Popular Unity Government

The Unidad Popular (UP; Popular Unity in English) government of Chile was the left-wing coalition that brought the socialist candidate, Salvador Allende, to power in 1970 with 36% of the votes. The coalition was made of the Socialist Party (PS), the Communist Party (PC), the non-Marxist Radical Party (PR), and three other small political parties, an arrangement that [Page 1145]often made internal decision difficult. Aside from that, the UP did not control Congress, which made governing strenuous throughout the mandate. Nevertheless, at a time when guerrilla movements were emerging throughout Latin America, the UP represented a unique democratic political option to create a nonviolent transition to socialism.

The program put forward by the UP sought radical structural changes, such as the nationalization of key industries, the acceleration of the existing land reform, and the implementation of social welfare measures to render basic services accessible to poorer sectors of society. At the economic level, the UP wanted to organize the economy around three types of industrial and commercial enterprises: socialized (more than 99% state-owned), mixed (more than 50% state-owned), and private. In 1971, with the political support of the opposition, the UP government completely socialized copper mining, which represented almost 80% of Chile's exports. This socialization went further than previous ones in Latin America. Indeed, the UP government refused to pay any compensation to U.S.–owned mining companies because an enquiry proved that, foreseeing their socialization, they had consciously overexploited their mines and stopped investing in them. The UP, using forgotten decree laws, also socialized the telecommunication sector that was controlled by the U.S. corporation International Telephone and Telegraph and the bank owned by private Chilean and foreign interests, as well as the textile and other industries. Pressured by workers, who occupied their factories, the government also socialized enterprises it had not planned to take over, such as Cervecerías unidas and Yarur, among others.

The UP government accelerated the land reform of 1967 that the conservative Christian Democratic government of President Eduardo Frei (1964–1970) had been very slow to implement. Despite the strong resistance of powerful landholders, the government managed to expropriate and redistribute land to small farmers and encouraged the development of new forms of landholding such as cooperatives and collective land ownership. Unfortunately, because of the violent repression exercised by landlords, redistribution was achieved at the cost of numerous peasants' and small farmers' lives.

The UP, with the support of volunteer doctors and nurses, medical students, and community leaders, launched major vaccination, hygiene, and nutrition campaigns and provided basic medical services in remote areas of the country, mainly those populated by indigenous people. Moreover, the UP channeled new funding into the public health care system, which allowed health institutions to improve the quality of the services and raised the wages and increased the number of doctors and nurses.

The UP government also enhanced funding for public education to increase the number of teachers and improve their salaries. The government also launched a vast literacy campaign throughout the country. With the support of unions, it also promoted and supported the creation of adult education workshops that were held in the workplace, as well as in women and peasant associations. Access to higher education was facilitated through a substantial increase in the number of scholarships given by the government.

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