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VI. The. Al1 ende Re ime and its Pol itical Actions After its advent to power, the Al1ende government began to implement a program to gain absolute control of a'll sources of power inside Chile without regard to established constitu- tional guaranties of civil liberties. The UP government found itsel f c'ontinually at odds with the. 'legislative and judicial branches of the government which, because of repeated abuses of the law, had been declared by the Congress, the courts and the Comptroller-(eneral of the Republic, to have placed itself outside of the law and the Constitution, .in separate declarations on 26 May 1973, 2 July lg73, and 22 August 1973. Its battles w'ith the legislative and judicial branches were only of secondary importance to Allende, who had accepted the advice of the Communist Party 'in-attempting to achieve abso'iute contro'i of the economy as the principal means ot perpetu'ating itself . in power This economic. control was designed to weaken. the political oPPosition by eliminating the private sector which provided the financial support for the opposition's electoral, organizational and media activities. The government thus had drawn' up a list of all Chilean corporations whose capital reserves exceeded $500, 000 and earmarked them for nationalization. Congress attempted to block this effor t by passing legislation defining the economic areas subject to government ownership', but the government continued to expropriate, requisition or intervene Chilean firms. SE T/