In 1973, Dutch photojournalist Chas Gerretsen spent nine months in Santiago, Chile. His historic photographs cover the last year of the Allende government and the violent military coup that led to the Pinochet regime. In 1974, Gerretsen returned twice to record the changes in the country.

Fifty years after the coup d'état, the monumental undertaking of sifting through an archive of over 8000 photographs was made and more than 300 were selected, many of them unpublished until now. "I hope for the images to become part of the historical and political memory of Chile," Gerretsen says, "and that this book will serve as a reminder of the past and help future generations to avoid making the same mistakes."