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Some of the strongest opposition came from Chilean women, perhaps the most liberated in Latin America. As occasional meatless days became regular meatless weeks, they organized a "March of the Empty Pots" in 1971 to dramatize the rising cost and increasing shortages of food. The sound of spoons banging against empty pots became a symbolic klaxon of protest. The signal would suddenly begin in one quarter of Santiago and ripple all across the city, to the chagrin of the government. Two weeks ago, after Allende's supporters staged a massive rally in Plaza de la ConstituciÓn to celebrate the third anniversary of his election, 100,000 women turned out a day later for a counterdemonstration. They were dispersed with tear gas.
The principal cause of Allende's downfall was his inability to settle a series of crippling strikes−staged not by leftist labor unions but by the President's implacable middle-class enemies. Earlier this year, workers at El Teniente, the world's largest underground copper mine, marched out on a 74-day strike for higher wages that cost the government nearly $75 million in lost revenue.
The unrest spread. Three weeks after the copper strike was settled, the powerful truckers (most of the country's commerce travels by road) went out on strike again. They had first struck in October, complaining about a lack of spare parts and the government's increasing trucking operations. This time they charged that Allende had reneged on agreements made last fall to ease both situations. The new strike cost Chile nearly $6 million a day as food supplies dwindled, fuel vanished and crop shortages loomed because seeds and fertilizer could not be delivered.
While most of the country survived on short rations, the truckers seemed unusually well equipped for a lengthy holdout. Recently, TIME Correspondent Rudolph Rauch visited a group of truckers camped near Santiago who were enjoying a lavish communal meal of steak, vegetables, wine and empanadas (meat pies). "Where does the money for that come from?" he inquired. "From the CIA," the truckers answered laughingly. In Washington, the CIA denied the allegation.
Meanwhile, the political polarization of Chile continued, with Allende seemingly unable to do much about it. The truckers' protest triggered sporadic strikes by doctors, shopkeepers and bus and taxi drivers angered by ballooning inflation (300% in the first six months of this year) and meager incomes. To prevent chaos, the President tried to make peace with the opposition Christian Democrats. Nothing came of the dialogue because the party was badly split. One faction urged support for the government. Another, led by ex-President Frei, was determined to help topple it by withholding cooperation.
In an effort to reduce right-wing opposition and frighten the truckers, Allende persuaded commanders of the armed forces to come into his Cabinet. That was a serious error, since it politicized the military, which had tried to stay above the crisis, into pro-and anti-Allende factions. The result was a charade of revolving-door politics.