Businessman Andrónico Luksic is promoting a book by former CNI agent Guillermo Parvex via social media. This would not be the first time the millionaire has recommended the work of the alleged former agent.

Businessman Andrónico Luksic has returned to the center of controversy, this time due to his close relationship with Guillermo Parvex, author of the book “Un Veterano de Tres Guerras” (“A Veteran of Three Wars”), who has been identified on several occasions as a former agent of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI).

The controversy resurfaced when Luksic recommended and promoted, through a social media contest, Parvex’s new book, “Soldado por Circunstancia” (“Soldier by Circumstance”).

The stir was created when, through the social network X, Luksic invited people to participate in a contest to win Parvex’s new book. The post quickly went viral, as Parvex has been linked to the CNI, which sparked comments regarding Luksic’s “denialism” in promoting an alleged former agent of the dictatorship.

This is not the first time the relationship between Luksic and Parvex has been questioned, a friendship dating back to 2017, when the businessman recommended “Un Veterano de Tres Guerras” on Twitter. Since then, Luksic has promoted the work of Parvex, who has publicly praised the tycoon.

In 2018, a report by Cambio21 revealed that several journalists from that era identified Guillermo Parvex as an agent of the repressive agency. Although Parvex has denied these accusations, claiming that he only worked in the División de Comunicación Social (Dinacos) during the dictatorship, documents obtained by INTERFERENCIA indicate that his name appears on a list of people transferred from the CNI to the Dirección de Inteligencia del Ejército (DINE) in 1990, following the dissolution of the CNI.

Despite this evidence, Parvex has denied any link to security agencies and asserts that his transfer was a matter of “budgeting.” Furthermore, when requested to provide information regarding his military service record, he prevented its disclosure.

The connection between the two has been criticized, not only for Parvex’s role during the dictatorship, but also because in 2019 Parvex won a grant from the CNTV to adapt his most famous book into a television series backed by Canal 13. However, the series never came to light due to the controversy surrounding the author.

by Etiam Henríquez

Source: elciudadano.cl, September 17, 2024

Antonio Guillermo Parvex Canales, the former CNI agent, promoted as a "writer" by the Military History Academy, El Mercurio, and the major business sector.

The report published by the weekly Cambio21 regarding the activities of Guillermo Parvex, author of the bestseller “Un veterano de tres guerras”, as a CNI agent caused a strong impact across different professional sectors.

Under the headline "His past condemns him," the revelation, confirmed by various sources accessed by the newspaper, provoked reactions from those who shared his activities as a journalist during the time of the dictatorship.

“We looked for them and spoke with them, and the accounts coincide. They start by clarifying that they knew him as Antonio Parvex. Now he is known as Guillermo Parvex. His full name is Antonio Guillermo Parvex Canales.

Everyone heard the rumor circulating about his background: the CNI. Because if you did the math, he never appeared on the lists of applicants for the Journalism program, and was certainly never accepted.

One day he arrived and set himself up in what was the Pedagógico, in the back part where the University of Chile’s School of Journalism was located,” says the text by journalist María Cristina Prudant.

A journalist—the chronicle adds—who knew him says that “his role was not to cover news. It was to locate all the journalists who worked in the police sector, who were the most dangerous, who were the opponents. He was a disgusting person.”

He never worked at El Mercurio

“He lies when he says he worked at El Mercurio, Las Últimas Noticias, and La Segunda; I can assure that with absolute certainty,” says Cristián Bustos, who worked for more than 25 years at the El Mercurio company, where he became president of the Journalists' Union. “I worked there; I never saw him, and no one saw him.”

Bustos recalls that when they were reporting, “we had to go to the CNI barracks, which was on Calle Belgrado (today Calle José Carrasco Tapia, in memory of the journalist murdered by Alvaro Corbalán), to receive the official communiqués with data regarding the raids and confrontations carried out by the CNI, and almost always they were delivered by Antonio Parvex himself.”

“So, what was he doing there? Many of us saw him, just like when he was infiltrated in demonstrations we had to cover. The first one to appear was him. I remember the Corpus Christi massacre, when all the police reporters arrived there and he was already there, and he never wrote about that in his media outlet.

