In the months leading up to the military coup in Chile, supporters of the socialist president Allende try to create a " state within a state " with political and charitable actions - as a counterweight to the anti-reform forces in the country, supported by the Nixon administration in the USA.

Between March and September 1973, the left and right clashed on all fronts: In the streets, the factories, the courts and the universities, Parliament and the media. The US government continued to interfere by financing those fermenting chaos. As the military conspired in Valparaiso, the middle classes encouraged the unrest.