Chile proposed Luis Palma Castillo as the new ambassador to Venezuela. Palma Castillo is a career official of the Chilean Foreign Ministry, trained in the diplomacy of the 17-year dictatorship, who used to send intelligence reports not only to his superiors at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but also to intelligence agencies, primarily while serving as consul in London in 1988.

The newspaper La Tercera identified him on Monday as having a "reserved political stance" and asserted that "his appointment aligns with the Foreign Ministry's design to attempt to maintain a formal tie between Santiago and Caracas, regardless of the political ups and downs the relationship has suffered."

The request for agrément from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry for Palma Castillo—who has served as ambassador to Jordan since June 2006—was submitted on Tuesday the 16th to replace Rolando Drago, the current ambassador in Caracas, who will assume the role of Director of Ceremonial and Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the newspaper revealed.

It added that the Venezuelan response is "expected in the coming weeks."

The career diplomat entered the foreign service in 1976 through special competitive examinations opened by the military regime to fill positions left by officials dismissed after entering the diplomatic service under the government of Salvador Allende during the years 1972-73.

Career officials refer to this cohort as the "marmicoc" (pressure cooker) because it was prepared or "cooked" in haste, as was the case with the majority of those who entered the Foreign Ministry during the military regime, when preference was given to the children of military personnel and those with political leanings aligned with the military regime.

With the advent of the first Concertación government, presided over by Patricio Aylwin, the Pinochet-era officials in the Foreign Ministry formed a secret lodge called "Hamlet," whose main task has been to preserve their share of power and displace other officials. One of the figures of this parallel foreign ministry was Jorge Panelas, the current ambassador to Vietnam.

When Luis Palma Castillo was consul for the military dictatorship in London, he simultaneously served as an agent-informant for the National Intelligence Center (CNI), according to a declassified secret CNI document identified as Memorandum C-3 3662, dated November 4, 1988, a facsimile of which is reproduced at the end of this note.

On that occasion, the consul informed his CNI superiors that a West German citizen residing in the British capital told him he "possessed information regarding the preparation of a terrorist attack intended to assassinate H.E. the President of the Republic." However, the information proved to be unfounded, as the only attack against Augusto Pinochet recorded in history occurred on September 6, 1986, more than two years before Palma Castillo's report.

This episode involving the consul-spy for the CNI, and now likely ambassador to Venezuela, was disclosed by journalist Francisco Martorell in the magazine El Periodista No. 42, on August 17, 2003. (1) "According to the diplomat's version, the informant had stated that the action would be carried out by a specialized organization that had 'perpetrated similar actions successfully,' such as the attacks against the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in Paraguay and the former president Zia of Pakistan," wrote El Periodista.

Martorell's report adds that "along with highlighting that the group had political and financial support from the German Democratic Republic, that the name of the operation was 'Barbarosa,' and that the headquarters was located in 'the Turkish zone of the island of Cyprus,' although its members trained in Syria, England, and Chile, the consul's informant said that the probable date of execution would be during the month of December."

The information from El Periodista, published in 2003, uncovered his link to the CNI but did not prevent Palma Castillo from continuing his diplomatic career, protected by the Hamlet group, whose latest action was the displacement of a long-time career official, the lawyer Ricardo Herrera Rocuant.

His assignment to Portugal was approved in July 2008, but the former chief of ceremonial and protocol, Fernando Ayala—appointed ambassador to Portugal—abruptly canceled the designation to benefit another former official linked to the military regime who was in Houston.

Herrera had already sold his house and was practically one foot on the plane; "however, imagine his surprise when, on May 13, he was informed, just six days before leaving, that Ricardo Ortiz, a diplomat close to Fernando Ayala, had been appointed to the position he had won by competition, because Ortiz was facing health problems and needed to move from Washington to a drier climate," according to a report by El Mostrador on June 2, 2009. (2) The affected party appealed to the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic to assert his rights and request respect for professional integrity and the violation of administrative transparency. Precisely, the current ambassador to Venezuela, Rolando Drago, is leaving his post to replace Ayala in Ceremonial and Protocol.

La Tercera asserts that Palma Castillo is "a history graduate, has been a professor at the Diplomatic Academy, is an expert on the Middle East, and has written books on the Cold War and the Arab-Israeli conflict." Although he appears in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an official "without political affiliation," he has been favored by the Concertación elite who know of his past ties to the military regime.

His designation in Caracas does not seem the most appropriate for "maintaining a formal tie" between Santiago and Caracas, as Álvaro Saieh's newspaper claims. Although this "career" official served in Israel, South Africa, and twice in London, his new appointment does not guarantee an improvement in relations with the government of Venezuela. "The government of President Hugo Chávez deserves a better ambassador," said Juan Cuevas, of the United Command of Solidarity with Venezuela.

