53 Years After the Coup: Allende Urged Joan Garcés to ‘Tell What Happened Here,’ Leading Him to Justice Against Pinochet

Original article: A 53 años del Golpe: Allende le pidió a Joan Garcés “contar lo que aquí ha pasado” y él terminó llevando a Pinochet ante la justicia

Fifty-three years ago, Joan Garcés was inside La Moneda on September 11, 1973, and only survived because Salvador Allende ordered him to leave just minutes before the bombing. The Spanish lawyer, who had known the president before the 1970 election and later served as his advisor, stayed in the palace during the initial hours of the coup d’état.

Allende gave him a clear mission: «to tell what happened here,» a task Garcés fulfilled that eventually led him to legally confront Augusto Pinochet twenty-five years later. He recounted this in an interview with journalist Faride Zeran on the program Tiempos que Muerden, broadcast by Radio Universidad de Chile and UChile TV.

Their connection began in Paris when Garcés, a young lawyer, defended a thesis on the potential for the Unidad Popular candidate to win the election. After meeting him, Allende invited him to collaborate on implementing his ideas, and following the electoral victory, he brought Garcés on as an advisor, a role that placed him within the presidential palace on the day of the institutional breakdown that initiated the civic-military dictatorship.

Reflecting on that fateful day, Garcés stated: «I was inside La Moneda, and if I’m alive, it’s primarily because Allende told me to leave just moments before the Air Force bombed the palace.»

He noted that there was a fifteen-minute interval preceding the bombing during which infantry and artillery attacked, while those inside La Moneda gathered in the winter courtyard. President Allende addressed them, stating: ‘I will stay because it is my political, moral, and constitutional duty, but you all are free to leave.’

Garcés revealed that he had earlier held the same conversation with three aides and the Carabinero officers of the Presidential Guard, who chose to abandon the palace. However, the civilians opted to stay and «most of them were executed 48 hours later,» he recalled.

He indicated that he too had decided to remain, but the president insisted he should leave.

«At that moment, he said to me; ‘you must leave.’ I resisted and asked for reasons, and one of the reasons Allende gave me was ‘to tell what happened here; it’s something only you can do,'» he recounted.

«That’s why I say the first link in my being alive is Allende himself proposing it in action,» he emphasized.

Prats’ Resignation and Pinochet’s Rise

In the interview, the former advisor discussed the weeks leading up to the coup and the role played by the then Chief of the Army Staff, Augusto Pinochet.

He recalled a meeting held on August 21 or 22, presided over by Allende, which included CUT leaders, Pinochet, and Army Inspector General Orlando Urbina, following a protest by women outside the home of Army Commander José Santiago Prats, who were the wives of six active-duty generals.

«Allende instructed the generals on how to collaborate with organized workers to sustain the state and the democratic system against a potential troop insubordination,» he recounted.

Garcés noted that Prats asked Pinochet to speak with the generals whose wives protested and request their loyalty, and he conveyed the response, which ultimately led the Army Commander to resign. «This shows to what extent he manipulated the response to psychologically undermine Prats… and led him to opt for resignation,» he argued.

Allende accepted the resignation and asked whom Prats recommended. «Prats did not hesitate, he named Pinochet,» Garcés recalled.

In his view, if Prats had suggested another general, Pinochet would have been excluded from high command.

Days later, Allende informed his team that Pinochet would now serve as Commander-in-Chief and that he would call on citizens to democratically decide the country’s future. «Everyone knows that on September 11, Allende was going to open the ballot boxes for a plebiscite,» the former advisor indicated.

On the night of the 10th, Garcés prepared the presidential message. Loyal generals were developing Plan Hercules to counter a looming rebellion. «A coup was underway… we must prepare a counter-coup,» he explained.

«When the coup is led by Pinochet, it is clear that Plan Hercules is being implemented against the Government… Anyone who listens to Allende’s words that day, on the radio, in his last address, understands he is talking about someone who has committed that level of betrayal,» he asserted.

Crimes Committed by the Dictatorship in Chile Are ‘Unprescribed Under International Law’

In 1996, twenty-three years after the coup against President Allende, Joan Garcés was part of the international legal team that represented over 4,000 victims in more than 3,000 cases of murders, forced disappearances, and torture committed during Pinochet’s dictatorship, which were under investigation in Europe, particularly in Spain, England, and France.

«The crimes that were committed in Chile are unprescribed under international law,» he asserted.

He recalled that he filed the first lawsuit in 1996 against the dictator and, two years later, requested his arrest, which was executed in October 1998 in London, leading to investigations into the crimes and human rights violations recorded during his regime.

«Another factor I take pride in regarding Pinochet’s case is that thanks to him, the courts in Chile opened their doors to investigate and sanction these crimes,» he highlighted.

To conclude the interview, the lawyer and former advisor to Allende stated that although crimes are still being committed today, «international law is there, and domestic law is there too.»

«Sooner or later, those committing these crimes can and must be put on trial,» he asserted.