The 1973 Chilean coup d'état  was a military coup in Chile that deposed the Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende. On 11 September 1973, after an extended period of social unrest and political tension between the opposition-controlled Congress and the socialist President, as well as economic warfare ordered by U.S President Richard Nixon a group of military officers led by General Augusto Pinochet and Admiral José Toribio Merino seized power in a coup, ending civilian rule