POLITICS-CHILE: US Hurrying in Post-Pinochetism

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Gonzalez

SANTIAGO, May 25 1998 (IPS) - US Defence Secretary, William Cohen is in Chile aiming to speed the post-Pinochet era on its way, pressing for civilian control over the military.

Cohen arrived in Santiago Sunday afternoon for a 48-hour visit, with a packed agenda including an interview with President Eduardo Frei Monday and a working meeting with commanders of the Chilean armed forces.

This is the fourth time a US Defence Secretary has visited Chile in the last two years, and the first following the retirement of former dictator Augusto Pinochet from leadership of the army.

The 82 year-old general -who governed the country for nearly 17 years between 1973 and 1990- was sworn in as senator for life on March 11, the day after handing leadership of the army over to 54 year-old General Ricardo Izurieta.

Frei said the change of leadership had brought “successful transition” in the main branch of the armed forces to an end, although he was forced to admit the authoritarian clauses still held in the constitution mean Chilean democracy is as yet incomplete.

A constitutional accusation of “political impropriety” lodged against Pinochet by the majority of the centre-left coalition came to nothing after the government and a sector of the Democratic Christian Party blocked it.

The governing Concertation for Democracy and the Marxist left- wing claimed Pinochet stil has extensive powers, heading a “military bloc” in the Senate, made up of Senators designated by the Armed Forces.

Cohen’s visit to Chile will end Tuesday, closing phase two of a tour of the far South of Latin America to discuss “strategic political affairs,” which started in Argentina and will end in Brazil.

On board the plane taking him from Buenos Aires to Santiago, Cohen told reporters he would be examining and encouraging “efforts destined toward institutionalising civilian control over the military” in Chile.

Chile’s defence minister, Raul Troncoso, said Cohen’s visit is part of a move toward the normalisation of military links between the two countries, initiated in 1990 with Chile’s return to democracy.

“The idea is to converse (with Cohen) on a series of Defence issues which are not only of interest to Chile and the United States, but to all the hemisphere,” added Troncoso.

Washington aims to build new strategic links with this continent in the post cold war period, consolidating representative democracies and leaving behind the military dictatorships which proliferated during the seventies.

This concept will also be worked on outside the Americas, along the lines of a speech Cohen presented to the Pacific Rim Economic Council business group Monday, entitled “Peace and stability: the cornerstones of prosperity.”

This council, one of the assessing bodies for the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum (APEC), it holding its annual meeting in Santiago from Monday to Wednesday this week with the participation of 500 entrepreneurs.

The broad strategic projection given the US minister’s visit to Chile aims to leave the difficult military relations sparked by the Kennedy Amendment in 1978 far behind.

This amendment, promoted by Democrat senator, Teddy Kennedy, sanctioned the Pinochet regime with the suspension of the weaponry supplies and military co-operation because of the human rights violations of the Chilean dictatorship.

The embargo, which was toughened up following the assassination of former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier in Washington in 1976, forced the dictatorship into developing a local weapons industry and diversifying its stock by using European suppliers.

The effects of this cooling of relations lasted practically until 1996, when the two countries signed a protocol for rapprochement on military, scientific and technological fronts, and civil defence training.

This same year, US ambassador in Santiago, Gabriel Guerra Mondragon, said the armed forces had still not been brought under civil power in Chile, being forced to “explain” his words following outcry from the foreign ministry.

Clinton’s decision to declare Argentina special non-NATO ally in 1997 upset the Frei government, particularly putting Pinochet’s nose out of joint in his position as head of the army.

On his visit to Chile in April for the II Americas Summit, Clinton praised the economic “leadership” of this country, playing down the US’s preferential strategic alliance with Argentina.

But the proof of the rapprochement pudding will be seen in which aeroplanes Chile’s Air Force (FACH) decides to buy to replace their old US A-37’s.

FACH must opt between the US Lockheed’s F-16 fighter-bombers, the US Boeing’s F/A-18’s, France’s Mirage-2000-5 and Swedens Gripens.

Cohen stated the FACH purchases would not spark an arms race in South America, adding he had not come to pressurise anyone into buying US planes, although the subject would naturally be dealt with in conversations with Chilean authorities.