The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a military overthrow of the socialist president of Chile Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity coalition government. Allende, who was the first Marxist to be democratically elected president in a Latin American liberal democracy, faced significant social unrest and political tension with the opposition-controlled National Congress of Chile. On 11 September 1973, a group of military officers, led by General Augusto Pinochet, seized power in a coup, ending civilian rule.