Three of them were recently promoted from Brigadier General to Major General. In August 1973, 36 second lieutenants graduated from the Military School and were assigned to the San Bernardo Infantry School.

There are four active-duty generals who appear on the list of the 36 second lieutenants who graduated from the Military School in August 1973 and were assigned to the San Bernardo Infantry School, to which those who murdered the peasants of Paine in 1973 belonged.

Three of them were recently promoted from Brigadier General to Major General. They are Major General Guillermo Castro Muñoz, commander of the Army's II Division of the Metropolitan Region, who has already been questioned by Judge Héctor Solís in the search for the other two second lieutenants who, in October 1973, participated alongside the then-second lieutenant Andrés Magaña in the massacre of 22 peasants in Paine.

Also included is Major General Cristián Le Dantec Gallardo, current Director of Finance for the Army. The other Major General is Julio Baeza von Bohlen, current Director of Logistics for the institution.

The fourth is Brigadier General Eduardo Ludovico Aldunate Hermann, current commander of the Army's School Division. Aldunate was mentioned by a former agent as a member of the DINA's Mulchén Brigade while he was the second-in-command of the United Nations forces in Haiti.

The minister for the Paine proceedings, Héctor Solís, is investigating to determine the identity of the other two second lieutenants who accompanied Magaña. Until now, those two names have remained under ironclad protection in a pact of silence among those accused and prosecuted for the massacre of October 16, 1973, in Paine.

Coinciding with the appearance of press information regarding General Castro's interrogation, the Army removed the list of the high command from its institutional website a few days ago. The photos of the four generals published in this article appear in the 1973 edition of the Military School's magazine, "Cien Águilas."

Source: La Nación, January 24, 2008

The Army's generation of lieutenants and human rights violations

The weight of a star

Five of the nine Major Generals who currently make up the head of the Army's high command are under scrutiny. The specter of their possible participation in crimes against humanity continues to haunt them now that they are at the peak of their careers.

Nearly 30% of the officers of the Armed Forces and Order above the rank of major currently on active duty were part of the CNI's ranks, which could generate new questions and conflicts 18 years after the end of the dictatorship.

De Castro, Aldunate, Baeza, and Le Dantec are part of the 39 second lieutenants who, in August 1973, were assigned to the San Bernardo Infantry School, the unit responsible for the massacre that occurred in Paine in October of that year.

They sat before the judge and bared their teeth. They had murdered together, but this time the driver of the truck that transported the 22 imprisoned peasants of Paine to their deaths showed disrespect.

Juan Quintanilla Jerez, one of the civilians who participated in the operation, was face-to-face with his boss during the massacre, the now-retired Colonel Andrés Magaña Bau. That night in October 1973, Quintanilla drove along hidden roads until finding the ravine that would serve as a firing wall.

Now, more than three decades later, with both confronted before Judge Héctor Solís, a relevant fact emerged: they had killed during the day "with the sun in the detainees' faces," the civilian declared.

And although the soldiers always told the justice system that they acted at night, illuminated only by the truck's headlights and some flashlights, it was that alleged twilight behind which they hid to claim they could never distinguish the faces of their superiors.

Quintanilla had no doubt that, in the truck's spacious cabin, along with him and Magaña, there were two other young officers with the rank of second lieutenant. These are the military men the judge is now looking for.

Or, rather, the two "ghosts," because, strangely, no one remembers their names. According to the plaintiffs, they are bound by a "pact of silence" that they have kept for more than 34 years as their greatest family secret.

Two ghosts seen not only by Quintanilla but also by several of the conscripts who were forced to fire, including Carlos Lazo Santibáñez and Víctor Sandoval Muñoz, just as they confessed to the magistrate.

The platoon from the San Bernardo Infantry School that acted that dawn consisted of about 30 personnel. Everyone is now beginning to remember that the sun was already shining from the east when they pulled the trigger and hid the bodies.

But Colonel Magaña remained stoic in his denial before Quintanilla and the judge. "There were never two other second lieutenants!" Quintanilla insisted and verbally assaulted him: "You forced me to fire, telling me that if I didn't, I would also end up at the bottom of the ravine with the rest." The two second lieutenants who traveled in the cabin with Magaña, according to those who saw them, did not stay inside the truck.

They got out, and none had their faces covered when the sun was shining. Quintanilla provided another precious detail. Interrupting Magaña, who continued to deny it, he said: "They were two second lieutenants who had just graduated from the Military School." How did he know that precise detail?

A few months later, toward the end of 2007, the impenetrable Magaña, questioned again by the magistrate about the two young ghosts, made a slip, perhaps involuntary: "If other officers had traveled, they must have been second lieutenants who had just graduated from the Military School in August 1973." But he suddenly regained his composure and continued denying it.

He had let slip exactly the same information that Quintanilla provided: second lieutenants who had just graduated in August 1973 from the Military School and were assigned to the San Bernardo Infantry School.

THE GHOSTLY KNOT

Guillermo Castro Muñoz, Eduardo Aldunate Hermann, Julio Baeza von Bohlen, and Cristián Le Dantec Gallardo are the names of the four active-duty generals who burst into the press this scorching summer, sounding alarms in the building on Calle Zenteno, the headquarters of the Armed Forces.

They are part of the 39 second lieutenants who graduated in August 1973 from the Military School and were assigned to the Infantry School, and who are now suspected of having accompanied Magaña on that sad October dawn.

That is the knot of the conflict for them, because, although they may be innocent, they entered the limited universe where the judge is trying to identify the two second lieutenants that no one wants to reveal.