Source: Sunday, June 28, 2009 coloniadelneoliberismo.blogspot.com

Foreign Ministry withdraws agrément for ambassador to Venezuela due to CNI ties

In the decision, which has been kept under the strictest confidentiality, the fact that left-wing organizations, both in Chile and in the country presided over by Hugo Chávez, have lobbied, pointing out that the official's past during the military regime is an impediment to him performing his duties in Caracas, carried weight.

His name was proposed by President Michelle Bachelet herself last June, at which time the request for agrément was dispatched, which has not been answered within the reasonable timeframe in which these matters are handled.

The Foreign Ministry withdrew the request for agrément from the government of Venezuela for Luis Palma Castillo to assume the role of ambassador in Caracas. This is due to the complexity that could arise from the diplomat being mentioned as an informant in a document from the defunct National Intelligence Center (CNI).

In the decision, which has been kept under the strictest confidentiality, the fact that left-wing organizations, both in Chile and in the country presided over by Hugo Chávez, have lobbied, pointing out that Palma Castillo's past during the military regime is an impediment to him performing his duties as a diplomat, carried weight.

The career official, linked to the right-wing sensibilities within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrel), was the ambassador to the Kingdom of Jordan. His name was proposed by President Michelle Bachelet herself last June, at which time the request for agrément was dispatched to Caracas, which has not been answered within the reasonable timeframe in which these matters are handled.

Palma Castillo was to fill the vacancy created by the appointment of César Drago, who arrived in Santiago to assume the Directorate of Protocol, replacing Fernando Ayala, who left for Portugal amid no less controversy.

This new impasse adds to previous ones that occurred during the current administration, where the backgrounds of officials who were to assume important positions were not analyzed. It is enough to recall the case of Catalina Depassier, who lied about her academic degree when she was in charge of Chiledeportes.

Another was the appointment of Loreto Ditzel to the same position in 2007, which brought a new headache to La Moneda when the UDI questioned her name due to the role she played in the Spiniak case.

In the circles supporting Chávez that operate in Chile, it was explained that Bachelet's determination was a "majunche," an expression that speaks to the "lackluster" criteria used to choose a representative "who will be linked to the authorities of a country that does not value in the slightest the acts committed by the Pinochet dictatorship."

Operation Barbarosa

Palma Castillo's name appeared for the first time in 2003 in a publication by the magazine El Periodista, signed by its director Francisco Martorell, who revealed a series of secret CNI documents.

On that occasion, the professional revealed several documents from the repressive agency related to the so-called "Red Night," which referred to the alleged attack that Pinochet would suffer on the night of the 1988 plebiscite.

The official letter was sent to all Chilean intelligence services by the head of the CNI, General Hugo Salas Wenzel—who is serving a sentence in Punta Peuco for his responsibility in Operation Albania—a fact that was confirmed by the former head of the FACh during the Pinochet era, Fernando Matthei, in an interview granted to the newspaper La Tercera, a revelation that is part of the book "My Testimony," written by historian Patricia Arancibia Clavel.

The idea was that if something like that were to happen, the electoral act would be suspended and the Armed Forces would return to power.

The document published by El Periodista recounts a conversation held by Palma Castillo, while he was serving as consul in London in 1988, with a West German citizen residing in the same city, who told him about the potential assassination attempt against the former dictator.

Diplomatic diatribes

Relations between Chile and Venezuela have not been free of problems in recent years. Last May, a controversy arose that even led to statements from La Moneda, when UDI leader and former presidential candidate Joaquín Lavín denounced that an airport agent warned him not to speak against Chávez while he was disembarking in Caracas to attend a seminar.

A year earlier, the Chilean José Miguel Vivanco, head of Human Rights Watch, was expelled due to the presentation of a report stating that, "in its efforts to contain the political opposition and consolidate its power, the government of President Hugo Chávez has weakened democratic institutions and human rights guarantees."

In 2007, meanwhile, the then-ambassador for the DC, Claudio Huepe, who passed away last May, revealed that Chile had abstained from voting for the Caribbean country to assume a seat on the UN Security Council due to pressure from his party, which led to his resignation from the post.

Something similar happened in 2002 when diplomat Marcos Álvarez supported the attempt to forcibly remove the Chávez government, led by Pedro Carmona, an attempt that ultimately did not prosper. Álvarez was also dismissed.

In March 1986, a note from the newspaper El Mercurio reports, a fire consumed the premises of our country's embassy in the Venezuelan capital, an occasion on which 10 compatriots died, among them the ambassador of Chile, Carlos de Costa Nora Sepúlveda, the commercial attaché, Francisco Palma Valenzuela, two secretaries, and a driver.

Source: Monday, July 6, 2009 El Mostrador