Human Rights Film Festival logo
Youth Jury
  • You are in:
  • Home
  • Themes
  • Assault on the will of the people and the right to know the truth

Assault on the will of the people and the right to know the truth

Salvador Allende Gossens was born in Valparaíso, Chile, in 1908. At the age of 18 he moved to the Santiago de Chile to study medicine, immediately becoming involved in the left-wing student movements. He climbed the ladder of his political career until being forwarded as candidate for President by the Chilean Socialist Party. After three failed attempts, on 4th September 1970, Salvador Allende became the first Marxist president in the world to gain power democratically.

Only 3 years later, on 11th September 1973 to be exact, General Augusto Pinochet led a military coup, toppling Allende and causing his death. According to the official version of the events, Salvador Allende took his own life with an AK-47 rifle when the attacking troops invaded the presidential headquarters, the Palacio de la Moneda. The leftist movements, however, maintain that he was assassinated.

Today, almost 40 years later, the cause of Allende’s death continues to cause controversy, to the extent that the Chilean Judicial Power has recently reopened the case in an attempt to shed light on what really happened.