Once, the Carabineros beat him up at a protest, because the cops and the CNI people didn't like each other,” emphasizes Bustos.

Regarding the idea of changing his name and calling himself Guillermo Parvex, one of his former colleagues deduces that he did it to avoid problems because “if I hear that Antonio Parvex wrote a book, I immediately say, ‘How?

That guy was from the CNI, from the DINA,’ and he is aware of that; that’s why he changed his name. But I have seen him when he has been interviewed on TV, on the radio; it’s the same face, the same voice. Now he is gray-haired; before he had black hair and he grew a beard. I can stand next to him and tell him, ‘You are Antonio Parvex.’”

Proximity to the military

His former colleagues acknowledge that he worked as a journalist at the ORBE Agency and La Nación, but that “he never graduated because it was just a front to spy.” All of this occurred during the times of the dictatorship, and those two media outlets were pro-government.

There are those who describe him as “a formatted type, strange, introverted, who would stand next to groups and only listen to conversations, never expressing an opinion on anything,” notes the prominent journalist and writer Benedicto Castillo.

“His proximity to the military seemed very strange to me. He was always in the Public Relations office of the Carabineros where we went to look for news. He wouldn't move from there. More than once he was caught standing at attention in front of a high-ranking Carabinero,” adds Castillo.

“I remember an example of his affinity with the military. For the book I wrote about Pinochet, they only gave me one hour in the Military School library. In contrast, he writes with the support of the Military Academy,” commented Castillo.

A retired police reporter remembers that “we were reporting when they were persecuting us, taking our photos. So, I was afraid and never went to Belgrado; that’s why I can't confirm that he distributed communiqués. Maybe he helped draft them. Now, he was labeled a ‘sapo’ (informant), but I'm not sure. However, colleagues said he was from the CNI; they knew him better.”

“Now he says he is a journalist; he was always a CNI infiltrator and we were afraid of him,” says another journalist. And he gives us details of a very specific event, which was discussed almost in secret so that he wouldn't find out:

“The situation reached such a point that a young journalist, who one day went to report on a protest in La Pintana, while looking through a window of the local police station, saw two vehicles arrive with CNI agents who got out, each with a machine gun in their hand and an armband on their arm.

Among them, Parvex. The journalist went into shock; she had to be assisted because she couldn't stop crying and was saying with anguish: ‘But he is a journalist and I have reported with him. It can't be,’ she said. Afterward, we took her home and she didn't return to work for several years. Honestly, I don't know if she is working now.”

Most of the people consulted expressed their surprise that no one has recognized Parvex, except for those who studied at the University of Chile’s School of Journalism and reported on the police sector during the years of the dictatorship.

Some of them even expressed doubt as to whether Antonio and Guillermo Parvex are the same person. It happens that in the Civil Registry he appears as Antonio Guillermo Parvex, and those who had the occasion to know him, like our interviewees, can attest that it is the same person.

DC President, Myriam Verdugo: «I think he was an informant»

A journalist who knew Antonio Parvex is the current president of the Christian Democrats, Myriam Verdugo. She was a student at the University of Chile who entered through the Academic Aptitude Test and did not know how the current writer entered the university.

«He was a classmate, from my same class. He was very strange. He only watched, listened, stood in the back of the classes. He never had an opinion. On anything.»

«He was mysterious. To all of us, he was clearly an informant (for the DINA or the CNI)… in the universities, we knew that so-called ‘sapos’ existed, and he was probably one of them,» notes Myriam Verdugo.

And she has an anecdote: «We went by bus on a trip to the north with the class and we had a problem with the Carabineros on the highway. But he got off quickly and had a short conversation with them, and they let us pass quickly. Everything was very strange. He spoke to them from his position of power.»

Later, when Myriam Verdugo was reporting, she ran into Parvex several times, especially when covering stories about union leaders: «He tried to gain their trust, but the leaders were already tipped off about his ‘other life.’ Thus, they were extremely careful about giving him any information about their private lives or meetings that were held in houses or places where they could be detained and raided.»

