two days later, on 24 august 1973, president allende responded, characterising the congress' declaration as "destined to damage the country’s prestige abroad and create internal confusion", predicting "it will facilitate the seditious intention of certain sectors". he noted that the declaration had not obtained the two-thirds senate majority "constitutionally required" to convict the president of abuse of power: essentially, the congress was "invoking the intervention of the armed forces and of order against a democratically elected government" and "subordinat[ing] political representation of national sovereignty to the armed institutions, which neither can nor ought to assume either political functions or the representation of the popular will".