Protesters, Police Clash as Chile Marks 1973 Coup

A street disturbance erupted near Chile’s government palace Friday as the country marked the 19th anniversary of a bloody military coup against Socialist President Salvador Allende, who died during the coup.

Several hundred leftist demonstrators were protesting human rights violations during the 1973 coup and the ensuing 16 1/2 years of military rule. The clash between demonstrators and the police reflected the conflicting political passions that Sept. 11, a national holiday, still arouses among Chileans.

Radio Cooperativa, an independent station, said the clash began across the street from La Moneda, the presidential palace, when some leftists tried to extinguish the “eternal flame” in a monument to military men killed in action.

The police used tear gas grenades and water cannon, and young demonstrators threw rocks, as the melee spread into adjacent streets. Some windows in La Moneda were broken. Cooperativa said a policeman and a student were injured.

Later, demonstrators marched peacefully to Allende’s tomb in Santiago’s General Cemetery.

On the eve of the holiday, terrorists attacked and killed three plainclothes police guards at the house of the Santiago metropolitan governor. The Lautaro Rebel and Popular Forces, a radical leftist group, claimed responsibility for the attack. A member of the Lautaro organization was fatally wounded by one of the policemen.

While leftists and human rights activists marked the anniversary with protests, the army commemorated it with a 21-gun salute and a religious ceremony that was attended by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, leader of the 1973 coup.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of Pinochet’s supporters gathered outside his house to cheer him and celebrate the coup.

“It was not a mission assigned by the armed forces, but rather the people of Chile requested it to free them from Marxist aggression,” said Pinochet, 76, who stepped down as president in March, 1990, but remains commander in chief of the army.

Allende committed suicide in the presidential palace while it was under attack in the 1973 coup. Elements of his old Socialist Party--a Marxist-Leninist party in Allende’s time--now participate in the government headed by President Patricio Aylwin, a Christian Democrat.

Hortensia Bussi de Allende, the former president’s widow, attended a memorial service at the presidential palace Friday morning. Aylwin invited Mrs. Allende, her daughters and grandchildren for coffee after the service.

Aylwin has repeatedly called for national reconciliation, but Socialists and other leftists are intensifying a campaign aimed at putting military and police personnel on trial for human rights violations in the 1970s.

“I trust that we will reach the longed-for reconciliation, but justice must be done,” Mrs. Allende said Friday.