A 1984 list sent by the then-Minister of Defense, Patricio Carvajal, to the military justice system (see interview with Pamela Pereira) with all the officers and non-commissioned officers serving at the Infantry School on that date, includes Castro, Baeza, and Le Dantec.

The list identifies 39 second lieutenants. Aldunate does not appear, but high-level military sources say he was also assigned to that barracks in August of that year. His photo stands out in the 1973 "Cien Águilas" Military School magazine, among those assigned to Infantry along with the other three active-duty generals.

Now, Judge Solís is working with that publication to discover the identity of the other two second lieutenants from Paine. In an interview granted in 2005 to La Nación, Aldunate acknowledged that he was assigned to the CNI for a few months and that he only performed security duties for foreign visitors.

However, LND had access to information linking him to the organization at least until 1982, being seen at at least two barracks. No one has mentioned Aldunate, Baeza, and Le Dantec in the proceedings so far as the possible second lieutenants who, along with Magaña—who was in command of the group by seniority—took part in the crimes.

But the recently retired prefect of Investigations, Rafael Castillo, does name Castro. "Mr. Magaña hints that one of the second lieutenants involved in these events is Mr. Castro, who would currently be an active-duty general.

I have no problem with being confronted with Magaña," Castillo stated to the judge, recounting part of his investigation. Certainly, Magaña denied during the confrontation between the two, held on January 15, having provided any names.

CASTRO AT CERRO CHENA

In his judicial statement on January 14 as an "accused" before Judge Solís, General Castro denied having acted alongside Magaña. But he admitted something that, in the opinion of the plaintiffs, is serious: he served in a rifle company attached to "Barracks Two," the name by which the other section of the Infantry School located at Cerro Chena was known. "But I never saw detainees there; I only learned later through the press that there were any," he preemptively told the judge.

However, Colonel Magaña himself declared: "I wanted to execute the detainees at the prison camp the school had at Cerro Chena," but he maintains that his superiors did not accept his proposal that night.

General Castro adds another second lieutenant to the already long list the judge is investigating in his judicial statement. "When I was assigned in October 1973 to the Rifle Company that was at [Barracks] Two, it was commanded by Captain Rojas, and Second Lieutenant Benjamín Ovalle was also part of it," he declared.

In the aforementioned "Cien Águilas" magazine, a second lieutenant assigned to Infantry appears next to the four future generals: "Benjamín Ovalle Maturana." He also does not appear on Carvajal's 1984 list.

DIFFICULT PATH

The tension produced by the appearance of the names of active-duty generals mentioned in human rights violation cases again generated extraordinary meetings between political and military representatives.

President Bachelet's own Political Committee addressed the issue and became embroiled in a brief but strong difference of opinion between the ministers secretary general of Government and of the Presidency, Francisco Vidal and José Antonio Viera-Gallo (see page 10).

Last week, the Army Commander-in-Chief, Óscar Izurieta, had to postpone his vacation to meet with lawyers Pamela Pereira and Luciano Fouilloux. Both have a track record intimately linked to human rights violation cases, not only for being plaintiffs for the victims of the Paine case, but because both were members of the Dialogue Table, a failed attempt to locate the whereabouts of thousands of forcibly disappeared persons.

It transpired that in said meeting, the military chief, who was accompanied by the auditor general, Juan Arab, pledged all his willingness to collaborate with the justice system and clarify alleged responsibilities.

Undoubtedly, the one most affected by this disposition is General Gonzalo Santelices, current head of the Santiago Garrison, involved in a case that has nothing to do with Paine. In a note delivered during the week to the Army, the Government suggested the need for Santelices to be separated from his duties as soon as possible.

And at almost the same time, Izurieta reportedly indicated to his General Staff that he would resolve this issue in March, although it is not ruled out that he could be reassigned to other duties while the justice system determines whether he will be prosecuted or if he will be cleared for lack of evidence.

More than five years ago, the military officer acknowledged judicially that he participated in the detail that transported 14 political prisoners from Calama, who were subsequently executed by the Caravan of Death.

It was enough for this fact to be recalled in La Nación and for lawyer Hugo Gutiérrez to request that he declare in the proceedings instructed by Minister Víctor Montiglio as an "accused" for his fate to be apparently sealed.

His removal or transfer from the garrison would be imminent. The generation of generals mentioned were second lieutenants in 1973. Both Pereira and Fouilloux criticize that their past assignments were not reported in a timely manner, especially those that could have exposed them to crimes against humanity.

But this is not the only information that has not been provided. Are there more members of the Armed Forces, Carabineros, or Investigations on active duty who have had minimal participation, unknown until today, in the dictatorship's repressive organizations?

What should happen to them? (see Investigations box) In the Government, they acknowledge that in all branches of the Armed Forces, there are still former agents on active duty who passed through the feared repressive organization.

The Army alone made up 70% of the CNI's staff and assigned nearly 250 personnel each year. Within the current high command, it is said that the main defense in the Army to face this situation is that the radical difference from previous generations is that these are officers and non-commissioned officers who did not carry out operational anti-subversive, violent tasks, nor functions that are currently the subject of judicial investigations. "The CNI was a very large organization.

It had one of the most numerous staffs, and the functions performed there were multiple," comments a high-ranking military officer who asks to remain anonymous. Estimates made by the Army itself calculate that between 30% and 40% of the officers passed through the CNI barracks.

These are officers who currently hold the ranks of major, colonel, and general. Only at the end of 2005, when Izurieta assumed the Command-in-Chief, had 13 of the 30 generals who were on active duty passed through the CNI.

During the administration of former Army Commander-in-Chief Ricardo Izurieta, a clear precedent was set for cases of military personnel involved in human rights cases: if any judge prosecuted them, they were immediately retired.

