On the 2nd of May 1973, the Chilean national football team took on Peru in a crucial World Cup qualifier at the Estadio National in Santiago.

Victory coupled with success in a subsequent playoff meant that only the Soviet Union stood between Chile and a place at the World Cup finals.

That game against the nation whose government had friendly ties with Chilean President

AYende would take place in November at the same venue.

But Chilean would come to remember 1973 for more important reasons than football. Powerful figures had been plotting against the democratically elected AYonday for two years,

both at home and in Washington, D.C. at the White House.

I would go through a confrontation with a quick meeting. in Washington DC at the White House.

I would go to a confrontation with him the quicker the better.

We're not only going to get the only on the police and the place behind the same.

You're going to kick that out of Chilean.

The Chilean football team did qualify for the World Cup, but only because their opponents from the

USSR forfeited the match in protest at the CIA-backed military coup that saw President Iiende killed

and thousands imprisoned tortured or killed in the very stadium that was due

to hold the match. In this episode I speak with Professor

Kristen Surrinson, an expert on global studies whose specialties include

Chile about the notorious regime of General Augusto Pinochet and the devastating

and lasting impact it has had on the lives of ordinary Chileans.