For this March 3, the minister visiting the Court Martial, Romy Rutherford had summoned to declare the commander in chief of the Army, General Ricardo Martínez, as an accused in the framework of the edge “Passages and Freights” of the investigation for fraud in the military institution. The event was to be unprecedented due to the possibility that a sitting commander-in-chief could be detained. We spoke in the past tense because this Tuesday, and a day after his summons, Martinez presented his official resignation from office.
During his public account before the branch of the Armed Forces, the helmsman of the Army said that “I communicate that I have resolved to present to the President of the Republic my resignation from the position of commander in chief of the Army, a matter that was reported to his excellency yesterday afternoon.”
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“I reiterate my innocence and I make it clear that I have never been and will never be above the law, but it is not my responsibility that it is below the law,” Martinez added.
“I have served this noble institution for 46 years and far away in me is the one that for the respect to the thousands of men and women who serve Chile from its ranks, cause them inconvenience or that it is somehow affected by a situation that affects its commander in chief,” Martinez said.
“It is for this reason and despite the fact that I should have the presumption of innocence, which every citizen enjoys, but which in practice applies to some and not to all, I communicate that I have resolved to present to the President of the Republic my resignation from the position of commander in chief of the Army, a matter that was informed to Your Excellency yesterday afternoon,” Added.
! I emphatically express to the country and to my comrades in arms my innocence in such accusations, I have always acted in good faith and all my actions have been in accordance with the regulations in force in the institution,” he added.
“And with the same conviction I indicate that I will put all my effort to demonstrate it in the judicial instances that correspond,” he said.
Credit: Mediabanco
In this way, Martínez became the first active commander in chief of the Army to submit his resignation in almost half a century, since the last time it had happened, then-General Carlos Prats resigned from his position to join the cabinet of President Salvador Allende.
For the cause investigated by Minister Rutherford, three former commanders in chief of the Army have already been prosecuted: Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba, Humberto Oviedo and Óscar Izurieta.