One of the cases that initiated said doctrine was the prosecution of General Hernán Ramírez Hald for the Tucapel Jiménez case. However, the situation currently faced by General Santelices could radically change this landscape, since his mere acknowledgment of participation in a criminal act will likely result in his removal from the institution, just as the Government recommended, although Izurieta asked to wait for his return from vacation to resolve it.

At a time when the courts are in the full phase of sentencing in human rights cases, officials who for any reason passed through or lived through a situation close to events related to crimes against humanity hide behind institutional hierarchy to invoke due obedience in their defense.

But beyond that, lawyer Pamela Pereira questions that information is not made transparent so that the Government can make a better decision regarding who makes up the high command. "It cannot be that it is maintained that there is information here that is omitted so that we do not find out and the impact that knowing this type of information produces does not occur.

This must be real, and data cannot be omitted so that the link between certain events and certain people is not made," she maintains. For his part, Luciano Fouilloux says that General Izurieta has expressed his intention to collaborate regarding the clarification of human rights violations. "There is a public commitment, stated in a meeting with him, that attitudes of legal secrecy before the courts of justice will not be repeated and that all information possessed will be provided," he says.

Beyond those who are investigated by the justice system and those who by chance happened to pass through repressive organizations or be near places where bloody events occurred, the current situation places the main emphasis on the process that must conclude with the appointment of General Izurieta's successor in the Army's Command-in-Chief, which must come from the current active-duty generals, so that the nominee has an impeccable service record.

On the other hand, human rights defense organizations aspire for the bicentennial to bring with it, for the first time since the return to democracy, a high command free of all suspicion.

Source: La Nación, February 3, 2008

AFDD questions appointment of Chief of the Joint General Staff

The organization points out that Le Dantec appears on the list of those accused of the murder of 22 peasants from Paine in 1973, which is why he is morally disqualified from holding said position. The recent appointment of General Cristián Le Dantec Gallardo as Chief of the Joint General Staff has motivated the unrest of human rights organizations such as the Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared Persons (AFDD), arguing that the military officer is implicated in the death of peasants.

The AFDD points out that Le Dantec's case does not meet the premise that this new position be assumed with moral authority, since "he is one of the four Army generals who appear on the list of those accused of the murder of 22 peasants from Paine in 1973." The group specifies that the general had to provide a statement before the Visiting Minister of the Court of San Miguel, Héctor Solís, for the crime of the 22 peasants, which morally disqualifies him from being Chief of the Joint General Staff.

Judge Solís is still investigating to determine the identity of two other officers who, according to witnesses, participated in the events alongside Andrés Magaña, who is already being prosecuted. "One of them would be Le Dantec, and as long as this suspicion of participation is not resolved, Le Dantec simply cannot assume the responsibility that has been assigned to him.

If his name is the subject of suspicion of a vile and treacherous murder, he can hardly assume such a high office," it maintains. The AFDD mentions that as serious as the appointment is the fact that, despite the existence of judicial records, he was kept as Director of Finance for the Army and that both the Ministry of Defense and the President of the Republic have ignored the facts that disqualify him, appointing him as Chief of the Joint General Staff.

The four suspected officers, among whom is Le Dantec, testified before Judge Solís after it became publicly known that in 1973, when they were second lieutenants, they passed through the San Bernardo Infantry School, the site of the operation that ended with the executions of the 22 peasants in a ravine near Lake Rapel.

For this reason, the AFDD demands that the relevant authorities review this appointment in light of the existing judicial records and that "Le Dantec be removed from this function, reiterating that anyone who is involved in or suspected of having participated in human rights violations cannot occupy any position and must be removed from the ranks of the armed institutions."

Source: elmostrador.cl, February 7, 2010

Concertación supports Le Dantec's appointment

The presidents of the Concertación parties supported the appointment of General Cristián Le Dantec as Chief of the Joint General Staff, after the Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared Persons criticized his appointment due to his possible involvement in a human rights violation case in 1973.

Following the appointment made by Michelle Bachelet, Fulvio Rossi, current president of the Socialist Party (PS), assured that "the President of the Republic had to be very rigorous when analyzing the background information before making such an important appointment." Along these same lines, the vice president of the Christian Democrats (DC), Renán Fuentealba, assured that "a person who is summoned to testify, who may be in the capacity of a 'collaborator,' of a witness, in a disposition to contribute to the clarification of the facts, cannot be categorized as being involved in human rights issues." Despite the above, the group led by Mireya García insisted that President Bachelet must reevaluate the military officer's appointment.

CLARIFICATION

In response to inquiries from the media regarding the situation of General Le Dantec concerning case File No. 04-02-F "Paine," the Minister of the Court of San Miguel, Héctor Solís, reported that "on May 13, 2003, Cristián Gabriel Le Dantec Gallardo appeared in court and testified in relation to the facts investigated in the aforementioned case, under oath to tell the truth." Subsequently, "on February 5, 2008, the court was constituted at the facilities of the Army General Audit, at the request of the person, and proceeded to take a new statement, also under oath.

To date, no resolution has been issued that would mean considering him a party to this process. The investigation is in the summary stage, with various pending proceedings," clarified the statement from the Court of San Miguel.

Source: mercuriovalpo.cl, February 9, 2010

Human rights organizations and the CUT call for the removal of Chile's Chief of the Joint General Staff

The Association of Forcibly Disappeared Persons, the Association of Former Political Prisoners, and the Workers' United Center of Chile (CUT) asked the government of Michelle Bachelet for the removal of the recently appointed Chief of the Joint General Staff, General Cristián Le Dantec Gallardo, for being accused of human rights violations during the Pinochet dictatorship.

