Socialist Republic of Chile

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March in support of the proclamation of the Socialist Republic of Chile, in front of La Moneda Palace (June 12, 1932)

Socialist Republic of Chile (June 4, 1932 - September 13, 1932) (Spanish: República Socialista de Chile) was a short-lived political entity in Chile, that was proclaimed by the Government Junta that took over that year.

1 Background
2 Creation and fall
3 Additional information
- 3.1 See also
- 3.2 External links

[edit] Background

President Juan Esteban Montero had assumed in November 15, 1931. By mid-1932, he was already in serious problems, due to the economic impact of the market crash of 1929. To the very grave social and economic problems he faced, he could add the growing political instability that was gripping the country. He was pictured as an inefficient and impopular and the number of conspiracies that seeked to displace him was growing by the day.

On June 4, 1932, a group of young socialists under the leadership of Eugenio Matte; some air force personnel under colonel Marmaduke Grove; and some army personnel (followers of fomer president Carlos Ibáñez del Campo) under Carlos Dávila staged a coup d'état by taking over the Air Force base of El Bosque, in Santiago, demanding the resignation of President Montero.

Montero refused to call on the army to put down the coup, and instead chose to resign. That same night, the victorious revolutionaries organized a Government Junta composed of retired General Arturo Puga, Eugenio Matte and Carlos Davila, with colonel Grove as their minister of Defense. They inmediately proceeded to proclaim the Socialist Republic of Chile.

[edit] Creation and fall

The proclamation took by surprise and divided public opinion inmediately. The Communist Party of Chile (PCCh) and the worker's sindicates manifested their opposition, because they considered the coup as "militarist". At the same time, businessmen, professionals and students of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile also heateadly opposed it, also on ideological grounds. At the end the new republic received only the guarded support of the socialists and the employees' associations.

The new Junta ordered a half-million free meals served daily by the Government to Chile's unemployed. State pawnshops had to obey an order to return gratis sewing machines and all tools pawned by the "certified unemployed." After only a few days in office the Government began to run short of funds, so it ordered the police to raid all the jewelry shops in Santiago, seizing valuables from helpless jewelers. To avoid what it could be termed as a "confiscation", the police gave each jeweler "compensation" in the form of a receipt which they could cash in paper pesos. Credits and deposits in foreign currency in the national and foreign banks operating in Chile were declared the property of the State.

The division of public opinion was also present inside the Government Junta, where the followers of General Ibáñez opposed the radicalization of the socialist movement promoted by Grove and Matte. On June 13, Carlos Dávila resigned in protest. Three days later, on June 16, and with the support of the army, he procedeed to expel the socialist members of the government, and replace them with his own supporters. Eugenio Matte and Marmaduque Grove were arrested and exiled to Easter Island. Some authors consider this date as the true end of the socialist republic.

With army support, Carlos Dávila, proclaimed himself provisional President of the “Socialist Republic of Chile”. At the same time he declared a state of emergency, press censorship, and a host of centrally-planned economic measures. Nonetheless, the lack of military and public opinion support forced him to resign on September 13, 1932. The office was passed onto General Bartolomé Blanche, who inmediately called for presidential and congressional elections. It was the end of the socialist experiment.