A court in Chile confirmed Tuesday that former President Salvador Allende committed suicide by shooting himself during the military coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet that overthrew him in 1973.

Forensic tests on Allende's exhumed remains finally settled the long-debated question.

The court's ruling came on the 39^th anniversary of Allende's death -- Sept. 11.

While the U.S. and many other countries around the world associate "Sept. 11" with the terrorist attacks of 2001, the people of Chile are reminded of their own tragedy that happened on that date in 1973.

On Sept. 11, 1973, a U.S.-backed coup d'état ousted democratically elected socialist Allende and installed the dictator Pinochet, who ruled the country with an iron fist for the next 17 years.

Under Pinochet's reign, thousands were imprisoned, tortured, murdered and "disappeared" in an attempt to crush all political opposition. A Chilean commission investigating human rights abuses estimated that there were more than 40,000 victims of the military regime, 3,000 of whom were killed or disappeared, the BBC reported.

Pinochet received the support of the U.S. government because he embraced economic policies that favored U.S. interests, such as privatizing nationalized industries and allowing American corporations to come in and reap massive profits, while only enriching an elite few in Chile and leaving the majority of people without social safety nets, labor rights or economic security.

Allende had dared to stand up to the neo-liberal economic model prescribed to developing countries around the world by the U.S. government via corporate-funded economists who envisioned these countries as new markets to be exploited for profit rather than actually developed. Allende wanted the Chilean people to benefit from the wealth of its national industries and natural resources, and for this he became a pariah in the eyes of the U.S.

The Nixon administration tried to prevent Allende's election on 1970 and then engaged in a campaign of economic sabotage, using financial institutions to isolate Chile while Allende was in power. Failing to coerce his capitulation, it encouraged Pinochet to take over. Once Pinochet was in power, the financial tap was turned back on.

The Pinochet regime did not maintain power because its economic policies were successful, but because it ruled through oppression and with the economic backing of the U.S.

This is not a history lesson to diminish the memory of those who died 11 years ago in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and Flight 93, but to honor the lives that were lost under a brutal regime propped up by the U.S. government. There is no ownership over a date, and past tragedies cannot be paved over by newer ones, not as long as we can still remember them.

Watch this video for one Chilean's firsthand account of what took place on Sept. 11, 1973:

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