They reveal that Brazil was an accomplice of the United States in the Goal …

On the occasion of the 57th anniversary of the military coup in Brazil, the National Security Archive (NSA) of the United States released confidential documentation revealing the efforts of the Brazilian regime to overthrow the government of Salvador Allende (1970-1973) . The secret files detail the pressure exerted by former US President Richard Nixon for Brazil to cooperate in promoting an “insurgency” against the socialist president. And they confirm that Secret agents from Brazil worked with the Chilean military and air force to get it.

Chilean Ambassador to Brasilia Raúl Rettig sent a “strictly confidential” cable to the Chilean Foreign Ministry in 1971. The plan was work in collaboration with paramilitary and fascist organizations such as the Nationalist Front Patria y Libertad (FNPL) of Chile. The material released by the NSA was one of the contributions to the in-depth investigation that journalist Roberto Simon faced and led to the book Brazil against democracy: dictatorship, coup in Chile and cold war in South America.

“We have known for many years that the policy of the Brazilian military regime was to oppose Allende’s popular unity government and to welcome the bloody Pinochet regime as a new and valuable member of the Cone Dictators’ Club. South. But we now have a broader view of the diplomatic, military, intelligence and economic operations that Brazil has secretly carried out against Chilean democracy“, detailed at PageI12 Peter Kornbluh, director of the NSA Cuba and Chile Documentation Project.

On Wednesday, the US research center revealed for the first time 12 declassified documents on Brazil’s role in the overthrow of Allende. One of them was written a few days after the historic triumph of the socialist leader at the polls on September 4, 1970. The document dated September 22 reveals that the American ambassador to Chile, Edward Korry, met the Brazilian Ambassador in Santiago, Antonio Cândido da Câmara Canto, for share details of US efforts to block Allende’s inauguration.

On orders from the White House, Korry said: the US embassy passed “hostile information” on Allende to Chilean military commanders and threatened to cut off economic aid and supply of war material if the latter finally assumed the presidency of Chile, this still had to be ratified in Congress.

Another shocking dossier is the memorandum of a Meet registered on December 9, 1971 between the former President of the United States, Richard nixon, and the head of the time of the Brazilian dictatorship, General Emilio Garrastazu Medici, to the White House. The spoke openly of the efforts to overthrow Allende.

According to declassified files, Medici told Nixon that Allende was going to be impeached “for the same reason that (President Joao) Goulart was deposed in Brazil”. and clarified that “Brazil is working to achieve this goal.” Nixon replied that it was “very important that Brazil and the United States work closely together in this area.” and offered “quiet help” to operate against the Allende government.

The Oval Office meeting between Nixon and Medici was captured in a “top-secret” White House document that the NSA obtained and first published in 2009. The prestigious research center also released information from the CIA on the reaction. At the meeting of some Brazilian military officers, including one who believed that “The United States obviously wants Brazil to do the dirty work” in South America.

On March 23, 1971, the Ambassador of Chile to Brazil, Raúl Rettig, sent a confidential cable to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the evocative title: “The Brazilian army is possibly carrying out studies on the introduction of guerrilla warfare into Chile”. Several sources had informed the embassy that the Brazilian military government was evaluating how to instigate an insurgency to overthrow Allende.

Even the Brazilian armed forces had established a “war room” with maps and models of the Andes mountain range to plan undercover operations. According to the Rettig report, “The Brazilian military has apparently sent several secret agents to Chile who are said to have entered the country as tourists, intending to gather more information on possible regions where a guerrilla movement could operate.”. A date has not yet been set, said an informant, to launch the “armed movement”.

As happened with the Chilean Navy, foreign agents linked to the fascist FNPL, some of whose leaders were granted protection after the June 1973 coup attempt known in Chile as “Tanquetazo”. This military uprising which was the prelude to the overthrow of Allende was led by the then commander of the armored regiment, Roberto Souper, the Bío Bío website recalled.

Brazilian in uniform, details the NSA, they met members of the Chilean armed forces at El Bosque air base in August 1973, a few days after the military coup. There they shared their experiences of the strategies used in 1964 to overthrow President Goulart.

After the bloody coup of September 11, 1973 which put Augusto Pinochet at the head of the de facto government, Brazilian intelligence agents formed a special interrogation group that operated in the national stadium in Santiago. A Brazilian diplomat informed his country of the presence of “about five Brazilian policemen and three detainees” inside the stadium transformed into a place of detention, torture and execution.

Brazil has also trained dozens of officials from Chile’s formidable secret police, the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA). Among them are agents who have participated in international assassination missions, such as the car bomb that killed former Ambassador Orlando Letelier and left-wing activist Ronni Karpen Moffitt in Washington DC, or the unsuccessful murder of the Christian Democrat leader. Bernardo Leighton and his wife in Italy. in 1975.

Sign of the close ties between the two countries, Chilean senior officers spent a long time in Brazil, such as General Humberto Gordon, stationed in Brasilia as “military attaché” in 1974. Gordon became head of the secret police of Pinochet, the National Information Center (CNI) which succeeded DINA in 1977.

“The declassified documents change the historical narrative of Chile, which has largely focused on the role of CIA covert action in destabilizing Allende,” said Peter Kornbluh. “They also show that Brazil was an interventionist actor independent in Southern Cone, not an Imperial Washington Pocket Dog. The Brazilian military dictatorship sought to protect its future by removing Allende’s seductive model from the peaceful path to socialism and help create a repressive and allied military regime in its stead, ”the Washington researcher added.