Chile was a laboratory for neoliberalism, ushered in by a violent military coup on Sept. 11, 1973. The coup (engineered by the U.S. government) overthrew the democratically elected socialistgovernment of Salvador Allende and replaced it with a brutal military dictatorship, headed by General Augusto Pinochet. Under the dictatorship, thousands of leftists, workers, students, union leaders, community organizers, and their families were rounded up, tortured, disappeared, and murdered. Unions and all forms of popular organization and assembly were outlawed.
The dictatorship dismantled socialist programs and laws to democratize the economy and government, support worker and peasant cooperatives, and redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor. The iron fist of the military/state ran Chile from top to bottom. The dictatorship cleared the way for the world’s first experiment with neoliberalism—a brutal form of free-market, unregulated capitalism in which profits, privatization, and individual responsibility are the main goals.
The view from the cerro of the Pacific Ocean and el Plan (downtown) of Valparaíso
Chitown & Chile 