Law and Economic Coercion as Instruments of International Control: the Nationalisation of Chilean Copper

Abstract

To the casual observer, the 1971 nationalisation of copper in Chile by the government of Salvador Allende and its aftermath may appear as a typical example of the power of multinational corporations to thwart the attempts at economic independence of nationalistic governments in underdeveloped countries. All the elements of the well-known drama were there: the attachment of Chilean copper in European ports by the expropriated American corporations; the intervention of the United States government both to block international financial support to Chile, and to provide direct covert assistance to opposition forces; the increasingly deteriorating economic position of the Allende government in 1972 and early 1973; the bloody military coup that put an end to the Allende experiment and to Chilean democracy in September 1973; and finally the rush of the new Chilean military rulers to settle the dispute with the American multinationals through agreement on the payment of satisfactory compensation.