Foreign news and “ultras” perspectives

Chile in the sociopolitical construct of "Fuerza Nueva" (1973 and 1976-1977)

Abstract

The military coup in Chile (1973) was widely covered by the Spanish press, with opposing points of view. The far right-wing magazine Fuerza Nueva immediately defended the coup leaders, prolonging its unreserved opposition to Salvador Allende: his government would have repeat, since 1970, the Spanish Second Republic in Chile. However, Chile’s theme mainly allowed another approach for its reactionary rhetoric, concerned with the political evolution of the regime from another point of view. It developed an argument to legitimize the coup in Francoist terms in order to reject any political change, and multiplied the correspondences between the two countries. This rhetoric became more radical under the first government of Adolfo Suárez (1976-1977): the Chilean coup remained a point of reference in this discourse, but also represented a model to be followed. Its evocations were intended to fuel the appeals to mobilize its readers against the democratic process (referendum, legalization of parties, legislative elections...) but also to strengthen the interventionist temptations of the military sectors.