Allende promotes his killer!


On August 23, 1973, the President of Chile, Salvador Allende...



...appoints a new Army Commander-in-Chief!

It is about the hitherto rather insignificant General Augusto Pinochet-Ugarte...:



The appointment had become necessary because the commanders-in-chief of all four Chilean armed forces had previously resigned in protest against Allende's policy, which was too "left" for them, including the commander-in-chief of the entire armed forces and army chief as well as Chile's interior minister and vice-president, General Carlos Prats...:



Prats, actually a loyal democrat, then suggested Pinochet when Allende asked about a suitable successor.

Allende, who trusts Prats, follows this suggestion; He can't know who he's bringing into office!



Pinochet will thank both Allende and Prats in his own way:

Exactly three weeks later, on September 11, 1973, Pinochet will overthrow the legal government - Allende will die in the process of defending the presidential palace "La Moneda" due to circumstances that are still unclear to this day...:











A piece of his destroyed and blood-splattered glasses is on display in the museum today...:



General Prats, who wanted nothing to do with the putschists, went into exile with his family in Argentina three days after the coup.

On September 30, 1974, Prats and his wife Sofia Cuthbert were killed outside their home in Buenos Aires by a remote-controlled car bomb, with debris being thrown onto the ninth-floor balcony of a building across the street.





The assassination squad consisted of members of the Chilean secret service "DINA" and was led by a CIA agent named Michael Townley...: