Javier Palacios

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Javier Palacios Ruhmann (* 1925 ; † June 25, 2006 in Viña del Mar ) was a Chilean major general who commanded the armored forces during the military coup on September 11, 1973 during the conquest of the La Moneda presidential palace and, after the conquest of the palace, the body of the president Salvador Allende found. During the military dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet , he was vice-president of the CORFO ( Corporación de Fomento de la Producción ) , among other things .

Life

During the military coup on September 11, 1973, Palacios commanded the armored forces that were besieging the La Moneda presidential palace

After attending school in 1941, Palacios joined the army (Ejército de Chile) and trained there to become an infantry officer. After holding a professorship at the Academy of War (Academia de Guerra) , he attended a general staff course at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning in the USA from 1963 to 1964 . In 1968 he was temporary assistant private secretary to Defense Minister Juan de Dios Carmona and then twice commander of the 2 Maipo regiment in Valparaíso . In 1972 he became director of the Army Intelligence Service (Inteligencia del Ejército) and in 1973 military attaché at the embassy in the Federal Republic of Germany .

On the day of the military coup on September 11, 1973, Palacios received an order from the army commander, General Augusto Pinochet, to encircle and seal off the La Moneda presidential palace with tanks . On the morning of that day he appeared at the 2nd Panzer Regiment and informed their officers about the overturn plans and the order for the siege of La Moneda . He then got into one of the tanks and ordered the soldiers to follow him. General Palacios besieged the presidential palace together with officers and soldiers from the Infantry School (Escuela de Infantería) in San Bernardo , including Lieutenant Armando Fernández Larios. Another was Army Officer Rafael González, who, according to journalist Hernán Millas, participated as follows:

“In September 1975 Rafael González fled with his wife and five-year-old son to the Italian embassy in Santiago de Chile and applied for political asylum there . He was an officer in the SIM (Servicio de Inteligencia Militar) military intelligence service for 23 years . He spent more than six years at the embassy before the military junta approved his departure. He had admitted to having been involved in the raid on La Moneda and found the body of Allende there. He didn't pay any attention to this, however, because he had a different job: to secure files and documents that he should bring to the Ministry of Defense. "
'En septiembre de 1975, Rafael González se asila con su mujer y un hijo de cinco años en la embajada de Italia en Santiago. Durante 23 años trabajó en el Servicio de Inteligencia Militar, SIM. Su permanencia se prolongó por más de seis años, porque el gobierno militar se negaba a autorizar su salida del país ... El admite que participó en el asalto de La Moneda, que vio el cadáver de Allende. Escasa atención le dio, pues su misión era otra: revisar cajones y recoger documentos para llevarlos al Ministerio de Defensa. '

General Palacios, together with Doctor Patricio Guijón Klein, found the body of Salvador Allende also in the Sala Independencia on the second floor of La Moneda. There he ordered the doctor to examine the body. After conquering the palace, Palacios informed General Sergio Ñuño Bawden with the words “Mission accomplished. Moneda taken ”('Misión cumplida. Moneda tomada'). A few moments later he called Ñuño again and informed him that Allende's body had been found. He then ordered a homicide squad to investigate the circumstances surrounding the president's death and then to cover the body with a brightly colored cloth and hand it over to the military hospital. According to this, President Allende is said to have committed suicide with a Kalashnikov type assault rifle .

Six months after the coup, Palacios was appointed Vice President of the CORFO (Corporación de Fomento de la Producción) economic development agency in March 1974 and held this position until April 1975. After retiring from active military service, he became general representative of CORFO in New York City in 1977 .

Palacios is on a list with the names of 60 people published by the Spanish examining magistrate Baltazar Garzón in 1999. These people are being wanted with arrest warrants to try before Spanish courts for crimes against humanity.

Palacios, who was married and had a daughter, died of complications from a myocardial infarction .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hernán Millas: La familia militar , Editorial Planeta, 1999, p. 34
  2. ↑ FUSIL DE ALLENDE DESAPARECIDO ES CLAVE PARA ACLARAR SU MUERTE ( Memento of the original from June 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: La Nación of May 27, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lanacion.cl
  3. ↑ Guzmán dicta procesamientos caso Caravana de la Muerte , in: El Mercurio of July 21, 2003
  4. ↑ Corte derrumbó tesis del general (R) Arellano de una "conspiración" en su contra , in: La Nacion from October 18, 2003
personal data
SURNAME Palacios, Javier
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Palacios Ruhmann, Javier
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chilean major general
DATE OF BIRTH 1925
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 2006
Place of death Viña del Mar