Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl_TheOG_Marx
Chile
I think this needs underlining.
I don't know how much it's common knowledge in the USA the extent to which you guys ****ed with their country. American-owned Copper companies were not happy about Allende, a popularly-democratically-elected socialist leader, nationalising the copper mines in response to economic hardships leading to his election. The copper companies lobbied the american government to undo that ****. So they helped factions of the Chilean army lead a fairly violent and murderous coup even by south american standards and instantiated General Pinochet. They did things like dropping dissidents out of helicopters into the sea, made public spectacles of hangings and murders in order to intimidate opposition, and reorganised the economy in order to prioritise capital. They changed the constitution to such a degree that even since Pinochet left office they've struggled to regain power of their own economy. This was all funded by the USA, for the sakes of mining interests. For me, the most egregious example of interfering with foreign politics in the 20th century. The scale of the tragedy is gigantic.