Back انقلاب الدبابة Arabic Tanquetazo Spanish Tanquetazo French Tanquetazo Italian Tanquetazo Portuguese Мятеж «танкетасо» Russian Заколот «танкетасо» Ukrainian
| Tanquetazo | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Cold War | |||||||||
 Two Chilean soldiers with a machine gun lie at the south side of La Moneda during the attempted coup. | |||||||||
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| Government-Insurgents | |||||||||
 Chilean Government |
2nd Armored Regiment | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Salvador Allende Carlos Prats Augusto Pinochet |
Roberto Souper | ||||||||
| Political support | |||||||||
| All parties in Congress of Chile | Far-right paramilitary and political movement "Patria y Libertad" | ||||||||
El Tanquetazo or El Tancazo (Spanish: "The tank putsch") was an attempted coup d'état that occurred in Chile on 29 June 1973.
Elements of an armored regiment of the Chilean Army led by Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Souper tried to overthrow the Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende. Souper's regiment fired on buildings of the Chilean Government in central Santiago with tanks and small arms in which 22 people were killed. Loyalist soldiers led by Army commander-in-chief Carlos Prats successfully put down the coup within hours. Souper and most of the soldiers involved in the coup surrendered to Prats while some fled in exile to Ecuador.
The Tanquetazo was unsuccessful but is considered to have weakened Allende's Popular Unity government and contributed to the successful 1973 Chilean coup d'état three months later.