More than half of the copper used in this country goes into the manufacture of electrical wire and transmission lines. Chile produces 13.2% of the worlds copper, over one million short tons every year. On September 4, 1970 Salvador Allende was elected president of Chile. One of his first acts as president was to nationalize many of the means of production including the copper mines. This was unacceptable to IT&T and ARCO. International Telephone and Telegraph depended on the cheap copper from Chile for their transmission lines. The Atlantic Richfield Corporation owned Anaconda Copper which provided them with cheap copper by paying their miners low wages and by not having to pay Chile for the extraction of this resource from their country. After the election IT&T, ARCO and the CIA colluded to "terminate" Allende and install General Pinochet into power. By September 12, 1973 Allende was dead and a two and a half decade of terror reigned in Chile.

Copper (Latin, cuprum) CU, atomic weight 63.54; atomic number 29; alloyed with zinc makes brass, alloyed with tin makes bronze.

spider 1990