Pinocheques
Encyclopedia
Pinocheques were three Cheque
s of total USD 3,000,000 paid in mid-1989 by the Chilean army
to Augusto Pinochet, Jr., the son of Augusto Pinochet
for the purchase of bankrupt "Valmoval", a small rifle company in 1987.
But Pinochet's son wasn't under the rifle company's owner and no reason could be found for the payment.
The payment was investigated 1990 by a parlamentary investigative committee chaired by Jorge Schaulson.
On December 19, 1990 Pinochet stormed into the army headquarters and placed the 57,000 member force in alert, what the general called a "ejercicio de enlace" (Spanish for Link exercise) and asked to finish the investigation. Similar pressure was done in May 1993 again with boinazo (Spanish for Putsch with the beret
).
The Chilean justice continued to investigate the payment, but 1994 as the Chilean Supreme court had to decide about, the president of Chile Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle
asked to stop the case because of Reasons of state.
The disclosure of the Riggs Bank
accounts reignited in 2005 the case against General Pinochet in Chile. Judge Manuel Valderrama investigated whether the three purchase checks for Valmoval wound up in the Pinochet's secret accounts but 2010 the suit was discontinued without results.
The armed forces' ejercicio de enlace-standoff was the worst crisis of the (then) 3-year-old coalition government of President Patricio Aylwin
.
Cheque
A cheque is a document/instrument See the negotiable cow—itself a fictional story—for discussions of cheques written on unusual surfaces. that orders a payment of money from a bank account...
s of total USD 3,000,000 paid in mid-1989 by the Chilean army
Chilean Army
The Chilean Army is the land arm of the Military of Chile. This 45,000-person army is organized into seven divisions, a special operations brigade and an air brigade....
to Augusto Pinochet, Jr., the son of Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
for the purchase of bankrupt "Valmoval", a small rifle company in 1987.
But Pinochet's son wasn't under the rifle company's owner and no reason could be found for the payment.
The payment was investigated 1990 by a parlamentary investigative committee chaired by Jorge Schaulson.
On December 19, 1990 Pinochet stormed into the army headquarters and placed the 57,000 member force in alert, what the general called a "ejercicio de enlace" (Spanish for Link exercise) and asked to finish the investigation. Similar pressure was done in May 1993 again with boinazo (Spanish for Putsch with the beret
Beret
A beret is a soft, round, flat-crowned hat, designated a "cap", usually of woven, hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, or wool felt, or acrylic fiber....
).
The Chilean justice continued to investigate the payment, but 1994 as the Chilean Supreme court had to decide about, the president of Chile Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle
Eduardo Alfredo Juan Bernardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is a Chilean politician and civil engineer who was President of Chile from 1994 to 2000. He is currently Senator for Los Ríos and was President of the Senate from 2006 to 2008. He attempted a comeback as the candidate of the ruling Concertación...
asked to stop the case because of Reasons of state.
The disclosure of the Riggs Bank
Riggs Bank
Riggs Bank was a Washington, D.C.-based commercial bank with branches located in the surrounding metropolitan area and offices around the world. For most of its history, it was the largest bank in the nation's capital. Riggs had been controlled by the Albritton family since the 1980s, but they lost...
accounts reignited in 2005 the case against General Pinochet in Chile. Judge Manuel Valderrama investigated whether the three purchase checks for Valmoval wound up in the Pinochet's secret accounts but 2010 the suit was discontinued without results.
The armed forces' ejercicio de enlace-standoff was the worst crisis of the (then) 3-year-old coalition government of President Patricio Aylwin
Patricio Aylwin
Patricio Aylwin Azócar was the first president of Chile after its return to democratic rule in 1990, following the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.- Early life :...
.
External links
- Transcription of article in the Chilean Online newspaper El Mostrador about the scandal
- Article in the The Seattle TimesThe Seattle TimesThe Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...
on July 18, 1993, Case Is Testing Chile's Fledgling Democracy -- New Government Takes On Pinochet, by Katherine Ellison - Waiting for Cincinnatus: the role of Pinochet in post-authoritarian Chile by Gregory Weeks in Third World QuarterlyThird World QuarterlyThird World Quarterly is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Routledge. The journal was established in 1979. , the editor-in-chief is Shahid Qadir. It was published eight times per year until 2011, when publication increased to ten times per year...
, Vol 21, No 5, pp 725– 738, 2000