The Battle of Chile 2, The Coup d'Etat

The second of four films by Patricio Guzman covering the last days of the Salvatore Allende led government in Chile, and the new neo-fascist government of Gen Augusto Pinochet. This section is called The Coup d'Etat, and was released in 1976.

This section of the documentary looks at the attempted coup which the first film ended with. Here it is shown how the presidential guard managed to stave off the coup, and eventually the loyalist army came in and put an end to the attempt.

Not long after, however, one of the naval officers who was a chief liaison in the armed forces with the president was assassinated, leaving the president without a confidante in the armed forces.

That was probably a preliminary to what was to come, the take over of the state on Sept 11th, 1973, during which the president was killed, and the socialist experiment of the previous three years was overthrown.