Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende (2004)
Director: Patricio Guzmán
Writer: Patricio Guzmán (writer)
Release Date: 5 September 2007 (USA)
Genre: Documentary - Biography


Salvador Isabelino Allende Gossens (Spanish pronunciation (June 26, 1908 – September 11, 1973) was a physician and the first democratically elected Marxist socialist to become president of a state in the Americas.


Allende's involvement in Chilean political life spanned a period of nearly forty years. As a member of the Socialist Party, he was a senator, deputy and cabinet minister. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in the 1952, 1958, and 1964 elections. In 1970, he won the presidency in a close three-way race.


Allende served as the President of Chile from November 4, 1970 until the U.S.-backed September 11, 1973 The General Pinochet coup d'état that ended his Popular Unity government. During the air raids and ground attacks that preceded the coup, Allende gave his last speech where he vowed to stay in the presidential palace. Accordiong to wikipedia, the cause of death was suicide.