The events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the coup d'état that took place on September 11, 1973 have just ended. There was a solemn ceremony at the La Moneda palace headed by President Gabriel Boric, Senator Isabel Allende, daughter of the former president, together with the presidents of Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, the Prime Minister of Portugal and several former heads of state and government such as Uruguay's Pepe Mujica, Italy's Massimo de D'Alema, former Finnish President Tarya Halonenn and others.

The figure of the former Chilean head of state has been remembered in many countries around the world, especially in Latin America and Europe, with ceremonies, seminars in universities, conferences, concerts, press releases, films and many other activities. Half a century later, it is worth asking how it is possible that this date, which has become an ephemeris in the world calendar, continues to provoke interest in the public opinion of so many countries. The answer is many: the death of President Salvador Allende, the brutality of the dictatorship imposed by Augusto Pinochet for 17 years, the more than a thousand disappeared whose relatives are still searching for them and demanding justice, or the dreams of political change embodied by the Popular Unity program, which initiated an unprecedented project of economic and social transformations within the framework of a fully democratic system.

We must add the heroic resistance of President Allende and a handful of loyal collaborators who resisted for hours the siege and bombardment of four Hawker Hunter planes, cannons, tanks and a professional army, which also attacked, with the same fury, the official residence where the president's wife, Hortensia Bussi, was staying. Despite the refusal of his collaborators to surrender, Allende demanded them to leave the government palace thinking that they would save their lives. Some were lucky, others were massacred. The moment they were on their way out of the palace was the minute chosen by the president of Chile to end his life. History had the example of President José Manuel Balmaceda (1840-1891), who, harassed by the reactionary forces of the time that provoked a civil war, had to take refuge in the Argentine embassy where he put an end to his life the same day his constitutional mandate ended. Undoubtedly, the example of Balmaceda was always present in the mind of President Allende.

Allende proved to be fully aware of the historical transcendence of the project of transformations embodied in the program of the Popular Unity, headed by the socialist and communist parties. It was revolutionary to the extent that it initiated the change of the capitalist economic structure within the framework of a democratic system, something that had never happened before. A Marxist came to power in a Third World country, opening a path of transformations respecting the Constitution and the law. What went wrong, then? What has always haunted the left in much of the world: first of all, unity. Broadening the social support base was fundamental to have significant majorities in Parliament and to give full legitimacy to the changes. Then, the maximalist impatience of sectors that sought to take power in the short term, strongly influenced by the Cuban revolution. Thirdly, the true power of the United States and its alliance with Chilean economic and military sectors.

The Chilean left experienced, after 17 years of dictatorship, a process of renewal that brought it closer to the Christian Democracy in 1990, in an alliance that is considered one of the best in the history of the country. However, the accelerated economic growth and therefore consumption, found new generations born in democracy impatient to reach a social welfare state which the conservative right has never been willing to grant. This led to the social outburst of 2019 and the beginning of a constitutional process managed mostly by forces identified with the left that turned out to be unsuccessful. This has increased political fragmentation, allowing the parties that emerged alongside the new generations to end up imposing themselves, leading Gabriel Boric to the presidency. The hopes placed in the young government have crashed with reality. In the new constitutional process, the hard right wing has begun to impose its absolute majority, which opens the doors to a new rejection in the plebiscite to be held on December 1st next. Therefore, the right will be victorious in any result since it has always opposed changing Pinochet's constitution, which could remain in force.

A Vietnamese proverb says that if you want to catch big fish, you must enter the high seas. Chile needs profound changes, starting with a social state of rights that guarantees education, health, housing and decent pensions for all Chileans. Today the possibility of a right-wing or extreme right-wing government is among the possibilities due to people's weariness and the poor assessment of politicians. To reverse this situation the progressive forces must learn the lessons of the past and work tirelessly for broad unity, end the eternal division of the left and listen to the voice of President Allende, who tried until the end of his life to reach a political agreement that would have avoided the holocaust that engulfed Chilean society.