Last Friday, Le Dantec was appointed Chief of the Joint General Staff from among 18 generals of the Air Force and vice admirals. For the humanitarian organizations, "questions immediately arise that must be elucidated promptly so that this new responsibility is assumed with the moral authority that a position of this nature requires." According to the Association of Forcibly Disappeared Persons, "Le Dantec does not meet this premise, since he is one of the four Army generals who appear on the list of those accused of the murder of 22 peasants from Paine in 1973." The AFDD maintains that: "This fact alone, added to the statement that Le Dantec had to provide before the Visiting Minister of the Court of San Miguel, Héctor Solís, for the murder of the 22 peasants, morally disqualifies him from being Chief of the Joint General Staff." It should be remembered that Judge Solís is still investigating to determine the identity of two other officers who, according to witnesses, participated in the events alongside Andrés Magaña, who is already being prosecuted. One of them would be Le Dantec, and as long as this suspicion of participation is not resolved, "Le Dantec simply cannot assume the responsibility that has been assigned to him. If his name is the subject of suspicion of a vile and treacherous murder, he can hardly assume such a high office," emphasizes the AFDD. "As serious as the appointment is the fact that, despite the existence of judicial records, he was kept as Director of Finance for the Army and that both the Ministry of Defense and the President of the Republic have ignored the facts that disqualify him, appointing him as Chief of the Joint General Staff," points out the humanitarian organization. The four suspected officers, among whom is Le Dantec, testified before Judge Solís after it became publicly known that in 1973, when they were second lieutenants, they passed through the San Bernardo Infantry School, the site of the operation that ended with the executions of the 22 peasants in a ravine near Lake Rapel. The Association of Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared Persons "demands that the relevant authorities review this appointment in light of the existing judicial records and that Le Dantec be removed from this function, reiterating that anyone who is involved in or suspected of having participated in human rights violations cannot occupy any position and must be removed from the ranks of the armed institutions." Meanwhile, the president of the Association of Former Political Prisoners of Chile (ANEXPP), Héctor Cataldo, described the appointment of the high-ranking Army officer as "an affront to the memory of the victims' relatives and especially to the survivors of political imprisonment." "We must not forget that in the barracks of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Carabineros, thousands of opponents of the Pinochet regime were detained, tortured, and murdered. In those places, there were lower-ranking officers involved who today are high-ranking officers of the four branches," recalled Cataldo. He added that in Chile, "the justice system has been able to advance very little in these 20 years in being able to clarify these facts," and that those responsible have "been the Concertación governments with their disastrous policy of agreements that have allowed the justice system not to bring all those responsible for human rights violations to justice."

THE CUT

María Eugenia Puelma, in charge of Human Rights for the Workers' United Center of Chile (CUT), said that the appointment of General Cristián Le Dantec Gallardo as Chief of the Joint General Staff leaves "Chilean democracy in a very bad position before the international community.

Chile has said in all latitudes that the justice system works and that any military officer on active duty who is implicated in human rights violations will not be promoted." "The demand for truth, justice, and reparation is a desire of all Chilean men and women.

Le Dantec's appointment goes against the majority desire of the workers and the nation," concluded Puelma. Who is Le Dantec? The task of the Chief of the Joint General Staff will be to lead the work aimed at preserving peace and to conduct—in the event of a breach of peace—military operations in the midst of a conflict.

Major General Cristián Le Dantec Gallardo was born in the city of Valparaíso. He completed his primary and secondary studies at various schools in Viña del Mar, entering the Military School in 1969 and graduating as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry in 1973.

Between 1974 and 1980, he completed Pedagogical Training courses at the Military School, as well as courses for Military Mountain Instructor and Fundamental Unit Commander Application at the Infantry School.

In 1981, he was assigned to Brazil to serve as a student in the Advanced Course for Infantry Officers in that country's Army. Among his assignments, the following stand out: in 1974 to the Yungay Infantry Regiment No. 3, from where he was assigned to the Non-Commissioned Officers School.

In 1981, he fulfilled a service commission in Brazil. Upon his return, he served at the Infantry School, from which he applied to the War Academy. In 1986, having graduated from the War Academy as a General Staff Officer, he was assigned to the Military Institutes Command; in 1988 to the Directorate of Operations; in 1989 to the Vice Command-in-Chief of the Army; and in 1993 he was assigned as a Professor at the War Academy.

In 1996, he was appointed Commander of the Carampangue Infantry Regiment No. 5 in the Baquedano Army Garrison. Upon finishing his command, he was assigned to the Center for Military Studies and Research (CESIM), from where he was designated in 1998 as the first Military Attaché representing the National Defense in the Chilean Mission to the United Nations based in New York.

Upon his return to the country in 2000, he was assigned to the Army Command-in-Chief, assuming in parallel the responsibility of directing and executing the project for the Joint Training Center for Peace Operations.

During 2002 and 2003, he served as Director of the War Academy. In 2003, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, receiving command of the III and IV Army Divisions, having to merge them to serve in 2004 as Commander-in-Chief of the III Army Division and of the General Army Garrison of the VIII, IX, and X Regions.

In 2005, he was designated Commander of the Infrastructure Command, and in 2006 he was appointed Director of Finance for the Army. In 2007, he was promoted to the rank of Major General. In 2008, he was designated Commander of Force Support and Commander of Military Industry and Engineering. He is currently Chief of the Army's General Staff.