Source: cambio21.cl, February 24, 2018

University of Aysén suspended talk by writer Guillermo Parvex

Human rights groups and the Frente Amplio had rejected his presence at the university.

The journalist is linked to the Central Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI). Last July, Parvex denied his links to the dictatorship.

The University of Aysén decided to suspend a talk by writer Guillermo Parvex, author of the books “Un veterano de tres guerras” and “1978, el año que marchamos a la guerra”, among others, after human rights defense organizations linked him to the Central Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI).

Through a public statement, the university communicated that due to "the new background information provided to our institution regarding Mr. Guillermo Parvex and the controversy that has been generated, it was decided to cancel the discussion organized for this Friday, August 10."

According to what was expressed by Ninón Neira, president of the Coyhaique Human Rights Group, "the development of this type of activity alters the spirit of what a public university must be as a center of thought and training for future professionals."

According to that organization, Parvex is "an active member of the Military History Academy, but according to lists published in the 90s by human rights organizations, he was a member of the Psychopolitical Division of the CNI during the dictatorship."

Meanwhile, the Frente Amplio of Coyhaique had described Parvex’s talk as "a grave error and an act of indifference toward the memory of a Chile that, during the military dictatorship, murdered, tortured, exiled, and forcibly disappeared hundreds of people for fighting and thinking about a more just society."

According to the political conglomerate, "university spaces must be democratic and promote freedom of thought, teaching, and action, but they cannot turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to this presentation of the book that will be given by the former CNI agent, who, through a series of documents and reports, is clearly pointed out as having been an ally of the State’s repressive forces."

Last July, in a conversation with Una Nueva Mañana on Cooperativa, the writer and journalist gave details of his new book and referred to the criticisms that label him as an accomplice to the dictatorship, stating that "I was never a CNI agent."

Source: cooperativa.cl, August 6, 2018

Classified Army documents show that Guillermo Parvex was a member of the CNI

INTERFERENCIA accessed documentation where the writer appears on a list of people who were transferred from the CNI to the DINE with the return of democracy in 1990, and also a letter where Parvex asks the Army not to reveal his service record. Yesterday, a Canal 13 project based on his bestseller obtained funding of more than 350 million pesos.

Yesterday, Friday, the winners of the 2019 funds granted by the Consejo Nacional de Televisión (CNTV) were announced, distributing more than 3 billion pesos for "quality television" programs. The agency, directed by Catalina Parot—former Minister of National Assets in the first government of Sebastián Piñera—awarded “Un Veterano de Tres Guerras” in the historical series category.

Based on the book of the same name by writer and journalist Guillermo Parvex, the series tells the adventures of José Miguel Varela, a 22-year-old young lawyer who decides to enlist in the Chilean Army to fight in the War of the Pacific. Sponsored by Canal 13 and under the direction of León Errázuriz, it will receive a little over 350 million pesos.

This author, a sales phenomenon thanks to his books “Un veterano de tres guerras” and “1978: El año en que marchamos a la guerra”, was accused in February 2018 in a publication by the weekly newspaper Cambio21 of having been an agent of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) during the dictatorship.

In said article, several journalists contemporary to Parvex identify him as a CNI agent, recalling various anecdotes where the journalist was allegedly performing duties for the repressive organ.

This information was denied on several occasions by the writer himself, who claimed to have worked in the División de Comunicación Social (Dinacos) during the dictatorship, but ruled out having been part of the structure of any repressive organization. "I am not a writer subsidized by the Army.

All of this comes from a campaign against me, and I believe it stems from the fact that I was an Army reservist. I have never been a CNI agent. I worked at Dinacos because it was a good job. This does not make me an accomplice to the dictatorship or an intelligence agent," he told Cooperativa in an interview in July 2018.

It should be remembered that Dinacos was the agency in charge of censoring the press during the dictatorship.

However, INTERFERENCIA accessed classified Army documentation, where in the annex of the Official Army Bulletin No. 23 of June 4, 1990, the name of Antonio Guillermo Parvex Canales appears on a list of people who were transferred from the CNI to the Dirección de Inteligencia del Ejército (DINE).

