Allende Gossens, Salvador
Allende Gossens, Salvador
Allende Gossens, Salvador
Born July 26, 1908, in Valparaiso; died Sept. 11, 1973, in Santiago. Chilean state and political figure.
In 1932, Allende graduated from the medical school at the University of Chile. In the following year he helped found the Socialist Party of Chile; he was subsequently elected deputy general secretary and general secretary of the party. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1937 and served as minister of health in the Popular Front coalition government from 1939 to 1942. He was a senator from 1945 to 1970, serving for a number of years as vice-president and president of the Senate.
In 1952, 1958, and 1964, Allende ran for president as the candidate of a leftist coalition; he ran as the candidate of the Popular Unity bloc in 1970 and was elected. Under Allende the government carried out anti-imperialist policies directed toward strengthening Chile’s national sovereignty, eliminating the hold of foreign monopolies on the country, weakening the positions of the big bourgeoisie and the oligarchy of landowners, and improving the lot of the working people.
Allende became a member of the World Peace Council in 1969 and received the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Nations in 1973. Allende was killed in a fascist military coup.