The Spanish loyalists would not give up without a struggle and the Chilean War for Independence lasted until 1817 when an army led by Bernard O'Higgins joined forces with General Jose de San Martin and defeated the Spanish forces at the Battle of Chacabuco. O'Higgins was declared Chile's Supreme Director and remained in power until 1823. He spent the remainder of his life in exile in Peru and died in 1842. O'Higgins' remains are buried in the Altar de la Patria in the Chilean government palace La Moneda in Santiago. The main avenue in Santiago is also named in his honor Avenida Libertador General Bernard O'Higgins.

Monday, Sept 19 U.S. Troops land in Panama to protect U.S. Interests (1856). U.S. forces landed to protect American interests during an insurrection in the Republic of New Granada, later called Panama. The military event was one of hundreds of examples of U.S. military interventions in Latin America to protest U.S. interests and exert its influence over the region.

Monday, Sept 19 Born Brothers kidnapped by Montoneros in Argentina (1974). The Montoneros, along with the Workers' Revolutionary Party (ERP in Spanish) were one of Argentina's most ruthless and violent insurgent group and operated from 1970-1977 until their annihilation by the Argentina military government. They were infamous for assassinations of former presidents, attacks on military targets, and murder of corporate executives. On September 19, 1974, the Montoneros kidnapped Jorge and Juan Born, scions of the wealthy Born cereal and flour export company. The Montoneros demanded and received as ransom $60 million in cash and $1.2 million worth of food and clothing to be given to the poor, at the time, the largest ransom ever paid. The brothers were released nine months after their kidnapping.

Monday, Sept 19 Earthquake strikes Mexico City (1985). A massive 8.1 magnitude earthquake near Mexico City left 9,000 dead and 30,000 injured, most in the capital. In addition, nearly 3500 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Between US$9 billion and US$12 billion of damage was caused in just over three minutes. Despite that the epicenter was located nearly 200 miles away off the Pacific Coast of the country, the damage was exacerbated in the capital because much of the city was constructed on top of a dry lakebed.

Monday, Sept 19 Operation Uphold Democracy (1994). Jean-Bertrand Aristide ascended to the Presidency in Haiti in February 1991, but was overthrown and forced to leave the country in September of that year. Backed by United Nations Security Resolution 940, the United States responded with Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY, the deployment of military forces to Haiti to support the return of a democratic government. With 3900 paratroopers ready to take off, President Clinton dispatched a negotiating team led by former President Jimmy Carter and including CJCS Chairman Colin Powell and Senator Sam Nunn to discuss an 11th hour diplomatic solution. The Haitian military leaders agreed to allow Aristide to return to power and the U.S. forces deployed without significant resistance. The military force initially employed over 20,000 U.S. military personnel, plus some 2,000 personnel from a dozen other countries. On March 31, 1995, a smaller U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti (UNMIH) replaced the U.S. forces.

Monday, Sept 19 Chile Armed Forces Day. The day after Chilean Independence Day is also a national holiday. Chilean Armed Forces day (often referred to as Army Victory Day or " Día de las Glorias del Ejército" in Spanish) includes military and naval parades and events celebrating Chile's military victories.

Wednesday, Sept 21 Argentina President Juan Perón resigns (1955). Juan Peron served as President of Argentina from 1946-1955 and then again from 1973-1974. He and his famous wife Maria Eva Duarte de Perón (Evita) were immensely popular among the Argentine people and today are still considered iconic figures. After his wife died in 1952 at the age of 33, Peron's popularity started to decline. In 1955, following widespread disturbances by anti-government forces and then the rejection of support by the Catholic Church, Peron was accused of corruption and forced from power. He fled to a Paraguayan gunboat in the Rio Plata and eventually made his way to Spain. After 17 years in exile, he returned triumphantly to Argentina and was met by a crowd estimated at 3.5 million people but died just a year later from a heart attack. Peron's political philosophy, part capitalism and part socialism, is the platform for the leading party in Argentina today, the Peronistas.

Wednesday, Sept 21 Assassination of Chilean Minister Orlando Letelier in Washington DC (1976). Letelier served as Ambassador to the United States and Minister of Foreign Relations (equivalent of U.S. Secretary of State) under the government of Chilean President Salvador Allende. After the coup of 1973 in which Allende died and General Pinochet seized power, he was the first high-ranking member of the Allende administration seized and arrested. He was held for twelve months in different concentration camps, severely tortured by members of the Chilean military, then sentenced to manual labor in Dawson Island Prison deep in Tierra del Fuego. Under international pressure, he was finally released from prison in September of 1974 and immediately exiled from Chile. Letelier moved to Washington, D.C. and became the leading voice of the Chilean resistance. He was killed by a car bomb on September 21, 1976 in Sheridan Circle in Washington along with his American assistant. General Manuel Contreras, head of the Chilean Secret Police under General Pinochet, was convicted in 1995 for overseeing the attack and sentenced to life in prison.

Friday, Sept 23 Chile Anniversary of Death of Pablo Neruda (1973). Pablo Neruda, along with Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa, is considered to be one of the greatest Latin American writers. Neruda was prolific in a wide variety of poetic styles, ranging from erotically charged love poems, surrealist poems, historical epics, to overtly political manifestos. In 1971, Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature, a controversial award because of his political support of socialist and communist activities. When President Videla outlawed communism in Chile in 1946-1952, a warrant was issued for Neruda's arrest and he was forced to hide for months in a basement of a home in the Chilean port of Valparaiso and later escaped across the Andes into Argentina. Neruda supported Socialist President Salvador Allende in 1970 and was subsequently appointed the Chilean ambassador to France though he returned to Chile two and half years later due to failing health. Already hospitalized with cancer at the time of the 1973 Chilean coup led by Augusto Pinochet, Neruda died of heart failure twelve days later. Neruda's death became an intense anti-establishment symbol and when Pinochet denied permission to hold Neruda's funeral as a public event, thousands of grieving Chileans disobeyed the curfew, flooding the streets in tribute. Neruda's funeral became the first public protest against the Chilean military dictatorship.

Friday, Sept 23 FARC rebels kidnapped U.S. citizen Thomas Hargrove in Colombia (1994). Tom Hargrove, the communications director for an international agricultural aid organization, was kidnapped by FARC narco-traffickers at a fake roadblock in Cali Colombia on this day in 1994. His family and company began a long negotiation to pay the demanded $6 million ransom. He was held for nearly a year in the Colombian jungle before being released. His account of his harrowing experience and long captivity provided the inspiration for the 2000 movie "Proof of Life" w/ Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe. Hargrove recorded his ordeal in the 1995 release of "Long March to Freedom", a memoir of his 11 months in the Colombian jungle.

Information collated by Professor Pat Paterson, CHDS. Comments are welcome by email to Patrick.paterson@ndu.edu.