{"id":57392,"date":"2021-04-04T09:03:25","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T14:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57392"},"modified":"2021-04-04T09:03:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T14:03:25","slug":"exclusive-secret-cables-reveal-britain-interfered-with-elections-in-chile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57392","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Secret cables reveal Britain interfered with elections in Chile"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"articleheader-small article-body-small\">\n<div class=\"container \">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-xs-12\">\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2020-09-22-exclusive-secret-cables-reveal-britain-interfered-with-elections-in-chile\/\">Exclusive: Secret cables reveal Britain interfered with elections in Chile<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive header-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/Declassified-Chile1-1600x894.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/Declassified-Chile1-480x268.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/Declassified-Chile1-1000x559.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/Declassified-Chile1-768x429.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/Declassified-Chile1-1536x858.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/Declassified-Chile1-1600x894.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/Declassified-Chile1-350x195.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/Declassified-Chile1.jpg 2000w\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-xs-12 col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1\">\n<div class=\"article-container\">\n<div class=\"col-xs-12 col-sm-7 col-md-9\">\n<p class=\"image-caption\" title=\"Click to expand\"><i class=\"fa fa-camera\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>\u00a0Demonstrators march through Santiago de Chile in 2018 to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the coup that overthrew Chile\u2019s left-wing President Salvador Allende. (Photo: EPA \/ Alberto Vald\u00e9s)\u00a0<a class=\"morelink\"><i class=\"fa fa-angle-up\"><\/i>\u00a0Less<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"first-paragraph\"><strong>Declassified Foreign Office files show that Britain conducted a covert propaganda offensive to stop Chilean leader Salvador Allende winning two democratic presidential elections \u2013 and helped prepare the ground for General Augusto Pinochet\u2019s brutal military regime.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"adfree-content col-sm-11\">\n<div class=\"speechkit-container\"><iframe id=\"speechkit-io-iframe\" src=\"https:\/\/spkt.io\/a\/1044453\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-src=\"https:\/\/spkt.io\/a\/1044453\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Almost 50 years after the September 1973 coup that overthrew the democratically-elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, declassified Foreign Office documents reveal Britain\u2019s role in destabilising the country.<\/p>\n<p>Under the Labour government of Harold Wilson (1964-1970), a secret Foreign Office unit initiated a propaganda offensive in Chile aiming to prevent Allende, Chile\u2019s leading socialist figure, winning power in two presidential elections, in 1964 and 1970.<\/p>\n<p>The unit \u2013 the Information Research Department (IRD) \u2013 gathered information designed to damage Allende and lend legitimacy to his political opponents, and distributed material to influential figures within Chilean society.<\/p>\n<p>The IRD also shared intelligence about left-wing activity in the country with the US government. British officials in Santiago assisted a CIA-funded media organisation which was part of extensive US covert action to overthrow Allende, culminating in the 1973 coup.<\/p>\n<p><b>Anyone but Allende<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A Foreign Office planning<a href=\"http:\/\/discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk\/details\/r\/C11276616\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0document<\/a>\u00a0written in 1964 had noted that Latin America was \u201ca vital area in the Cold War and checking a Communist takeover here is at least as important a British national interest as negotiating trading and stepping up exports\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The report added that the US was \u201canxious for the United Kingdom to do as much as possible in the propaganda field\u201d in Latin America.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<p>John McEvoy, chile, united kingdom, political interference, britain, cia, united states, central intelligence agency, uk foreign office<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exclusive: Secret cables reveal Britain interfered with elections in Chile \u00a0Demonstrators march through Santiago de Chile in 2018 to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the coup that overthrew Chile\u2019s left-wing President Salvador Allende. (Photo: EPA \/ Alberto Vald\u00e9s)\u00a0\u00a0Less Declassified Foreign Office files show that Britain conducted a covert propaganda offensive to stop Chilean leader Salvador [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[93,4102,3386,135,31116,31117,19676,2080,827],"class_list":["post-57392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-britain","tag-central-intelligence-agency","tag-chile","tag-cia","tag-john-mcevoy","tag-political-interference","tag-uk-foreign-office","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57393,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57392\/revisions\/57393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}