Democracy Dies in a Day

This episode of Throughline explores the collapse of democracy in Chile following the 1973 military coup led by Augusto Pinochet. It details the rise of Salvador Allende and his socialist policies, the U.S. government's intervention to destabilize Allende's government, and the subsequent authoritarian rule under Pinochet. The episode features the perspectives of Sergio Bitar, a former government worker and political prisoner; John Dingus, an American reporter; Juan Gabriel Valdez, Chile's current ambassador to the U.S.; and Camila Vergara, who grew up in Chile during the dictatorship. It also covers the economic impact of Pinochet's neoliberal policies, the resistance movement against the dictatorship, and the 1988 plebiscite that eventually led to the end of Pinochet's rule.