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Highlights
id594822155
According to a 1975 Church Committee report on CIA involvement in Chile, its funding for Edwards’s right-wing newspaper El Mercurio, to the tune of roughly $2 million after Allende’s victory alone, was “by far the largest — and probably the most significant — instance of support for a media organization” in the country by the CIA. A postmortem by the CIA, the report explained, “concluded that El Mercurio and other media outlets supported by the Agency had played an important role in setting the stage” for the successful 1973 coup through their unrelenting propaganda campaign against Allende
✏️ CIA spending money to fund right-wing newspaper in Chile and setting the stage for the eventual coup. The newspaper is owned by Agustín Edwards, a right-wing Chilean media tycoon, and who seems to be a main point of contact with US government (in terms of CIA as well as president Nixon and his office). 🔗 View Highlight
id594822479
CIA debriefing with Edwards about coup plans, including logistics and which Chilean military officials would be needed and could be counted on to carry out the plot. The CIA was told that the coup leaders would need “several clear and specific guarantees” from Washington to act, like “immediate and possibly massive economic support” and logistical support in the form of weapons, transport, and equipment. They were also told that the national police, which had “been under intense pressure from extreme leftists” and were the country’s “largest and probably the best trained and best armed uniformed force,” would likely join in the coup.