Thus, in the archives of this branch of the armed forces, the current best-selling writer appears as an official of the dictatorship's repressive service who, at the beginning of the Chilean transition and after the dissolution of the feared CNI, was incorporated into another Army intelligence structure.

At the same time, INTERFERENCIA became aware of a request for access to public information where background information on Parvex was requested from the Chilean Army, whose service record could not be provided to the requester as the writer opposed the publication of this information in a letter dated March 15, 2018, and addressed to the Army.

The reasons why Parvex did not want this information to be public are under seal and appear censored in the official document (See attached documentation).

The author responds

Yesterday, this media outlet contacted Guillermo Parvex to ask him about the information obtained. Regarding the question of how and why he moved to the Army Intelligence Directorate, if according to his account he had only belonged to the Army's civilian staff through Dinacos, the author said that "it was a personal decision."

Regarding the information contained in the annex of the Official Army Bulletin No. 23, where his transfer from the CNI to the DINE appears, he stated that "that is not so; there were people from many more places there.

They added us to that decree for reasons of budgetary plasticity, funds, resources, I don't know what. I worked on a fee basis at Dinacos, and upon being left without work on March 11 (1990), they moved me to the Army.

From there, I continued working for a year and a half more." Given this response, Parvex was asked if he could provide any documentation proving that he did not belong to the CNI at the time he appeared on this list, to which he said he did not have it.

Asked about the reasons that led him to prevent the content of his Army service record from being known, Parvex indicated that "because I am not interested in this being public. It is a personal decision, and I don't have to account to anyone for my personal matters." INTERFERENCIA asked him if it was information that linked him to the CNI, which he denied.

"I categorically state that I did not belong to the DINA, nor the DINE, nor the CNI, even less so. I never belonged to the security agencies. I went to the Army General Staff and worked there until October or September 1992, when I got bored and left," he stated.

Immediately afterward, Parvex asserted that the document that INTERFERENCIA is now presenting "cannot be published in whole or in part due to a Supreme Court ruling that prevents its dissemination," but without providing further details.

The first edition of “Un veterano de tres guerras” was published by the Military History Academy of Chile in 2014. After becoming an initial success, the following editions were published by Ediciones B, belonging to Penguin Random House. It is estimated that he has currently sold more than 100,000 copies of that book in Chile, becoming a phenomenon surpassed only by the books of Jorge Baradit.

Andrónico the friend

"I couldn't believe it. As soon as Un veterano de tres guerras was published, the book became a sales success. To the point that Andrónico Luksic himself gave it to his Twitter followers," it was stated in an article by the Universidad de Los Andes in September 2017 after a meeting with Guillermo Parvex at that institution.

The love story, or mutual admiration between the writer and the businessman, started in March of that year. That month, a Twitter user asked the boss of the Quiñenco Group to recommend a book to read. And Andrónico Luksic, an Army reservist thanks to having completed the Reserve Officer Candidate Course (CAOR), did not hesitate: he recommended “Un veterano de tres guerras”.

And the author, who was a member of the CNI, thanked the businessman in an article in the business magazine Capital: "Luksic is getting closer to the people," Parvex stated.

Now, both are back in the same boat. The funds assigned by the CNTV to the project for “Un veterano…”, Parvex’s work, had the backing and sponsorship of Canal 13, the television station that belongs to Andrónico Luksic.

Source: interferencia.cl, October 5, 2019

From "reservist" of the Army, he now claims he belonged to the General Staff. Official data identifies him as a CNI agent and later of the DINE.

A year and a half ago, Cambio21 released exclusive information asserting that the bestselling writer Guillermo Parvex, author of the book "Un Veterano de tres Guerras" (A Veteran of Three Wars), had been an agent of Pinochet's political police, the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI).

The information from our outlet was ratified by a list of CNI agents that was released by the Army itself when it provided the information—under compulsion—of the agents who had been transferred from the CNI to the Dirección de Inteligencia del Ejército (DINE).

The Army officials—on service commission in the CNI—were transferred to the DINE at the beginning of the return to democracy, while Augusto Pinochet was still Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and after the President of the Republic at the time, Patricio Aylwin, demanded that the former dictator remove the repressive agents from the country's main armed branch.

