SANTIAGO, April 9, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Isabel Allende, the daughter of Chilean Socialist president Salvador Allende who was toppled in a 1973 coup, resigned her Senate seat on Tuesday over a failed plan by the state to purchase her father's home and turn it into a museum.

Allende, an 80-year-old parliamentary veteran, stepped down after the Constitutional Court voted to remove her from office for violating a rule preventing lawmakers from doing business with the state.

Defence Minister Maya Fernandez, Salvador Allende's granddaughter was also forced to resign over the plan by the government to buy her grandfather's property for $900,000 and turn it into a museum commemorating the 1973 coup.

Both Allende and Fernandez are among the owners of the historic two-story property situated in an upmarket district of the capital Santiago.

The plan to sell the house to the state raised the hackles of left-wing President Gabriel Boric's critics, who accused Salvador Allende's heirs of trying to use state funds for their personal enrichment.

The affair also cost Minister of National Assets Marcela Sandoval her job for approving the proposed purchase.

In a farewell speech to the Senate on Tuesday, Allende insisted that sale "aimed to fulfill a public goal promoted by the government" and lamented that it had cost her her Senate seat, despite the project never coming to fruition.

Salvador Allende committed suicide in the La Moneda presidential palace on September 11, 1973, as the military attacked it in a coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.

Allende's death marked the start of a brutal dictatorship that lasted until 1990.