Editing Salvador Allende (section)

===Opposition and U.S. Interference:===
Domestic Resistance: Chile’s wealthy elites, including the military, media (the largest newspaper was owned by the CIA), and business sectors (primarily those owned by foreign interests), opposed Allende’s reforms. Strikes by truckers and copper workers, funded by the CIA, disrupted the economy. Inflation soared (150% by 1973), and shortages fueled unrest.

CIA Operations: Declassified U.S. documents confirm the CIA’s role in destabilizing Allende’s government. Under Nixon and Henry Kissinger, the CIA spent $8 million on propaganda, funding opposition parties, and supporting media like El Mercurio (they secretly owned it). Track I and Track II operations aimed to block Allende’s election and, later, orchestrate a coup. The CIA also supported the 1970 assassination of General René Schneider, a constitutionalist military leader, to provoke a preemptive coup.