According to unofficial data, there were around 6,000 CNI agents who were integrated into the Army.

Among them was reportedly the writer Guillermo Parvex, who remained in the Army until 1992, according to recent official information from the Chief of the Army General Staff, General John Griffits. All this information exists despite the fact that Antonio or Guillermo Parvex himself demanded and opposed the public disclosure of his service record and official background within that branch of the armed forces.

Parvex resorted to secrecy norms and laws to prevent his data from being released, and as General Griffits states in his response to journalists who demanded Parvex's information via transparency laws: his data will be kept "in absolute reserve."

See the response from the Chief of the Army General Staff:

Writer demands his "work" be hidden

What did Parvex do during the dictatorship era that he demands, using laws and statutes, that his data and Army service record not be released?

Why does he try to hide a past (dark and sinister because he was a CNI and DINE agent) as a military man or agent?

In recent days, various media outlets, and especially the newspaper Interferencia, provided key information that ratifies the information from Cambio21: Antonio or Guillermo Parvex was an Army official until 1992.

With this information, the entire facade of a narrative that Parvex had devised collapses: he had never been an Army official, he said. "I was a reservist," he told Radio Cooperativa, a narrative he has repeated in various media.

Reservists are not officials. As the word indicates, they are "reserve" in case of conflict. Reservists include former minister Francisco Vidal and the millionaire businessman Andrónico Luksic, as well as other renowned and not-so-famous businessmen, professionals, and former authorities who are also reservists.

Antonio (his real name) Guillermo Parvex Canales also appeared on the lists of the CNI's Sociopolitical Division with the number 1484, as can be seen in the photo that appears in this chronicle.

Our information from February 2018 included testimonies about Parvex's student and professional life.

Parvex's lies

"He lies when he says he worked at El Mercurio, Las Últimas Noticias, and La Segunda; I can state that with absolute certainty," says Cristián Bustos, who worked for more than 25 years at the El Mercurio company, where he became president of the Journalists' Union. "I worked there, I never saw him, and no one saw him."

Bustos recalls that when they were reporting, "we had to go to the CNI barracks, which was on Calle Belgrado (today Calle José Carrasco Tapia, in memory of the journalist murdered by Álvaro Corbalán), to receive official communiqués with data regarding the raids and confrontations carried out by the CNI, and almost always they were delivered by Antonio Parvex himself."

"So, what was he doing there? Many of us saw him, just like when he was infiltrated in demonstrations we had to cover. He was the first one to appear. I remember the Corpus Christi massacre, when all the police reporters arrived there, he was already there, and he never wrote about that in his outlet.

Once, the Carabineros beat him up at a protest because the cops and the CNI didn't like each other," emphasized Bustos.

A journalist who knew Antonio Parvex is the former president of the Christian Democrats and former undersecretary of Sernam, Myriam Verdugo. She was a student at the Universidad de Chile who entered through the Academic Aptitude Test and did not know how the current writer entered the university.

"He was a classmate, from my same graduating class. He was very strange. He only watched, listened, and sat in the back of the class. He never had an opinion. On anything."

"He was mysterious. To all of us, he was clearly an informant (for the DINA or the CNI)... in the universities, we knew that so-called 'snitches' existed, and he was probably one of them," notes Myriam Verdugo in the photo below.

And she has an anecdote: "We went on a bus trip to the north with the class and had a problem with the Carabineros on the highway. But he got off quickly and had a short conversation with them, and they let us pass quickly. Everything was very strange. He spoke to them from his position of power."

Later, when Myriam Verdugo was reporting, she ran into Parvex several times, especially when covering stories about union leaders: "He tried to gain their trust, but the leaders were already tipped off about his 'other life.' So, they were extremely careful about giving him any information about their private lives or meetings that were held in houses or places where they could be detained and raided."

There are those who describe him as "a formatted, strange, introverted guy who would stand next to groups and only listen to conversations, never expressing an opinion on anything," notes the prominent journalist and writer Benedicto Castillo.

