After the Coup

The coup was ruthless, and revealed the full extent to which the UP had been both unable to help the working class and the poor to defend themselves, and unable to persuade the middle classes to support the bourgeois democratic form of government once it was turned against them. Large scale massacres were carried out in the poblaciones (slum areas of Santiago that house half the city's 4 million people). A Chilean lawyer told a Newsweek reporter in October 1973: "I don't believe the stories they tell me, but after all the things the supporters of Allende have done to Chile they deserve whatever happens to them."

With the junta securely in power and supported by "moderate" groups, the United States was quick to lift its economic boycott and encourage others to do likewise. By March 1974, Chile had received a total of $621.8 million from foreign sources.