Imprisoned in Chile the former head of the Army in a case for corruption

The former head of the Chilean Army, General Ricardo Martínez, presents the annual budget of the army in Santiago, Chile, on March 2, 2022. Esteban Felix (AP)

The retired general of the Chilean Army Ricardo Martínez, who led the military institution until the first days of March, has been arrested after being prosecuted for fraud against the Treasury for the alleged misuse of money destined for institutional trips.

With this, four of the six successors of Augusto Pinochet in the commander in chief of the Army are accused of some crime in the case that the Justice is investigating.

The decision to leave Martínez in prison was made by Judge Romy Rutherford, who is investigating the fraud plot in this branch of the Armed Forces.

Last night, after notification of the prosecution, Martínez was transferred to the Military Police Battalion in Peñalolén.

Martínez held the same position as Pinochet between 1973 and 1998. Four of his six successors have been indicted for the same cause that Rutherford is investigating: Óscar Izurieta (2006-2010), Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba (2010-2014) and Humberto Oviedo (2014-2018) and, now, Martínez himself.

General Izurieta, in fact, was detained for more than a month, between February 10 and March 17, for the alleged crimes of embezzlement of public funds, for some eight million dollars, and forgery of a military document.

He was granted bail.

Martínez was prosecuted for eight acts that constitute fraud to the Treasury for travel in 2011, 2012 and 2016, one of which he carried out with his wife.

The judge has determined that he was the recipient of travel reimbursements in the amount of about $56,000.

It is the same figure by which Rutherford determined the seizure of some of his assets.

When he left office early in March, days after handing over the command to his successor, Javier Iturriaga, Martínez did so driven by fear that for the first time a leader of the institution in office would be prosecuted by the Justice.

Since then, his defense tried in different ways to have him questioned at his house and in the presence of a lawyer, which the Supreme Court rejected.

Until now, Martínez has relied on his right to remain silent.

“I reiterate my innocence and I state that I have never been nor will I be above the law, but it is not my place to be below the law,” said the military officer who was a member of the Army for 46 years and was appointed at the time of his resignation. as Commander-in-Chief in the Government of President Michelle Bachelet (2014-2018).

Martínez said a month ago that he was stepping aside, "despite the fact that he should have the presumption of innocence that every citizen enjoys, but that in practice applies to some and not to all."

Judge Rutherford has been investigating the fraud case in the Army since 2017. She has investigated about 40 issues, but there are two that have caused a series of prosecutions for the misuse of the institution's resources.

One of the strands refers to the alleged embezzlement of money intended for security and intelligence areas, but which would have been used to pay for the high standard of living of the Army commanders in chief: houses, cars, jewelry, gifts.

Óscar Izurieta, Fuente-Alba and Oviedo are being prosecuted for this matter.

Izurieta himself acknowledged before the judge the diversion of expenses reserved to finance the family of Pinochet, who died in 2006 and whose widow died last December.

A second line of investigation points to the irregular use of money allocated for official travel.

Martínez was prosecuted for this edge, but it is not ruled out that the judge will also prosecute him for the first cause.

Some interrogated officers have already mentioned it in this investigative thread.

The judge has detected that, together with a travel agency, itineraries with scales of several days and bulky budgets were prepared.

This difference in money would have ended up on some occasions in the hands of the travelers themselves, as would have happened on at least eight occasions in the case of Martínez.

In 2018, when the edge of the air tickets appeared, the Army officially declared that it was “erroneous practices”.

But there are several issues that complicate the retired general.

Martínez, for example, was one of the few uniformed men who returned the money with his name and surname when the Army opened a bank account for it, once the case had exploded and was investigated by the magistrate.

There is still no clarity about how the case will impact the new commander in chief of the Army, Iturriaga, not only because the institution itself has recognized that the issue of tickets was a common practice, but also because the general also He is mentioned in the police reports.

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