"His closeness to the military seemed very strange to me. He was always in the Carabineros Public Relations office where we went to look for news. He didn't move from there. More than once he was caught standing at attention in front of a high-ranking Carabinero," adds Castillo.

"I remember an example of his affinity with the military. For the book I wrote about Pinochet, I was given only one hour in the Military School library. In contrast, he writes with the support of the Military Academy," commented Castillo.

Digital media ratifies Cambio21 information

The digital media outlet Interferencia, in a note, reiterates with more data about the dark past of the famous writer, a permanent panelist on television channels such as La Red and Canal 13 on their morning shows.

Under the headline "Reserved Army documents show that Guillermo Parvex was a member of the CNI," the chronicle written by Lissette Fossa and Joaquín Riffo, Interferencia points out that it accessed documentation where the writer appears on a list of people who were transferred from the CNI to the DINE with the return of democracy in 1990, and also a letter where Parvex asks the Army not to reveal his service record.

Several times, Parvex has denied his past in the CNI or the DINE. He has said that he belonged to the División de Comunicación Social (DINACOS) during the dictatorship.

Singularly, DINACOS was the agency in charge of censoring the press during the dictatorship and decided what was published, what was not, or what was broadcast.

Several journalists saw Parvex delivering CNI information on the old Calle Belgrado, near Vicuña Mackenna and 200 meters from the Alameda. That is where the offices of the CNI operational chiefs were, and where Manuel Contreras had his office when he was head of the DINA.

After the return to democracy, Calle Belgrado was renamed after journalist José Carrasco Tapia, who was murdered by a group of CNI agents led by Álvaro Corbalán in 1986. Carrasco was the international editor of the magazine Análisis and was executed by fifteen gunshots outside the Parque del Recuerdo cemetery.

Interferencia also accessed other data: reserved Army documentation, where in the annex of the Army Official Bulletin No. 23 of June 4, 1990, the name of Antonio Guillermo Parvex Canales appears on a list of people who were transferred from the CNI to the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE).

Thus, in the archives of this branch of the armed forces, the current bestselling writer appears as an official of the dictatorship's repressive service who, at the beginning of the Chilean transition and after the dissolution of the feared CNI, was incorporated into another Army intelligence structure.

Knowledge was also obtained of a request for access to public information where background information on Parvex was requested from the Chilean Army, whose service record could not be provided to the requester because the writer opposed the publication of this background information in a letter dated March 15, 2018, addressed to the Army.

The reasons why Parvex did not want this information to be public are under reserve and appear censored in the official document.

Parvex responds

Guillermo Parvex was consulted about the information obtained by Interferencia. Regarding the question of how and why he moved to the Army Intelligence Directorate if, according to his account, he had only belonged to the Army's civilian staff through DINACOS, the author said that "it was a personal decision."

Regarding the information contained in the annex of Army Official Bulletin No. 23, where his transfer from the CNI to the DINE appears, he stated that "that is not so, there were people from many more places there.

They added us to that decree for reasons of budgetary plasticity, funds, resources, I don't know what. I worked on a fee basis at DINACOS, and upon being left without work on March 11 (1990, the date Aylwin took office and Pinochet left the head of State), they moved me to the Army.

From there, I continued working for another year and a half." Faced with this response, Parvex was asked if he could provide any documentation proving that he did not belong to the CNI at the time he appeared on this list, to which he said he did not have any.

Consulted about the reasons that led him to prevent the content of his Army service record from being known, Parvex indicated that "because I am not interested in this being public. It is a personal decision, and I do not have to give an account to anyone about my personal matters."

"I say, categorically, that I did not belong to the DINA, nor the DINE, much less the CNI. I never belonged to the security agencies. I went to the Army General Staff and worked there until October or September 1992, when I got bored and left," he stated.

But not everything is complex or hard for Antonio or Guillermo Parvex: The National Television Council, presided over by former Piñera minister Catalina Parot, approved funds for more than 350 million pesos to make a series based on the book "Un Veterano de Tres Guerras." The series will also be financed by Canal 13.

