Summary

The defeat of socialist candidate Salvador Allende (28.9%) to rightwing candidate Jorge Alessandri in the 1958 presidential election in Chile has been explained by the presence of an alternative leftwing candidate, the defrocked priest from Catapilco, Antonio Zamorano (3.3%). The belief is that, had Zamorano not entered the race, Allende would have won the first plurality and would have become President. After discussing the context of the 1958 presidential election and the growing electoral strength of the left, we briefly discuss the political trajectory of the Priest of Catapilco. With descriptive and inferential statistics at the municipal level, we fail to find conclusive evidence that Zamorano's support affected Allende more than Alessandri. Zamorano's support seemed to have come equally from the electoral bases of all other presidential candidates. There is no evidence to substantiate the claim that Zamorano was responsible for Allende's defeat in 1958.