A Chilean court has ended its investigation into the death of former President Salvador Allende confirming that the leader took his own life during the coup on 11th September 1973.
An appeals court in Santiago on Monday upheld a previous judge’s conclusion that the former Chilean leader shot himself at the presidential palace as Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s troops closed in.
Although the history textbooks of the country have long taught his death was suicide an official investigation was launched as a part of a huge investigation into more than 700 alleged human rights violations during Pinochet’s rule. Many Allende supporters doubted his suicide and blamed the military for his death.
Judge Mario Carroza order the exhumation of his remains last year.
“With the goal of establishing the facts of the case, and motivated by the various versions about this episode that exist, lines of investigation were set and decreed, and all were carried out and every detail was satisfactory,” Carroza wrote in his ruling, handed down last December.
The ruling officially labels Allende’s death as suicide and closes the case.
Today marks the 39th anniversary of the coup d’état in which Allende’s government was ousted by Gen. Augusto Pinochet and the military. Pinochet’s regime lasted 17 years, in which more than 3,000 people were killed and another 30,000 more imprisoned and tortured, according to human rights organizations.
Commemorations for those who were murdered have taken place across the country with the main ceremony happening outside the monument to President Allende located in front of the Palacio de La Moneda.
The largest event, took place this past Sunday, 9th September, in a march that ended in front of Santiago’s General Cemetery near a memorial dedicated to the disappeared and executed political prisoners.
The last few days however, have not come without an escalation in tension between police and protestors.
Sunday’s 3,500 person march ended in violence after a small group of masked protestors attacked a government building and looted local shops.
According to police the march was peaceful with most people carrying pictures of family members and loved ones who disappeared or were killed, until the group of roughly 100 demonstrators built barricades and lit fires.
Police responded with tear gas and water cannons to combat the masked protestors.
Lorena Pizarro, president of the AFDD, a group of families of the disappeared, blamed police, calling on the government to “put an end to police repression and impunity in Santiago,” according to the Santiago Times.
The violence continued for roughly three hours and ended in the arrest of eight people.
“It’s hard to believe that, once again, a peaceful march has been hijacked by encapuchados,” said Gonzalo Diaz del Rio, chief of security for the Santiago Metropolitan Region. “They have no regard for the rights of others and generate destruction to public and private property.”
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