Portrait of Salvador Allende

People/politician

Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende (1908–1973), politician, from Chile. Linked to copper.

The lucky break

Chile's Congress confirmed him as president on 24 October 1970 and he was sworn in on 3 November.1,2,3

The downfall

Died during the military coup of 11 September 1973, now widely regarded as a suicide.1,2,3

Legacy

On 21 December 1970 he proposed a constitutional amendment to expropriate the copper companies. Congress passed it on 11 July 1971 and it became law five days later. US companies including Anaconda and Kennecott received little or no compensation.1,2,3

Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!

Salvador Allende1

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 11 July 1971Chile nationalises large copper mining4
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Where next

Events

LedChile nationalises large copper miningHis amendment to expropriate the copper firms became law in July 1971.1

Sources

  1. Milestones: Allende US Department of State, Office of the Historian
  2. Wikidata item Q440
  3. File pages and licence metadata for portraits (via the Commons imageinfo/extmetadata API) Wikimedia Commons
  4. Allende and the nationalisation of Chilean copper (milestone essay) US Department of State, Office of the Historian

Pictures on this page: Salvador Allende, President of Chile, gtfy.00154.jpg, Bernard Gotfryd (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0; Haul trucks by Lechhabmed, CC BY-SA 4.0; Drilling and blasting by Siim Roov, CC BY-SA 4.0.