translated from Spanish: Mauricio Weibel estimates that between Milicogate and Pacogate would have been defrauded $50 billion

Journalist Mauricio Weibel was at El Mostrador in La Clave on Monday, where he provided details about the Milicogate case — which he said has more than 40 edges — and the investigation against the institution’s former commander in chief, Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba.
The author of the book “Traición a la patria” explained that “only the last 2 former commanders in chief (Fuente-Alba and Oviedo) would have embezzled $7,500 million.” If you add the Milicogate and the fraud in the Carabineros, “we are talking about the $50 billion. It’s a gigantic number.”
Weibel explained that “every year, the commanders in chief of the Army have 2,500 million pesos in annual reserved expenses. In four years that his administration lasts, it is 10 billion pesos, they can spend them without being accountable.”
“What the Prosecutor General’s Office is accusing is that Fuente-Alba has annually diverted some 750 million pesos of reserved expenses, and that would explain the enormous fortune he managed to build,” he added.
He also accused that “there are things that are unpresentable, for example, that the former commanders in chief had a table of 800 thousand pesos for life that were taken from the reserved expenses (…) Let’s remember that the retirements of the generals are between 3.5 million and 4 million, there is even one who has a retirement of 10 million pesos per month.”
On the other hand, the journalist considered that “the importance of this case, if the justice system does indeed ratify what the Prosecutor General’s Office is asking for, which I believe will be the case, is that this will have a domino effect on the other commanders in chief.”
“I imagine that this is going to have an effect on the rest of the Armed Forces and the Carabineros as well. Let us remember that there are quite similar situations in the Carabineros also with reserved expenses that are being investigated,” he added.
“There were 4,500, almost 5 billion dollars in the United States without destination, which were with the super surpluses of the famous commodity cycle of the 2000s in Latin America. While people were marching for free education, which cost $5 billion, those same $5 billion were being used to buy weapons, but with no destination,” said Mauricio Weibel.
“That money was returned to the nation’s budget, which is positive, but a part of it, 2,400 million, was earmarked for the multi-year budget to buy weapons. The purchases were financed until 2023,” he added.
Recall that prosecutor Jose Morales requested 15 years against former Army Commander-in-Chief Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba, this after entering last Friday the indictment for the repeated crimes of embezzlement of public funds and money laundering.
In addition, Anita Pinochet, Fuente Alba’s spouse and known as “Lucía chica,” was asked to serve a sentence of 10 years and 1 day for her role in concealing the origin of the embezzled tax money.

Original source in Spanish