Objective/Context:

After Salvador Allende’s victory in the elections of September 1970, the coming to power of the Unidad Popular (up) inaugurated in Chile an expressive process of political and social transformations associated with the horizon of building its path to socialism. This article shows how, in Argentina, the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores-Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (prt-erp) analyzed this Chilean historical moment and how its interpretations were transferred to the sphere of its theoretical programmatic reflections and its own local political reality. It also shows that, during Allende’s government, Chile was a fundamental place of political asylum, confluence of ideas, and transit for its members.

Methodology:

The article is mainly based on the analysis of internal documents of the prt-erp, the memoirs of its former members, and particularly from its most important organ of diffusion, the newspaperEl Combatiente.

Originality:

By considering its actions and positions beyond national borders, this work promotes understanding the transnational dimension of the left-wing militant experience in the Southern Cone during the 1960s/1970s. It seeks to contribute to studying the regional impact of the so-called “Chilean road to socialism.” It also enables reflection on particular features of the history of the prt-erp by recomposing how it interacted and sought to intervene in the regional context in which it was inserted.

Conclusions:

The development of the Chilean experience questioned diverse regional actors, including those who, like the prt-erp, were committed to constructing socialism through armed struggle. Although its positions and tactics differed from those of the Unidad Popular, the prt-erp sought to draw closer to the political process of the up and interpreted the interruption of its trajectory -with the military coup of September 11, 1973- as a confirmation of some of its more skeptical expectations about the possibilities of transforming reality through democratic means. In this sense, the organization took advantage of the coup to draw from it a series of lessons and transfer them to the analysis of its own local reality, crossed by the return of Peronism to power, which coincided with the fall of the Popular Unity government.

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