20 Jul 2011

Chile's President Allende killed himself, experts say

A team of international experts has concluded that the former president of Chile, Salvador Allende, killed himself during the 1973 military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.

allende

A detailed report was released two months after Mr Allende's body was exhumed as part of an inquiry into his death. Mr Allende's family has always accepted the official version. But some of his supporters suspected he had been killed by soldiers.

Allende, who was 65, died in La Moneda presidential palace on 11 September 1973 as it was being bombed by air force jets and attacked by tanks. The official version was that he shot himself - with a rifle given to him by his friend, the then Cuban leader Fidel Castro - as troops stormed the palace.

Mr Allende's family agreed to have his body exhumed from a cemetery in the capital, Santiago, so that an international team of experts, including specialists in ballistics, could determine the cause of death.

Full article on BBC News