Allende’s Widow Returns to Chile to Join Campaign
The widow of President Salvador Allende, who died in a 1973 coup d’etat, has returned to Chile to join the opposition campaign for the December elections that will signal the end of 16 years of military rule.
Hortensia Bussi arrived in Santiago Friday night for her second trip to Chile since the Sept. 11, 1973, coup brought President Augusto Pinochet to power. Bussi said she returned to join the campaign of opposition presidential candidate Patricio Aylwin and “to see how democracy returns to Chile.”
The Dec. 14 election, the first since Allende’s election in 1970, was brought about by Pinochet’s defeat last year in a referendum that would have allowed him to extend his rule by eight more years. Bussi first returned to Chile just weeks before that vote.
The 74-year-old widow arrived from Mexico, where she has lived since the coup.
Allende was the first democratically elected Marxist president in the Americas.
Some Allende supporters say he was killed by the military during the coup, but the official version is that he committed suicide.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
