Salvador Allende was the first democratically elected president on a socialist platform. This is the famous “Chilean Road to Socialism.” He was the first statesman from a non-communist country to be democratically elected on a Marxist platform. The central objective of his program was the redistribution of wealth through the nationalization of raw materials, including copper. This was one of the reasons why Richard Nixon's government committed the American nation to the coup d'état of September 11, 1973, to overthrow the ruling government and establish the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. In the radio address that Allende managed to transmit from La Moneda (the presidential palace) under the bombing of the coup, he said, just before sacrificing himself, that he was confident in the future. The seeds sown in the consciousness of the Chilean people could not be eradicated by force. Half a century later, in May 2021, the Chilean people voted for radical structural reform and the end of neoliberalism. It was one of the greatest victories for the left since the end of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship!
