1973 in Chile


Events in the year 1973 in Chile.

Incumbents

of the Chilean Army: Carlos Prats until August 23, Augusto Pinochet
  • Minister of Foreign Affairs: Clodomiro Almeyda, Orlando Letelier, Clodomiro Almeyda, Ismael Huerta
  • Minister of the Interior: Carlos Prats until August 23, Gerardo Espinoza, Orlando Letelier
  • Minister of National Defense: Jose Toha, Clodomiro Almeyda, Carlos Prats, Orlando Letelier, Patricio Carvajal

    Events

January

  • January 5 - Socialist Senator Maria Elena Carrera caused the country's female indignation when she declared that "Only idle women can queue up to buy"
  • January 6 – Strike of the urban transport of Santiago.
  • January 7 :
  • * In Hamburg, a shipment of Chilean copper is seized, while an appeal was presented from the Private Company Kennecott against the State of Chile.
  • * The Government announces the introduction of a "war economy", which includes food rationing and control of wheat production.
  • January 8 :
  • * Strike of the Chuquicamata railroad workers.
  • * A militant of the Communist Party is assassinated by unknown members of Fatherland and Liberty in a rally.
  • January 10 – The National Distribution Secretariat is created to order and regulate the distribution of items considered "essential".
  • January 11 - Inflation reaches 180%
  • January 13 – The Armed Forces reaffirm their unconditional support for the constitutional government.
  • January 15 – Merchants Self-Defense Commands are formed in Santiago to boycott government measures.
  • January 16 - 7,929 copper workers go on strike in rejection of the ration card
  • January 20 – The workers of Canal 9 of the University of Chile, took seized by the Armed militia due to sanctions against constitutional government.
  • January 26 - 700 tons of rice are discovered in an undeclared warehouse of the Supply Company for Isolated Zones
  • January 28 - The secretary general of the Christian Left, Bosco Parra, proclaims the need to build popular power
  • January 30 – The senator of the Christian Democracy José Musalem suffers an attack with firearms, from which he escapes unharmed.

    February

  • February 2–16 exiles from Haiti arrived on Chilean soil.
  • February 4 – The government reports that unemployment fell to 3.6% in December 1972.
  • February 5 – Pablo Neruda resigns as ambassador to France for health reasons, returning to Chile.
  • February 8 – Canal 13 begins the transmissions of its repeater in Concepción through the VHF 5 frequency, with which the local signal adopts the name of Canal 5. However, the government considers the action illegal.
  • A 14-year-old boy named Oscar Pineda was shot by a group of left-wing extremists when they attacked the headquarters of the National Party in Valdivia.
  • February 10 - President Salvador Allende participates in a concentration in the Estadio Nacional of Santiago together with 100,000 people, among them was the Dutch photographer Chas Gerretsen.
  • February 15 – Deputy Arturo Frei Bolívar, who was running for re-election in March, was seriously wounded after he received a bullet in the skull, when leaving a proclamation in Chiguayante and the PIR senator Eugenio Velasco was attacked and wounded by supporters of popular unity while he was campaigning in Talca.
  • February 19 - The newspaper La Prensa publishes that members of the Communist Brigade Ramona Parra assassinated the Christian Democrat worker Jaime Contreras Iglesias.
  • February 20 – The Ministry of Interior reports that the different pre-electoral clashes between political factions have resulted in 67 people arrested, 4 dead and 120 injured.
  • February 22 - A pamphlet from the Minister of Education, Jorge Tapia, entitled For a national, democratic, pluralist and popular education, goals for 1973 announcing the government project of the Unified National School.
  • February 26 - Curico Unido provincial sports club is founded.
  • February 27 - 10 carabineros were injured in the assault on the Llanquihue barracks perpetrated by Mirista mobs who tried to rescue their leader Sergio Gomez Flores, arrested for political violence.

    March

  • March 4
  • *Parliamentary Elections
  • ** Only two blocs participate in these elections: the CODE and the UP. In which the Popular Unity obtained 44.66% of the votes for Deputy, against 54.42% of the opposition alliance; and 46.56% of the votes for Senators, against 48.09% for the opposition alliance.
  • ** The police arrested five far-right terrorists with 1,800 sticks of dynamite.
  • March 9 - The armed forces stationed in the Valparaíso Province received a quartering order as a result of paramilitary organized MIR and FTR groups taking over areas and roads adjacent to the Armored Cavalry Regiment No 4 «Coraceros».
  • March 11–2 people injured and numerous damage left behind by an attack with explosives perpetrated by left-wing extremists in front of the headquarters of the Christian Democratic Party in Valparaíso.
  • March 12 – Two buses from the Flecha Norte company collide head-on on the route that connects Calama with Antofagasta in the north of the country in front of the Salinas station. 36 people die and 77 people are injured, being, so far, the traffic accident with the highest number of fatalities in the history of the country.
  • March 16 – Young Christian Democrats Sergio Óscar Vergara and Germán Enrique González Menares, 16 and 17 years old respectively, are shot by terrorists in a plot located in the queen's commune.
  • March 19 - The 35-year-old painter Jorge Tomás Henríquez González is assassinated by members of Fatherland and Liberty while trying to steal the equipment used to interfere with the signal of Channel 5 in Concepción.
  • March 25 – An investigation by the United States Congress acknowledged having given 1 million dollars to prevent Allende's assumption as president.
  • March 27 – Cabinet change. The new ministers are: Gerardo Espinoza in the Interior; Pedro Hidalgo in Agriculture; Sergio Bitar in Mining, Roberto Cuellar in Lands and Colonization; and Aníbal Palma in the General Secretariat of the Government.

