The Battle for Chile
Chapter eight charts the build-up to the right-wing military coup in Chile on 11 September 1973. It examines the progressive division of the Left amid conspiracies against the government, focusing in, as Beatriz did, on the impending prospect of a coup and the strategies Allende’s team employed in response. It also examines Beatriz’s gendered experience of the battle for Chile unfolding from 1971-73. By late 1972, even Allende accepted that a coup was a serious possibility and began putting measures in place that included stopping Beatriz fulfilling the role she expected to play. As someone with intelligence and communications training who knew how to use firearms, she was ready to fight to defend the Popular Unity government next to her father. However, Beatriz’s gender and her father’s efforts to protect her blocked her from being able to. That Beatriz became a mother in late 1971 and was pregnant with her second child by early 1973 strengthened Allende’s desire to save her. Ultimately, Beatriz was forced to leave the presidential palace on the day of the coup and sought asylum in the Cuban embassy. The chapter ends with her leaving the country with her Cuban husband, daughter and Cuban embassy personnel.