to Brady. Based on that information, the military chiefs located at the Ministry of Defense learned of the suicide. –"They say that Allende committed suicide and is dead now" –Admiral Carvajal said to Pinochet by radio. He said it in English, warning him that it was sensitive information. Carvajal spoke to Pinochet in polite language. Pinochet responded in a sloppy vocabulary and pronunciation. At 16:00, ballistic and planimetry experts from the Investigative Police arrived at La Moneda. The report later issued to the military prosecutor Joaquín Erlbaum, who led the investigation into what happened on September 11 at La Moneda, supported that the President's death was caused by suicide, and that two shots were fired from Allende's AK rifle. The final journey Several hours earlier, on the morning of that day at the Tomás Moro residence, Detective Jorge Fuentes Ubilla remained as an escort for Allende's wife, Hortensia Bussi, "Doña Tencha." That morning he was supposed to accompany her to an activity. There, the coup caught him by surprise. Informed of everything that was happening, "Tencha" wanted to go to La Moneda early, but the policeman denied her the trip. Fuentes had heard the first military decrees and knew that he now had new bosses. A few minutes before the Hawker Hunter planes dropped their rockets on the seat of Government, an armed Army helicopter strafed the Tomás Moro house. –"Mrs. Hortensia, we have to get out of here quickly. I will take you to any embassy you indicate so you can seek asylum. They could kill us here" –the policeman said. –"I am not going to any embassy to seek asylum, take me to the house of Mr. Felipe Herrera in Pedro de Valdivia Norte." Minutes after La Moneda was bombed, Fuentes and Doña Hortensia arrived at the large house of the man who had been president of the Inter-American Development Bank until 1970. Everyone remained in that place until the morning of the next day. Near 10:00, Eduardo Grove Allende, the President's nephew, arrived at the house. He brought a safe-conduct for her to collect her husband's body from the Military Hospital, where it was taken on the afternoon of the previous day to perform the autopsy. The coffin was sealed. She wanted to see him, but they refused her. The air aide-de-camp Roberto Sánchez accompanied them to the Cerrillos airport. –"Mrs. Hortensia, the order I have is to take the coffin on a plane that is waiting for us in Cerrillos to the Quintero air base, and from there to take it to the Santa Inés cemetery in Viña del Mar. The presence of people is prohibited. Only you and a couple of relatives can go. No one else. That is the order of the Military Junta." She remained silent. She wanted to be dignified in her pain. She would not show weakness, even though she was devastated. In addition to Doña Hortensia and aide-de-camp Sánchez, Laura Allende, the President's sister, Eduardo Grove, and his son Jaime boarded the plane. In Quintero, armed marines in several vehicles were waiting for them. The coffin was loaded onto a Navy hearse. The occupants of the plane boarded two cars provided by the Navy. They were escorted to the cemetery in the upper sector of Viña, on a hill above the Sausalito lagoon. When they arrived, the grave was prepared inside the Grove family mausoleum. The cemetery was surrounded by marines. Everything was silence. The gravediggers had been warned. But the news became known, in some way. Naval intelligence was forced to accept that its clandestine operation had failed. Surrounding the cemetery from the outside, dozens of people remained in silence, accompanying the pain. No one shouted a slogan. Doña Hortensia asked for the last time that they open the coffin window to see Allende. This time they opened it. She could only see the shroud that covered his whole body up to his head. She shed silent tears. No uncontrolled sobbing. They lowered the coffin, and each of the companions threw a handful of earth. Aide-de-camp Sánchez did so as well. In the end, "Tencha" threw a flower. And she spoke with a steady voice: "I want you to know that we are burying Salvador Allende, President of Chile. Anonymously, because they do not want it to be known. I ask you, the gravediggers, gardeners, and everyone who works here, to tell your families that Salvador Allende is here. So that he never lacks flowers." And there was never a lack of a flower on that grave.

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 11, 2018