Inside military tip-offs saved Chilean targets before the coup’s death squads arrived

Evidence

Working in the Chilean National Health Service at the time of the coup was Dr. Roberto Belmar, a physician who had friendly contacts with a few people in the Chilean military. They whispered to the doctor that, like Allende, he was also on an assassination list. Dr. Belmar took the information seriously, and within hours he had gathered some belongings, called his wife, and—with the help of two academics, Victor and Ruth Sidel, and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker action group that works for global peace and justice—boarded a plane for New York City. An hour after his departure, the Chilean military broke into the family’s Santiago ranch house. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 731

Categorization

• SHARE: A specific person interested in Quaker refugee networks or the 1973 Chile coup would appreciate the detail that the American Friends Service Committee and the Sidels rescued Belmar.