Denunciation strategies. Analysis of the presidential speech of Salvador Allende at the UN in 1972

Abstract

This article analyzes the discursive strategies in the denunciation speech given by Salvador Allende at the UNO in 1972. The proposed analysis is developed in the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The interest is placed on the discursive construction of the denunciation, by which the president accuses the intervention of transnational companies and the USA government as well in the internal politics of Chile, with the clear objective of overthrowing him. With de handling of agentivity, Salvador Allende distributes the semantic roles of the participants in such a way that his government as well as the opposition become agents. Thus, sedition is not uttered at the level of ideas, but at the level of actions. Through the use of modality, however, the impulse of the opposing actions are restrained and presented as intentions, which contrast with the actions of the government reinforced by high deontic modality. Allende’s denunciation is a discursive alternative to the USA hegemony. He takes the Chilean people’s voice to the UNO by building a speech which reflects a new social order, oriented to support the accusation of intervention.