Allende, Pinochet, and the Jews

This book examines the attitudes of Chilean President Salvador Allende and General Augusto Pinochet toward Jews and the State of Israel. Throughout his political career, Allende expressed solidarity with European Jews in the 1930s, supported the establishment of a Jewish state in the 1940s, and opposed left-wing criticism of Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. As president, he interceded on behalf of Jewish dissidents in the Soviet Union, condemned Arab terrorism, and maintained strong diplomatic ties with Israel. Pinochet, who toppled him as a dictator in 1973, made even more gestures of goodwill despite his regime's deplorable human rights record, regarding Jewish Chileans as wealthy White people whose economic acumen and strong US connections made them indispensable for the success of his regime. Moreover, Jerusalem became a key strategic ally of Santiago, supplying weapons that Washington withheld, and Pinochet in turn staunchly supported Israel at the United Nations. Drawing on a diverse set of sources including recently declassified documents, Guzmán explores the broader story of these two figures and the impact of the coup on both Chilean Jews and Israel. This is a valuable resource for scholars and students of Jewish history, Latin American history, Cold War studies, and antisemitism studies.

Gustavo Guzmán is Research Associate at the Institute for Latin American Studies of the Free University of Berlin. He is the author of Attitudes of the Chilean Right Toward Jews (2022), Latin American Strongmen and the Jews (forthcoming 2027), and numerous articles on Jewish history and antisemitism in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Introduction Part 1: President Allende and the Jews 1. The Jewish Allendistas 2. A Long-Standing Friend of Jews 3. The Anti-Allende Jews Part 2: General Pinochet and the Jews 4. "National Reconstruction" 5. An Ally in the Middle East 6. Golden Years 7. Hectic Years. Epilogue: London, 1998