The Army Moves In

Abstract

One consequence of Chile’s increasing class polarization was that by 1972, civilians on both sides were pressuring the armed forces to intervene and resolve the crisis. Whatever the ambivalence of Christian Democracy, the rest of the Chilean Right was calling publicly for a military coup. But Allende himself was also attempting to use the weight of the armed forces as legal guardians of ‘law and order’ against the emerging terrorist bands of Fatherland and Freedom and increasingly disruptive strikes organized by the whole of the opposition.