Source: cambio21.cl, October 10, 2019

Fernández Vial S.A. hires former CNI agent Parvex to write the biography of the club's flagship admiral, sparking the annoyance of the fans

The author of military bestsellers will narrate the life of Arturo Fernández Vial, a pro-worker sailor who gives his name to this railway club in the Bío Bío Region, which has a broad leftist tradition. Fans are asking Guillermo Parvex to abandon the project.

In May 1903, a strike by railway workers and stevedores in Valparaíso produced a social explosion in the port. President Germán Riesco declared a state of siege and mobilized the Army to repress the protests. The person designated to intervene and unleash a massacre of strikers was Rear Admiral Arturo Fernández Vial, a veteran of the War of the Pacific.

However, Fernández Vial ignored the presidential orders and interceded in favor of the workers. Thanks to the sailor's support, the strike was settled in favor of the workers. And most importantly: without spilling a single drop of blood.

The story of Fernández Vial—of whom it began to be said that he was an admiral and not a rear admiral—traveled the country to Concepción, where he was admired by the city's railway unions. Thus, in June 1903, the workers decided to rename their team, International F.

C., as Club Deportivo Ferroviario Almirante Arturo Fernández Vial, in honor of the military man who avoided a massacre against their port colleagues.

The news that a former member of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), the political police of the second part of Pinochet's dictatorship, will write the biography of the club's flagship man did not go down well with the fans.

A history forged by workers and the portrait of a military man who acted in favor of the workers formed the "should-be" of the Vial fan. A club that the corporation itself defines as based "on the roots of the railway worker and his family environment" and of working-class and popular tradition.

For this reason, the news that a former member of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI)—the political police of the second part of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship—will write the biography of the club's flagship man did not go down well with the fans.

This Wednesday, the president of the corporation, Ángelo Castiglione, announced that Guillermo Parvex would be in charge of writing the history of Admiral Fernández Vial in his stage prior to the Valparaíso feat. As they communicated, the board's idea is to "get this work to municipal schools so that children can soak up the history of the hero and our club."

The administration of the corporation has been characterized by stabilizing the institution's historic football branch in recent times, achieving promotion to Primera B through the hiring of renowned players in local football such as Kevin Harbottle or Arturo Sanhueza, and has even managed to get brands like Puma and Adidas interested in dressing the aurinegros in a short time, a marketing milestone for a club belonging to the second division.

Despite the sporting and institutional achievements, the railway fans reacted strongly against the appointment of Parvex, alleging his participation in the CNI, debating the decision through social networks. More than a hundred fans arrived at the club's Instagram account to ask for the writer's departure from the institution.

In the leadership of the Club Social Fernández Vial, a corporation totally differentiated from the corporation, they anticipate that they will take measures and publish a statement within the next few days.

It is in this context that the Fernández Vial fans will begin to prepare measures against the choice of Parvex.

Paul Arroyo, a member of the fan base, commented to INTERFERENCIA that "the most likely thing is that a demonstration will be held and that some type of communication will be sent to the club."

Regarding the choice of Parvex as biographer, Arroyo states that "the history of Vial cannot be told by someone who belongs to and has supported fascism in Chile. Vial is the complete opposite; it is of humble people, from the neighborhoods of the Eighth Region and Chile. People who identify with the working class and go out to work every day."

In the leadership of the Club Social Fernández Vial, a corporation totally differentiated from the corporation, they anticipate that they will take measures and publish a statement within the next few days.

Parvex has repeatedly denied his affiliation with this political police, responsible for serious human rights violations, accepting, instead, having worked in the Dirección Nacional de Comunicaciones (DINACOS), an agency in charge of censoring media during the dictatorship.

Despite the writer's statements, INTERFERENCIA accessed reserved Army documents in 2019 that certify Parvex's affiliation with the CNI, where the name of Antonio Guillermo Parvex Canales is mentioned in a list of people who were transferred from the CNI to the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE) in June 1990, once the Transition had begun.

INTERFERENCIA contacted Parvex again for this article in order to talk about the complaints of the Vial fans, but the writer declined to give statements.

Source: interferencia.cl, January 28, 2022

Fernández Vial fans reject hiring of former CNI agent Parvex as biographer of the admiral who inspired the club's name

The corporation that controls the football team announced that Guillermo Parvex would be in charge of carrying out the biography of the historic Chilean sailor linked to the labor movement that motivated the creation of the club that bears his name.

