[News] Republican military ethic

[FNX Magokiler]

Special attention must be paid to two milestones: the report published in March 2022 by the then Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Ricardo Martínez M., with the aim of "making the Army a better institution", and the "Never again" expressed by the current Commander in Chief of the Navy, Juan Andrés de la Maza L., on Dawson Island, in mid-June just last year.

In the midst of the avalanche of assertions and opinions about the 1973 military coup, which occurred half a century ago, but whose wounds are open and bleeding, the country has still not been able to grasp the meaning and scope of two events of enormous importance. and doctrinal depth for the Republic.

The first, from the last former General in Chief of the Army, Ricardo Martínez Menanteux, corresponds to a report of very little circulation, from March 2022, entitled "Reflection on the actions of the Army and its members in the last 50 years and its effects on the military ethos”, and the second are the words of the current Commander in Chief of the Navy, Admiral Juan Andrés de la Maza Larraín, on Dawson Island, in the middle of last month.

The first, published under the signature and responsibility of the retired general Ricardo Martínez (although the entire high command participated in its preparation) had the objective, according to its introduction, "to conceptualize the exercise of command", to "make the Army a better institution ”.

The frankness of the style and its content is something unusual in the military world. The text could surely be criticized by a sectarian group of armed men under the principle that dirty laundry is washed at home, or by someone who maintains that it tries to mask the historical truth of the country.

 

 

But it is an official report from a Commander-in-Chief in service, who delivers a transcendental text to the country, both for whoever writes it and for what he says, by prosecuting the historical dramas of his institution under military ethics. That requires enormous personal courage and a deep conviction of what is truth and honor in the military world.

Few things escape the critical eye of the report in a long historical stroke. But three stand out. Regarding the violations of human rights, it says that they “whether as a consequence of acts derived from due obedience, by the disproportionate use of force, by individual excesses or by fortuitous actions, they were a deep wound caused by having to be a military man. ” And he adds that "one of the most reprehensible episodes was the passage of General Sergio Arellano Stark and his entourage, known as the "Caravan of Death" (which) toured various garrisons in the north and south of the country, leaving a mark of executions that seriously affected the Institution and that subsequently meant that members of the Army, mostly low-ranking, were prosecuted and sentenced.” "This general's commission can be described as a perfectly planned task from Santiago", and he did so as "delegate of the Commander in Chief of the Army (CJE)" he concludes, thus clearly establishing, from a military perspective, the responsibility by Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.

Regarding the assassinated General Carlos Prats, he points out that "many years passed, to be more exact, until the end of the military government, so that his figure was gradually remembered and his name placed in the place of relevance that corresponded to him."

Regarding the transfer of the government and Pinochet, he points out: "the former President of the Republic remained in the Commander-in-Chief from 1990 to 1998, (...) a situation that implied a particular dynamic in the Army's relations with the executive," especially in relation to to crimes against humanity. It is an open criticism of Pinochet on the transition to democracy and the moral injury to the Army.

 

https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/opinion/editorial/2023/07/14/etica-militar-republicana/