Source: Crónica Digital, February 8, 2010

AFDD pressure forces magistrate to clarify General Le Dantec's link to human rights case

The Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared warned that the justice system has not yet ruled on the potential responsibility of the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces regarding the crime perpetrated in 1973, and therefore considers the military officer “ethically” disqualified from holding the position.

In response, Minister Héctor Solís stated in a press release that "to date, no resolution has been issued that would designate him as a party to this process."

The minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Héctor Solís, ruled out this Monday that the name of the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces, General Christian Le Dantec Gallardo, is part of the proceedings in the case of the murder of 22 peasants in Paine following the 1973 military coup.

The magistrate was referring to the questions raised by the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared (AFDD) against the officer, whom they accuse of being "morally" disqualified from performing the new role to which he was appointed by President Michelle Bachelet, as the organization asserts that the justice system has not yet definitively ruled him out as one of the defendants in this emblematic case of human rights violations.

Solís detailed that on December 13, 2008, Le Dantec testified regarding the investigated events, and that on February 5 of the same year, the court, at the general's request, convened at the facilities of the Army General Auditor's Office, at which time he provided his testimony once again.

Along with this, the minister stated that "to date, no resolution has been issued that would designate him as a party to this process, and the investigation is currently in the summary stage, with various proceedings pending," he expressed in a statement sent by the Judiciary.

Le Dantec was appointed last Friday by the Head of State as Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces, a position created by a recently enacted law aimed at modernizing the Ministry of Defense.

Source: El Mostrador, February 8, 2010

Comptroller's Office objects to purchase of house for General Le Dantec for over US$ 1 million

The Army estimated that the new position of Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff required housing in accordance with "the dignity of the position," which included a long list of amenities. That explains the high amount requested for the purchase: $534 million, that is, more than US$ 1 million. However, the Comptroller's Office rejected the purchase for not being in accordance with the law.

A laundry and ironing room, a living room separate from the dining room, as well as a breakfast room and a small sitting room, central heating, a swimming pool, and a garden with automatic irrigation were some of the requirements made by the Army for the home it planned to purchase for the new Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces.

The position was created by the latest reform made to the institutional framework of the Ministry of Defense, which established that the Joint Chiefs of Staff would be a permanent working and advisory body for that ministry.

The Comptroller's Office noted that its leadership will not necessarily fall to an Army official—it may also belong to the Navy or the Air Force—therefore, it is not appropriate for that branch of the Armed Forces to be the one to purchase a home.

Furthermore, the position does not depend on the Army, but on the Ministry of Defense. Its rank and salary are equivalent to that of a commander-in-chief of one of the branches of the Armed Forces.

The first to occupy that position is Army General Cristián Le Dantec, who was appointed in February 2010 and for whom the home whose acquisition was questioned was intended.

The purchase of the property was to be made through the Army's Corps of Engineers, of the Force Support Command, which through its resolution No. 221 of 2010 approved the administrative bases for the acquisition.

It was justified on the grounds that the appointment of a high-ranking Army officer as Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff required the purchase of a home "in accordance with the dignity of the position."

But the Comptroller's Office viewed the military resolution differently. On December 31, Comptroller Ramiro Mendoza refrained from processing the resolution, deeming that the purchase was not in accordance with the law.

The law invoked for the acquisition was No. 17.174, which allows funds received from the disposal of fiscal assets of the Armed Forces to be invested in the purchase of real estate for the same institutions.

The Comptroller also questioned the "amenities" specified in the bases: "in relation to the requirements of the property specified in Annex No. 1—service room with bathroom, laundry and ironing room, living room separate from the dining room, main dining room and breakfast room, swimming pool, sitting room separate from the living room, garden with automatic irrigation system, central heating system, among others—it is noted that, given the principles of free competition and transparency that inspire the acts of the Administration, there is no justification for considering their fulfillment indispensable, without prejudice to noting that such requirements may be considered as evaluation criteria."

In addition, Mendoza noted that although the maximum value to be paid according to the bases was $534 million, the certificate of availability of funds amounted to $530 million.

What kind of home can be bought with that amount? A quick search on a real estate portal yields a house for $534 million in the exclusive neighborhood of Santa María de Manquehue, in the commune of Vitacura.

The property has 500 square meters built on a 900-square-meter plot. Its five bedrooms are en-suite, and it has a breakfast room, sitting room, cinema room, irrigation system, and central heating. Just like the house the Army was looking for for General Le Dantec.

The Armed Forces have a history of questions regarding their real estate dealings since the time of the dictatorship. The most scandalous was the construction of a mansion in Lo Curro intended for Augusto Pinochet, which made it go almost unnoticed that, in parallel, the commander-in-chief of the Air Force had had another luxurious home built for his exclusive use.

Already in democracy, the extraordinary benefits to which high-ranking officers were accustomed were exposed when it was discovered that the then commander-in-chief of the Air Force, Fernando Rojas Vender, had imported rattan furniture for his personal use as military supplies.

Source: ciper.cl, January 13, 2011

CDE accuses "undue pressure" from Ravinet and Le Dantec in lawsuit over the Puente Mecano case

A lawsuit filed against those responsible for the crime of fraud against the Treasury in the process of acquiring the modular bridge (puente mecano) to replace the Bío-Bío Bridge (Old Bridge), following the earthquake of February 27, 2010, was presented by the State Defense Council (CDE).

The 25-page text recounts the plot behind the purchase of the bridge from the American company Acrow Corporation, questioned by the British company Mabey Bridge Limited, which led to an investigation by the Comptroller's Office after an overprice of about US$ 5 million was alleged.

