The Original 9/11

The Original 9/11

The One We’re Not Supposed To Know About

When Americans hear “9/11,” they picture hijacked planes, falling towers, and the start of a forever war. But for Chile, September 11th, 1973 was the day democracy was dragged into the street and executed, under the steel-toed boots of a U.S.-backed military coup.

That morning, the Chilean armed forces, trained, funded, and given the go-ahead by Washington, stormed the presidential palace and overthrew Salvador Allende, a democratically elected socialist whose real “crime” was caring more about his people than about padding the quarterly earnings of U.S. corporations.

Allende wasn’t a dictator.

He didn’t rig the vote. He didn’t creep into power under the cover of darkness, he won in 1970, fair and square. His real “crime” was refusing to be Washington’s obedient pet. Instead, he had the audacity to nationalize Chile’s copper mines, the largest on the planet, so that Chileans, not Wall Street, reaped the benefits.

That cut off the endless cash flow to Anaconda Copper and Kennecott, two American corporations that had been bleeding Chile dry for decades. He raised wages, expanded healthcare, froze prices on essentials, and made education accessible to the poor. He actually did his job as a leader and put his people first.

For that grave sin, the U.S. marked him for elimination. For ordinary Chileans, life was improving. For U.S. business interests and the Nixon White House? This was socialism “spreading” in their backyard — completely unacceptable.

The declassified record tells us exactly how far the U.S. was willing to go. A September 15, 1970, memo of conversation shows Nixon ordering CIA Director Richard Helms to “make the economy scream” in Chile to “prevent Allende from coming to power or unseat him.” Another CIA cable from October 16, 1970, outlined “Track II”, a covert plan to foment a military coup without informing the U.S. State Department. And then there’s the now-infamous “Project FUBELT” documents, direct evidence that Washington was bankrolling propaganda campaigns, bribing officials, and destabilizing Chile’s economy until the generals got the green light.

The Chilean military bombed La Moneda Palace while Allende was still inside. In what were his final moments, Allende took to the radio to address his people one last time. Even in the face of his own mortality, he stayed defiant:

“My friends, surely this will be the last opportunity for me to address you.

And as the palace doors were battered down, he left them with this:

“I will pay for loyalty to the people with my life… I am certain that the seeds we have planted… will not be shriveled forever. They have force… but social processes can be arrested by neither crime nor force.”

“Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny… Keep in mind that, much sooner than later, the great avenues will again be opened… Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!”

Moments later, Salvador Allende was dead. The official story, he took his own life with an AK-47 gifted by Fidel Castro. The truth? It doesn’t matter if it was a bullet from his own hand or one from Pinochet’s soldiers, the U.S. still pulled the trigger.

In Allende’s place, Washington got its dream hire: General Augusto Pinochet, a fascist strongman who wasted no time dismantling every shred of progress and handing Chile over to foreign investors like it was a clearance sale. Labor rights? Gone. Public services? Privatized faster than you could say “free market.” The country became an open buffet for corporate vultures.

Under Pinochet, Chile became a horror show. Over 3,000 people were murdered outright. Thousands more were “disappeared”, as in snatched off the streets and never seen again. Tens of thousands were tortured: political opponents, union leaders, students, journalists, anyone who even hinted at dissent. Women were raped in detention centers, because state terror always seems to come with sexual violence baked in. And through it all, the U.S. looked the other way, because profits were up and the stockholders were happy. Dissidents were thrown from helicopters into the ocean. Entire neighborhoods were terrorized.

Care to guess how the so-called “land of freedom and democracy” responded? Washington kept the money spigot on full blast, slapped Pinochet on the back for his “economic reforms,” and conveniently ignored the mass graves and torture cells. Because in the grand American tradition, as long as Chile’s copper, fruit, and whatever else could be hauled off for pennies on the dollar, human rights were nothing more than background noise.

We know all of this not because it’s sitting in plain black and white in declassified U.S. government documents. Memos from the CIA bragging about “destabilization efforts.” Cables from Henry Kissinger’s State Department saying, “We will not let Chile go down the drain.” Direct orders to fund opposition media, bankroll strikes, and “create conditions” for a military takeover. It’s the kind of paper trail that would land you in prison if you were anyone other than the United States of America.

Every September 11th, Americans wrap themselves in flags and chant “never forget,” but there’s another 9/11 they’d rather you never remember — the day the U.S. crushed a democracy, murdered a man whose only weapon was his faith in his people, and swapped him out for a blood-soaked dictator who served corporate interests like a loyal lapdog.

All so a handful of corporations could keep making money.

In America’s version of history, they always get to erase the parts where they’re the villains.