US intervention in Chile

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During the US intervention in Chile , the US foreign intelligence service CIA carried out a series of covert operations in Chile from 1963 with the aim of preventing the election of the socialist Salvador Allende as president. After these actions were unsuccessful, the United States began massive intelligence operations with the aim of destabilizing the left government in Chile and creating the conditions for the military coup on September 11, 1973 .

First activities

The CIA's first operations in Chile consisted essentially of an extensive propaganda war against the Chilean left-wing parties. US tax dollars were used to fund and start up pro-American Chilean media companies. The CIA arranged for the placement of many articles written in their interests in newspapers and tried to influence various Chilean associations and use them for their purposes, including student and women's organizations. In order to stir up conflicts between the various left parties and organizations, false reports were launched in a targeted manner.

Project FUBELT

After Richard Nixon's election as US president , intelligence operations expanded across Latin America . In Chile, the American response to Allende's election as president was a new covert operation, code-named Project FUBELT . This was supposed to destabilize the Chilean economy, isolate the government diplomatically and thus create the conditions for a military coup against Allende. The operation, which began before Allende's inauguration and was led by CIA chief Richard Helms , was also known as Track II . According to Helms demanded Nixon by his advisors, the preparation of plans for the purpose of a Chilean economic crisis to cause (literally English "to make the Chilean economy scream"). This was preceded by attempts by the USA to prevent the left-wing Unidad Popular government through political intervention ( Track I ). This included u. a. massive pressure from the US ambassador on the Christian Democratic Party to refuse Allende's vote in the National Congress election . Allende was nevertheless elected president with the votes of the Christian Democrats.

Shortly before this vote, the constitutional chief of staff René Schneider was killed by a group of conspirators led by a right-wing extremist Chilean officer in an attempted kidnapping. The attackers had previously been equipped with machine guns and tear gas grenades by the CIA . The propaganda campaigns continued in parallel with such activities. One focus was the support of the bourgeois-conservative newspaper El Mercurio , which the CIA provided with extensive financial transfers. A US intelligence memorandum later said that El Mercurio and other Chilean newspapers that were financially supported by the CIA had played an important role in paving the way for the eventual military coup. By 1973, the CIA had spent over $ 13 million on its activities in Chile alone.

Support of the military dictatorship

After the right-wing military junta under General Augusto Pinochet came to power, opposition members were systematically persecuted and murdered by the newly founded DINA secret police . As the CIA itself admits in a report published in September 2000, it maintained close contact with the Pinochet regime and the DINA for many years. According to an internal CIA investigation report, the agency also maintained close contact with the head of DINA, Manuel Contreras, from 1974 to 1977 . The CIA also confirmed that it had made payments to Contreras at least at one point, the amount was not disclosed.

The question of the extent to which the CIA was involved in Operation Condor , initiated and directed by Contreras, in the 1970s and 1980s is controversial. It was a coordinated operation by the secret services of six dictatorially ruled South American states (including Chile) with the aim of persecuting and murdering political opponents worldwide. In this context, several historians have accused the US government and the CIA of having taken their evident support for right-wing military dictatorships in Latin America to assist in the persecution of opposition members. Frederick H. Gareau, who was a professor of political science a . a. taught at Florida State University , even speaks of " state terrorism " in this context .

Work-up

The extent of the US involvement in the 1973 coup in Chile first came to light during an investigation by a special committee of the US Senate in 1975/76. The committee is often referred to as the Church Committee after its chairman, Democratic Senator Frank Church from Idaho .

In February 1999, then US President Bill Clinton ordered the publication of documents related to the CIA's operations in Chile. Many informative documents such as CIA situation reports, memoranda and telegrams between US authorities have now been viewed by historians for the first time and have also been made available to the general public. Accordingly, the CIA informed the Federal Intelligence Service in Germany of the planned coup a few days before the coup. The Federal Intelligence Service is said to have failed to inform the then Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt . The information reached the socialist GDR via Alfred Spuhler , a Stasi spy in the BND . However, a warning to Allende from East Berlin came too late.

In 2001, another book by the US journalist Christopher Hitchens caused a stir, in which he raised serious allegations against Henry Kissinger (" The Kissinger Files ").

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Church Report (official report of the Church Committee )
  2. ↑ Peter Kornbluh, Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973 . nsarchive.gwu.edu (online html)
  3. ↑ Jussi M. Hanhimaki, The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy , 2004, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-534674-9 , p. 103
  4. ↑ Excerpt from Christopher Hitchens ' book The Trial of Henry Kissinger , published in the Guardian
  5. ↑ Peter Kornbluh: CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression. September 19, 2000.
  6. ↑ Christopher Hitchens : The Case Against Henry Kissinger . In: Harper's Magazine . February 2001, p. 37 ( icai-online.org [PDF]). icai-online.org ( Memento from August 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ Patrice J. McSherry: Predatory states. Operation Condor and Cover was in Latin America. Lanham et al. a. 2005; Review of this book from the Journal of Third World Studies.
  8. ^ Frederick H. Gareau: State terrorism and the United States. From counterinsurgency to the war on terrorism. Atlanta, Ga. U. a. 2004, p. 78 f., 87.
  9. ^ Documents reveal US funding for Chile coup. CNN , November 13, 2000, archived from the original on July 15, 2008 ; accessed on October 26, 2014 (English).
  10. ↑ Peter Müller, Michael Mueller, Erich Schmidt-Eenboom: Against friend and enemy. The BND: Secret Politics and Dirty Business. Reinbek, Rowohlt 2002, ISBN 3-498-04481-8
  11. ↑ Christopher Hitchens: The Kissinger Files. Stuttgart u. a. 2001