The information was published on Tuesday in The Clinic Online, and the lawsuit reveals a series of minutes and summaries that point to clarifying the role of the former Minister of Defense, Jaime Ravinet—who left his post in January 2011, after he called the bridge a "callampa" (a derogatory term for something worthless) in a session of the lower house's Defense Committee last January—and of General (ret.) Cristián Le Dantec, former Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

According to the document, "in minutes number 2 and 3 of the Army's Permanent Acquisitions Committee, from May 2010, it is recorded that the Chief of the Army General Staff, Division General Guillermo Castro, was called on more than one occasion by the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, by express provision of the Minister of National Defense, in order to request speed in the bridge acquisition process."

According to the lawsuit, this "demonstrates the exercise of undue pressure by both authorities."

These are not the only questions the libel raises regarding the role of Ravinet and Le Dantec. Further on, it is maintained that "the conduct of General Le Dantec—according to his own statements—under instructions from the former Minister of National Defense Mr.

Ravinet, in order to accelerate the adjudication process in favor of the company Acrow, without consideration of other more favorable offers, appears as unjustified and detrimental to the interests of the Treasury of Chile." «La Segunda» attempted to contact Ravinet and Le Dantec, but it was not possible.

The CDE's presentation also points to what was established in the administrative summary instructed by Defense, which in a resolution dated February 3, 2011, states that "administrative faults are established," and expressly "attributes them to Mr.

Jaime Ravinet de la Fuente, to General Cristián Le Dantec Gallardo, to the Army's Permanent Acquisitions Committee, to the Acting Regional Ministerial Secretary of Public Works of the Bío-Bío Region, to the Regional Ministerial Secretary of Public Works of the Bío-Bío Region, to the Army of Chile, and to the Ministry of Public Works."

The document also requests that the Public Prosecutor's Office carry out a series of proceedings, including that the Economic Crimes Brigade of the Investigative Police "locate and take statements" from Ravinet, Le Dantec, and Brigadier General, Force Support Commander Antonio Cordero.

Source: lasegunda.cl, January 3, 2012

Anexpp-Iquique supports human rights groups

The Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, the National Association of Former Political Prisoners and Human Rights of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Chile, asked the government of Michelle Bachelet to remove the recently appointed Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Cristian Le Dantec Gallardo, for being a defendant in human rights violations during the Pinochet dictatorship.

Last Friday, Le Dantec was appointed Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from among 18 Army, Air Force generals, and vice admirals.

For humanitarian organizations, "questions immediately arise that must be elucidated promptly so that this new responsibility is assumed with the moral authority that a position of this nature requires."

According to the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, "Le Dantec does not meet this premise, since he is one of the four Army generals who appear on the list of defendants for the murder of 22 peasants from Paine in 1973."

The AFDD maintains that: "This fact alone, added to the statement that Le Dantec had to provide before the Visiting Minister of the San Miguel Court, Héctor Solís, for the murder of the 22 peasants, morally disqualifies him from being Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

It should be remembered that Judge Solís is still investigating to determine the identity of two other officers who, according to witnesses, participated in the events alongside Andrés Magaña, who is already being prosecuted.

One of them would be Le Dantec, and as long as this suspicion of participation is not resolved, "Le Dantec simply cannot assume the responsibility that has been assigned to him. If his name is the subject of suspicion of a vile and treacherous murder, he can hardly assume such a high office," emphasizes the AFDD.

"As serious as the appointment is the fact that, existing judicial records, he was kept as Director of Finance of the Army and that both the Ministry of Defense and the President of the Republic have ignored the facts that disqualify him, appointing him as Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," points out the humanitarian organization.

The four suspected officers, among whom is Le Dantec, testified before Judge Solís after it became publicly known that in 1973, when they were second lieutenants, they passed through the Infantry School of San Bernardo, the site of the operation that concluded with the execution by firing squad of the 22 peasants in a ravine near Lake Rapel.

The Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared "demands that the relevant authorities review this appointment in light of the existing judicial records and that Le Dantec be removed from this function, reiterating that anyone who is involved in or suspected of having participated in human rights violations cannot hold any position and must be removed from the ranks of the armed institutions."

Meanwhile, the president of the National Association of Former Political Prisoners of Chile, ANEXPP, Héctor Cataldo, described the appointment of the high-ranking Army officer as "an affront to the memory of the victims' families and especially to the survivors of political imprisonment."

"We must not forget that in the barracks of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Carabineros, thousands of opponents of the Pinochet regime were detained, tortured, and murdered. In those places, there were lower-ranking officers involved who today are high-ranking officers of the four branches," recalled Cataldo.

He added that in Chile, "the justice system has been able to advance very little in these 20 years in being able to clarify these facts," and that those responsible have "been the Concertación governments with their disastrous policy of agreements that have allowed the justice system not to bring all those responsible for human rights violations to justice."

María Eugenia Puelma, in charge of Human Rights for the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Chile, said that the appointment of General Cristian Le Dantec Gallardo as Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff leaves "Chilean democracy in a very bad position before the international community.

Chile has said in all latitudes that the justice system works and that any military officer on active duty who is implicated in human rights violations will not be promoted."

"The demand for truth, justice, and reparation is a desire of all Chilean men and women. Le Dantec's appointment goes against the majority desire of the workers and the nation," concluded Puelma.

The work of the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be to lead the work aimed at preserving peace and to conduct—in the event of a breach of peace—military operations in the midst of a conflict.

Who is Le Dantec?

Division General Cristian Le Dantec Gallardo was born in the city of Valparaíso. He completed his primary and secondary studies in various schools in Viña del Mar, entering the Military School in 1969, graduating as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry in 1973.

