Venezuela’s Chavez pays tribute to former Chilean President Salvador Allende (with video) ‎

Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:28PM GMT

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http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/09/12/261223/chavez-former-chilean-president-allende/

Martin Markovits, Press TV, Caracas

Tuesday was the anniversary of a bloody coup backed by the United States that removed ‎Chilean president Salvador Allende from power. Venezuelan President Chavez marked ‎the occasion by honoring Allende’s legacy at a press conference in Caracas on Tuesday. ‎Martin Markovits reports‏.‏

At a press conference on Tuesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez paid tribute to former Chilean president Salvador Allende on the 39th anniversary of the coup that toppled his government and ended his life.

The Venezuelan president said Allende’s democratically elected socialist government served as a model to him and also to the leftist governments that have come to dominate electoral politics in Latin America in the last two decades.

A military junta led by Augusto Pinochet and supported by the United States disposed Salvador Allende in 1973. A brutal repression followed that left an estimated 3,200 people dead.

The Socialist president took his own life as Pinochet’s troops were storming the presidential palace following an aerial bombardment on September 11, 1973.

The 1973 Chilean coup d’état is referred to by many in Latin America as the “first 9/11.”

President Chavez said there were lessons to be learned from the mistakes the Allende government made. Most significantly Allende's decision to not supply weapons to the popular movements that supported him.

Chavez, who like Allende was also a victim of a right wing led coup supported by the United States, has put great effort in restructuring the military with key allies and also arming the civilian population through the Bolivarian militia.

Chavez claims that the main purpose of the militia is to defend Venezuela from an American invasion. However, Venezuela’s opposition has labeled them as a tool to intimidate Chavez’s critics.

But according to student activist and Chavez supporter Alexander Marin, the Venezuelan president’s changes to the military are essential so he does not suffer the same fate as Allende.

The Venezuelan government says there are currently 125,000 civilians enrolled in the Bolivarian militia across the country. Chavez’s goal is to have two million by 2019.