A Chilean court has settled the question of how then-President Salvador Allende died , confirming that the leader took his own life in 1973 amid a coup . Questions over how Allende 's life ended culminated in his body being exhumed last year for forensic tests . An appeals court in Santiago on Monday upheld a judge 's ruling that the evidence confirmed the accounts in history texts -- that the leftist leader shot himself at the presidential palace as Gen. Augusto Pinochet 's troops closed in . The timing of the ruling is symbolic : Allende took his own life 39 years ago , on September 11 , 1973 . With the ruling , the case of Allende 's death is officially closed . Judge Mario Carroza ordered the exhumation of Allende 's remains last year as part of a massive investigation into more than 700 alleged human rights violations during Pinochet 's rule . Some of Allende 's supporters doubted the story of his suicide . There were theories that he was killed by the military , or by members of his own security service . `` With the goal of establishing the facts of the case , and motivated by the various versions about this episode that exist , lines of investigation were set and decreed , and all were carried out and every detail was satisfactory , '' Carroza wrote in his ruling , handed down last December . The appeals court upheld his findings in a unanimous decision .
A court closes the case on the death of former Chilean President Salvador Allende . Allende committed suicide as troops closed in on the presidential palace . The ruling comes 39 years after his death .