Between 1974 and 1980, he completed Pedagogical Training courses at the Military School, as a Mountain Military Instructor, and in Application of Commanders of Fundamental Units at the Infantry School. In 1981, he was assigned to Brazil to serve as a student in the Improvement Course for Infantry Officers in the Army of that country.

Among his assignments, the following stand out: in 1974 to the Infantry Regiment No. 3 Yungay, from where he was assigned to the Non-Commissioned Officers School.

In 1981, he fulfilled a service commission in Brazil.

Upon his return, he served at the Infantry School, from which he applied to the War Academy. In 1986, having graduated from the War Academy as a General Staff Officer, he was assigned to the Military Institutes Command, in 1988 to the Operations Directorate, in 1989 to the Vice Command-in-Chief of the Army, to be assigned in 1993 as a Professor at the War Academy.

In 1996, he was appointed Commander of the Infantry Regiment No. 5 Carampangue in the Army Garrison of Baquedano - Iquique.

Upon finishing his command, he was assigned to the Center for Military Studies and Research (CESIM), from where he was designated in 1998 as the first Military Attaché representing National Defense at the Chilean Mission to the United Nations based in New York.

Upon his return to the country in 2000, he was assigned to the Command-in-Chief of the Army, assuming in parallel the responsibility of directing and executing the project of the Joint Training Center for Peace Operations.

During the years 2002 and 2003, he served as Director of the War Academy. In 2003, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, receiving command of the III and IV Army Divisions, having to merge them to serve in 2004 as Commander-in-Chief of the III Army Division and of the General Army Garrison of the VIII, IX, and X Regions.

In 2005, he was designated Commander of the Infrastructure Command, to be appointed in 2006 as Director of Finance of the Army.

In 2007, he was promoted to the rank of Division General.

In 2008, he was designated Commander of Force Support and Commander of Military Industry and Engineering.

He is currently Chief of the Army General Staff.

Source: beneficiariospraisiquique, February 11, 2010

Chena: From the Hill of Death to Metropolitan Park

The Metropolitan Regional Council, presided over by Intendant Claudio Orrego, is about to decide which of four hills in Santiago will be transformed into a new Metropolitan Park that will complement the San Cristóbal.

The hills applying are: Blanco in Recoleta, Cerro Renca, Chena in San Bernardo, and Las Cabras in Puente Alto. All their mayors are lobbying as required to take home the prize. Cerro Chena was a detention, torture, and extermination camp under the civil-military dictatorship, where the so-called "Barracks Two" of the San Bernardo Infantry School was installed.

The winner will benefit from substantial resources to install viewpoints, sports fields, tourist routes, children's playgrounds, restaurants, and cafeterias. But one of them, Cerro Chena, has a sinister history that is still very little known today and that the Army has repeatedly denied before the judges investigating the crimes that occurred in the area.

Cerro Chena was a detention, torture, and extermination camp under the civil-military dictatorship, where the so-called "Barracks Two" of the San Bernardo Infantry School was installed. Several prisoners were murdered there, and all suffered the rigor of torture.

From that hill, for example, came the 15 peasants murdered on October 2, 1973, by a military convoy at Cuesta Chada, and another 22 peasants massacred in the Quebrada Los Quillayes in Rapel on October 16, 1973. Between September 27 and 28, 1973, inside that same barracks, eleven workers from the San Bernardo Railway Workshops were murdered under a false "attempted escape."

It took several years for the dramatic history of "Barracks Two" of Cerro Chena to become known. It was during the investigation into the crimes of the 22 peasants of Paine by the late minister of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Héctor Solís, that the existence of this center of torture and extermination was irrefutably established for the first time.

But as the magistrate himself said in several of his resolutions, until now the Army has never acknowledged the existence of this prisoner camp, which has nothing to envy in terms of brutality to what occurred at the Artillery School of Linares, and at the Simón Bolívar Barracks itself, where the Delfín Group of the DINA's Lautaro Brigade exterminated the clandestine leadership of the Communist Party in 1976.

Colonel Andrés Magaña Bau, Generals Guillermo Castro Muñoz, Juan Carlos Salgado Brocal, Cristián Le Dantec Gallardo, Eduardo Aldunate Hermann, Julio Baeza von Bohlen, Julio Cerda Carrasco, Juan Carlos Nielsen Stambuck, and Luis Cortés Villa; Brigadier Víctor Pinto Pérez; Colonels Jorge Romero Campos and the former deputy director of the San Bernardo Infantry School, Pedro Montalva Calvo; the former head of the Infantry School's Intelligence Section, Lieutenant Colonel Alfonso Faúndez Norambuena, all of these currently retired, as well as the former conscript with the initials A.G.B., were at "Barracks Two" of Cerro Chena.

Not all of them are accused of murdering and torturing prisoners in that place. Of these names, the main defendants are Magaña Bau, who led the Cuesta Chada and Quebrada Los Quillayes operations, and Pinto Pérez, who is convicted for the eleven workers of the San Bernardo Railway Workshops.

Of the others, some admitted judicially to having been at this prisoner camp, such as Castro Muñoz, who acknowledged—in his judicial statements of June 19, 2003, and January 14, 2008—that "I was commander of a rifle company at Cerro Chena," after which he joined the CNI General Staff.

Others said they were there but only found out "through the press" that it was a center for imprisonment, torture, and extermination.

Magaña was one of the most explicit in acknowledging what happened at Cerro Chena.

In the judicial investigation in the Paine case, he said that it was from "Barracks Two" of Cerro Chena that they took both the 15 peasants murdered at Cuesta Chada and the 22 executed at Quebrada Los Quillayes. "We were always the same ones who made up those caravans because we already had experience," he declared. He was in command every time.