The fans expressed their discontent with the news, questioning the writer's past as a member of the dictatorship's political police and his incongruity with the values of their institution, as reported by Interferencia.

Hundreds of fans of Arturo Fernández Vial expressed their rejection of the hiring of Guillermo Parvex as the writer in charge of writing the biography of the historic rear admiral of the Navy who inspired the name of the football team.

The news was known this Wednesday, announced by Ángelo Castiglione, president of the corporation that controls the club. His board's idea is to "get this work to municipal schools so that children can soak up the history of the hero and our club."

As revealed by Interferencia, Parvex, author of bestsellers such as "Un veterano de tres guerras," was a member of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), the political police of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.

Although the writer denies it and claims to have only worked for the Dirección Nacional de Comunicaciones (DINACOS), a reserved Army document accessed by that outlet shows his transfer from the CNI to that entity in June 1990.

For the fans of Fernández Vial, the appointment of Parvex contradicts the principles and values of the club and the very history of its flagship character, since the rear admiral, a veteran of the War of the Pacific, is a figure linked to the labor movement and the proletariat.

During a strike by railway workers and stevedores in Valparaíso in 1903, Fernández Vial, who would be popularly known as admiral and not rear admiral, disobeyed the order of President Germán Riesco to violently repress the protest.

In addition to avoiding a massacre, the rear admiral interceded in favor of the workers to reach an agreement in their benefit, which inspired the railway workers of Concepción to rename their club International F. C. as Club Deportivo Ferroviario Almirante Arturo Fernández Vial.

As a result of this, Paul Arroyo, a fan of the club, commented to Interferencia that "the most likely thing is that a demonstration will be held and that some type of communication will be sent to the club."

"The history of Vial cannot be told by someone who belongs to and has supported fascism in Chile. Vial is the complete opposite; it is of humble people, from the neighborhoods of the Eighth Region and Chile. People who identify with the working class and go out to work every day," stated Arroyo.

Source: lared.cl, January 28, 2022

Protest against Parvex's presence at Punta Arenas book fair

At least a dozen members of the Coordinadora Popular Magallanes 50 Años and the Coordinadora Feminista de Punta Arenas protested the presence of writer Guillermo Parvex at the Book Fair in Punta Arenas. It was held at the Cultural Center, and Parvex was invited by the Municipality. Two banners were raised alluding to Parvex's role within the military dictatorship and the writer's subsequent role.

The banners remained during the entire talk by Parvex, which ended briefly and without questions from the scarce audience that attended to hear him. At the end of it, the members of the coordinators raised slogans against denialism and crimes against humanity of which the writer was an accomplice.

An information sheet was also distributed where the following is stated:

It is regrettable that the Illustrious Municipality of Punta Arenas has invited the former agent of Pinochet's Central Nacional de Inteligencia to the Dinko Pavlov Book Fair, even more so when 50 years since the coup d'état are being commemorated.

This character was part of the repression exercised by the military against an unarmed people, which caused murders, disappearances, imprisonment, torture, in short, crimes against humanity.

Already in 2018, the weekly newspaper Cambio21 revealed that Parvex had been a CNI agent. Parvex claimed that he had worked for DINACOS, not the CNI. DINACOS was the agency in charge of censoring the press during the dictatorship.

However, the outlet INTERFERENCIA accessed reserved Army documentation, where in the annex of the Army Official Bulletin No. 23 of June 4, 1990, the name of Antonio Guillermo Parvex Canales appears on a list of people who were transferred from the CNI to the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE).

Thus, in the archives of this branch of the armed forces, the current bestselling writer appears as an official of the dictatorship's repressive service who, at the beginning of the Chilean transition and after the dissolution of the feared CNI, was incorporated into another Army intelligence structure.

We energetically protest the poor decision of the pertinent authorities for this inclusion, and we reject and denounce the presence of Parvex at this Book Fair.

COORDINADORA POPULAR MAGALLANES 50 AÑOS

Source: cpm50.cl, August 5, 2023