    April

  • April 2 - Gabriel Rodriguez Alcaino, investigation official, is shot to death by members of the MIR in the south of Santiago while checking them to see if they were carrying weapons or explosives.
  • The Minister of Economy, Orlando Millas officially communicates that the government is not in a position to rationalize essential items.
  • April 11 – The Constitutional Court of Chile indicates that the parliament violated the Constitution by intervening in the salary increase, since it is an exclusive attribution of the executive power.
  • April 13 - The ship Sierra Maestra from Cuba arrives at Talcahuano with 11,400 tons of sugar.
  • April 14 - Pedro Vuskovic, Vice President of the CORFO was authorized by the government to contract with the Moscow Bank of Commerce an extension of 40 million dollars in recently contracted credits.
  • April 19:
  • *An indefinite strike begins at the El Teniente copper deposit, which would last 74 days.
  • * Unknown armed rebels toppled the Monument to Che Guevarra in Southern Part of Chile.
  • *Attempted fire at the premises of the official newspaper Última Hora.
  • April 22 – The first gay protest was organised.
  • April 24 – Presidential Gardener Carlos Henríquez Cisternas, was assassinated by Willians Ramírez Barría, a member of the GAP. Later he tried to shoot 2 reporters from Las Últimas Noticias who came to cover the incident.
  • April 25 – The government complains against the opposition newspaper El Mercurio.
  • April 27 – Massive concentration of adherents of the Popular Unity, in which Allende addresses the protesters.

    May

  • May 1 – Patricio Aylwin assumes the presidency of the Christian Democratic Party replacing Renán Fuentealba Moena.
  • May 2 :
  • * The Soviet Government was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize to Salvador Allende.
  • * The leader of Patria y Libertad, Roberto Thieme, requests political asylum in Argentina.
  • * Shooting confrontation between far-left militants and the far-right organization Patria y Libertad, in which one of its members is killed.
  • May 4 :
  • *Papelera is announced to be nationalized by the Government. This generates an energetic reaction from the opposition to said measure, starting a campaign to prevent the transfer of the factory to the State, whose emblem was "La Papelera NO".
  • *Shooting confrontation between adherents of the National Party and Popular Unity, which ended with 1 dead and 3 wounded.
  • May 5 – A state of emergency is declared in the Province of Santiago.
  • May 7 – In Concepción the newspaper El Cóndor is attacked by members of Patria y Libertad, who also kidnapped and tortured three young communists.
  • May 8 - Members of Patria y Libertad assassinate 22-year-old communist worker José Ricardo Ahumada Vásquez in front of the Christian Democracy headquarters.
  • May 10 – A state of emergency is decreed in the Province of O'Higgins, due to the El Teniente strike.
  • May 14 – Several premises of Patria y Libertad are raided, finding numerous weapons and explosives, after the call of its leader Roberto Thieme to unleash a civil war.
  • The Popular Unity government warned the Comptroller that he could be constitutionally accused
  • May 17 – Meetings of Patria y Libertad are prohibited.
  • May 18 - President Salvador Allende announced the expropriation of certain foreign companies.
  • May 21 – President Salvador Allende makes his annual speech in Congress where for the first time he was blundered by parliamentarians and declared "Using the law first, I will use revolutionary violence later if necessary.".
  • May 23 – One dead and two seriously injured leaves an attack with heavy fire towards strikers when they passed the headquarters of the Socialist Party of Rancagua.
  • May 24- Army Lieutenant Colonel C.Ackarcreek was relieved of his functions as head of the emergency zone of the Province of O'higgins when he ordered the search of the headquarters of the Socialist Party in Rancagua.
  • May 27 :
  • * 48-hour strike carried out by the Chilean Medical College against the Allende government.
National Day of Voluntary Work, whose motto was Chile works for Chile, in which more than 3 million people participate in support of the government.
  • May 30 –Dynamite attack on a television tower of Televisión Nacional de Chile in which one person is killed.
  • May 31 :
  • *Official visit of the President of Cuba, Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.
  • *Attack on the headquarters of the Communist Party and on Radio Corporación, by militants from Patria y Libertad.
  • * Radio Agricultura is closed for six days.
  • * Confrontation between miners from El Teniente and the Carabineros, a miner is killed.