The one who also did not hide the sinister function of "Barracks Two" was the deputy director of the Infantry School, Pedro Montalva Calvo, who already in 1979 declared to Judge Humberto Espejo that "the detainees who were interned in the Cerro Chena camp were done so by order of Colonel Leonel König Altermann, director of the San Bernardo Infantry School."

The former conscript A.G.B. declared that "they killed many people at Cerro Chena, and then hid their bodies in a lime mine nearby. I lived with the prisoners, tied hand and foot all day, thrown on the ground." The former conscript was taken prisoner in 1973 for belonging to the Communist Youth.

His name remained confidential when he granted an interview to the now-defunct La Nación Domingo on February 17, 2008.

While Cerro Chena hid "Barracks Two" of the San Bernardo Infantry School, it was visited by members of the Caravan of Death.

"One day when I was on guard before my detention, it must have been in November 1973, General Sergio Arellano Stark, Major Pedro Espinoza, and Lieutenant Armando Fernández Larios arrived. They went in where the prisoners were.

After their visit, the torture and murders intensified. I don't know if it was the last episode of the Caravan of Death," said the former communist conscript in the aforementioned interview.

Cerro Chena has joined the long list of hellish centers in the country, where the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship committed crimes against humanity during the 17 years of State Terrorism following the 1973 military coup.

Inauguration of memorial to the victims of the Cuesta de Chada in Paine

The Paine Corporation "a place for memory," jointly with the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared and Executed of Paine, within the framework of the Commemoration of the International Day of the Forcibly Disappeared, invite you to the inauguration of the Memorial in tribute to the 17 peasants executed at Cerro Redondo, Cuesta de Chada, in 1973.

This ceremony will take place on Saturday, August 30, 2014, at 12:00 hours at the La Rana Cemetery, located on Camino Padre Hurtado, Huelquén.

We hope to have your presence at this emotional ceremony. For information on how to get there, you can write to us at corporacion@memorialpaine.org or directly from the website.

This activity has the support and sponsorship of the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior and the Illustrious Municipality of Paine.

Source: El Mostrador

Complicit silences, biased memories, and the evil "Real Politik" Chilean-style

The news is spreading: radios and newspapers accepted by the Chilean establishment are saying it now: The brand-new Commander of this new Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Cristián Le Dantec Gallardo, has been vetoed by the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared.

A new structure—unnecessary and very expensive—is being added to the many already existing in the Armed Forces. It is unlikely that it will be significant for a country that should treat its people better, when the selection of its chief is done in the "traditional" way.

That is, forgetting the principles for a good democracy. What the president has done is no different from putting, for example, the Undersecretary of the Interior at the head of the Human Rights Institute, also recently created, when historically that ministry has been more part of the problem than the solution to said problems.

As an example... the case of Mr. Patricio Rosende, who screams himself hoarse criminalizing the Mapuche people, which is what the United Nations has been criticizing about the attitude of the government of Chile for many years... and without real results.

There are already 22 dead Mapuches at the hands of repression, a missing child, hundreds of Mapuche political prisoners, recycled in prisons, many tortured. All this since we have returned to being a "democracy" with a dictatorial constitution that allows everything.

This new Chief, General Cristián Le Dantec Gallardo, has a background of having been a witness to the crimes in the Paine area. Paine is where proportionally there were more crimes in the entire country at the beginning of the dictatorship.

He was a witness. And he went to testify "voluntarily" only in 2008. That is, the news indicates that he remained silent, being a newly graduated officer, about those horrendous crimes. Let us remember: he was a witness, that is, he was there when it happened.

Having been a witness to those crimes and only having waited to testify until 2008 is undignified: it speaks very poorly of this man, today a general, who in those years was a low-ranking officer. These are the guilty and culpable silences that cover the already known opportunism.

Continuing to "earn merits" in the institutional silence of a major crime and having remained silent for decades does not demonstrate leadership capacity for an advance toward democracy nor true support for a rule of law that, it must be repeated, implies respect for the rights of the population and not for ill-gotten and repressive laws like those of the current Constitution.

He failed the central principle of respect for human rights and what is expected of someone who claims to have as a central function defending their people. Probably that was not what he had in his mind then and for several decades.

It is not the first time that this "lack of memory" has happened: a few months ago, to just recall an additional appointment, we had the appointment of another general involved in the Caravan of Death.

El Mercurio tells us, on November 6, 2009, without any criticism on its part of course, that "the president appointed General Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba Poblete to succeed General Óscar Izurieta as Commander-in-Chief of the Army starting March 10, 2010." This type of error makes us doubt how the work of the Museum of Memory will be biased when its designated director will be the same person who has processed these appointments...

Being part of the establishment seems to lead to creating enormous holes, like Swiss Gruyère cheese, in the heads co-opted by the system and the post-dictatorship co-governments.

The rejection by human rights groups of this new military chief is deserved. So were several previous ones with similar backgrounds. If they did not try to denounce the crimes when they occurred and they were there, given the position they held, they were, at the very least, accomplices.

Denying this is not acceptable: they must present themselves voluntarily to be judged and not remain as what is evident: instruments of the whitewashing and impunity that still exists. This is a crime against humanity.

Bad winds are coming when we know that the president-elect and his president of the senate are already asking the four cardinal points for impunity and oblivion. It is not enough to pretend to be a democrat and respectful of human rights: one must demonstrate it.

We hope for a demonstration of genuine self-criticism for the victims, of reparation, and of the trial of those who remain unpunished, covered with suspended sentences or so many hidden ones who continue to surface in glory and majesty in many places.

By José Venturelli

Source: g80.cl, February 10, 2010