Ernesto Baeza Michelsen

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Ernesto Baeza Michelsen (* 1916 ; † after 2000) was a Chilean major general and politician who was one of the initiators of the military coup of September 11, 1973. During the military dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1981, he was director of the investigative police (Policía de Investigaciones) and as such was largely responsible for the arrests, torture and murder of supporters of the government of President Salvador Allende , which was in office between 1970 and 1973 .

Life

Military career and promotion to major general

After completing his officer training in 1939, Baeza Michelsen was transferred to the Artillery Regiment 2 in La Serena as a sub-lieutenant ( Alférez ) , where he was promoted to lieutenant (Subteniente) in 1940 and first lieutenant (Teniente) in 1942 . In 1943 he was transferred to the 2nd Mounted Cavalry Group " Maturana " stationed in Santiago de Chile and shortly afterwards to the Artillery Regiment 1 "Tacna", also stationed in Santiago, where he was also promoted to captain (Capitán) . In 1945 he switched to the military school (Escuela Militar) in Santiago as a trainer and in 1946 to Andean Department 4 "La Concepción" in Lautaro , before returning to the 2nd Mounted Cavalry Group in 1950.

In 1952 Baeza Michelsen was appointed Vice Director of the State Sports Authority and as such was promoted to Major (Mayor) in 1954 . In 1956 he took over the post as deputy commander of the "Maturana" regiment in Santiago and was then employed between 1958 and 1963 in the intelligence department of the General Staff of the National Defense, where in 1959 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel (Teniente Coronel) . He then completed a commanders and general staff course in Fort Gulick in the Panama Canal Zone in 1964 and, on his return, became the commander of Artillery Regiment 2 in La Serena. In 1966 he was promoted to Colonel (Coronel) and between 1967 and 1969 worked in Section IV of the intelligence department of the Army General Staff, which was responsible for special services. During this time he traveled to the USA to attend a course at the Inter-American Defense College (IADC).

In 1970 Baeza Michelsen was promoted to Brigadier General (General de Brigada) . As such, he became a military attaché at the embassy in the USA, head of the military mission in Chile and a delegate of the army in the IADB ( Inter-American Defense Board ) . In 1971 he returned to Chile and took over the post of commander-in-chief of the 1st Army Division in Antofagasta . In 1972 he was appointed supreme commander of the Army Infrastructure Command (Comando de Infraestructura del Ejército) in Santiago and promoted to Major General (General de Division) .

Military coup of September 11, 1973 and Pinochet dictatorship

In this capacity he was one of the initiators of the military coup of September 11, 1973 under General Augusto Pinochet . On December 28, 1973, in a press interview about the morning of the coup, he said:

“I was at the Department of Defense when the adjutants decided to serve as a liaison with the armed forces. President Salvador Allende wanted the commanders-in-chief to visit him in La Moneda , his presidential seat . Allende wanted to talk to me, I told him what Pinochet thought, but he refused to leave La Moneda and Allende contacted me again a quarter of an hour before the bombing of the presidential palace. There were fires after the attack and I suggested to Generals Hermán Brady and Sergio Arellano Stark that inertial gas be used, an order carried out by the Uniformed Police (Carabineros de Chile) . "

On the day of the coup, Baeza Michelsen was appointed director of the investigative police (Policía de Investigaciones) as the successor to Alfredo Joignant Muñoz in addition to his post as commander-in-chief of the army infrastructure command and held this post until 1981. In this position he was decisive during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet responsible for the torture and murder of those close to the Allende government and its Unidad Popular (UP), and in particular of the employees of the presidential office in La Moneda . He also ordered the arrest of examining magistrate Juan Bustos Marchant, who later died in a murder disguised as a suicide in the Valparaíso remand prison . He also personally attended the interrogation of the Vice-Director of the Investigative Police of the Allende Government, Samuel Riquelme. Most recently he was involved in the so-called Covema case (Comando Vengador de Mártires) , in which investigators kidnapped the student José Eduardo Jara and eleven other people and killed Jara on August 2, 1980. For this reason, Baeza Michelsen had to give up his position as head of the investigative police on August 12, 1980. His successor was Fernando Paredes Pizarro , while General Humberto Gordon Rubio , who was loyal to Pinochet, became director of the CNI ( Central Nacional de Informaciones ) National Information Center , which in turn had good relations with the director of DINA Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda .

In a list published by Judge Baltasar Garzón , he is also accused of having ties to Operation Condor , in which the secret services of six Latin American countries - Argentina , Chile , Paraguay , Uruguay , Bolivia and Brazil - were supported by the United States in the 1970s and 1980s States that operated with the aim of persecuting and killing left political and opposition forces around the world. In October 2000, Spanish lawyer Juan Garcés filed a lawsuit against Baeza Michelsen, Manuel Contreras and Sergio Arellano Stark for the murder of Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria on July 16, 1976 and Spanish priest Antonio Llidó Mengual on October 25, 1974. In an interview with the weekly SEMANA on November 3, 2000, Baeza Michelsen said:

“Baeza Michelsen: Iturriaga was my son-in-law, he was a very good officer, and if he committed a crime for following orders, I didn't tell him anything about it.
SEMANA: Who should have given the order to attack General Prats?
Baeza Michelsen: Superior, Pinochet. He was the chief of everyone in the army, and in an army nobody works alone.
SEMANA: If Pinochet was guilty of attacking General Prats and his wife, should he go to court?
Baeza Michelsen: Of course. Anyone guilty of the crimes must be brought to justice, but they must prove it. "

Baeza Michelsen was married and had four children. One of his daughters was the wife of Brigadier General Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann , who, as the former vice director of the command school in Peldehue and head of the foreign department of the National Secret Service DINA (Dirección Nacional de Inteligencia), was involved in the murder of General Carlos Prats and his wife on April 30. September 1974 in Buenos Aires was accused.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Completo relato del 11 de Septiembre de 1973. A sangre y fuego: el día que comenzó la dictadura cívico-militar . In: El Mostrador of September 11, 2013
  2. ↑ 'Pinochet dio la orden': Al iniciarse el proceso por el asesinato del general chileno Carlos Prats, que implica a Pinochet, SEMANA entrevistó a uno de los acusados ​​por la Operación Cóndor . In: Semana of November 20, 2000
personal data
SURNAME Baeza Michelsen, Ernesto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chilean major general
DATE OF BIRTH 1916
DATE OF DEATH after 2000