On March 9, Major General Javier Iturriaga Del Campo assumes the command in chief of the Chilean army, who ascends that day to the rank of army general (4 stars). The normal thing is to have a ceremony where he ascends in grade, his command gallardete is hoisted and that of his predecessor is lowered, he is given the saber of José Miguel Carrera, first general in chief of our army, and proceeds to inform the detachment that assumes command in chief.
In the past there was no very elaborate ceremony, since the change of commander in chief was carried out in the office that corresponds to the head of the institution. The ceremony we know starts with the delivery of Pinochet to Izurieta Caffarena and evolves with minor changes until the delivery of Oviedo to Martínez, so this Thursday’s ceremony should not be very different.
The symbolisms in the armed institutions matter and perhaps the most important of all is the delivery of the Carrera saber by the president of the Republic to the new institutional chief, symbolizing in that delivery that the command of the army that is granted is the same as Carrera and that it is the highest political authority that designates and enables as such the command that assumes the direction of the chilean army, making it clear that the army reports to the executive political authority and that it does not command itself. In the absence of the president of the Republic that role is fulfilled by the minister of defense, but the important thing at the end of the day is that it is a republican ceremony that has a clear and deep meaning.
General Iturriaga takes office in unintended circumstances. His predecessor resigned on Wednesday, March 2, due to the possibility that he would be prosecuted the next day for the passages case, something of which I am not sure could affect the new head of the army, since Ricardo Martínez thought the same and we already know how the story ends. Judge Rutherford operates under her logic and not necessarily under the logic of the army and its internal procedures, which after the departure of 21 generals in 2018 it was determined that they would not have acted irregularly and that they would have complied with the internal procedures in force at the time.
He also has to take care of the problem of having all his predecessors alive, except Martinez, prosecuted for alleged misuse of reserved expenses. I say assumptions because I understand that in none of the cases there are failures even of first instance, something that also affects a good part of those prosecuted for passages despite having more than three years in that condition.
The military has had no recent cases of financial misuse or administrative disorder. All or most of the cases are prior to 2018, the year in which the quality of administrative supervision, controls and internal audit improved significantly, either in the interest of Minister Espina, or of the same institution, which, incidentally, implemented the crime prevention model required by Law 20,393 for companies open on the stock exchange that list public offering instruments, something unprecedented for an army and little seen in the public world.
The other thing that will not make Life Easy for General Iturriaga are the ideas circulating in the constitutional convention regarding the existence of the armed forces or the way in which they should be managed and administered. This will not be easy, since it will be added to the possible extensions of the states of exception in the southern macrozone and northern border, something that the government that assumes has said that it does not want to do, but that having the guitar in its hands can see in another way and be forced to act, and finally everything indicates that the budgets of the armed institutions will be tighter in the following years due to the interest in increasing spending on social issues. Only Putin’s adventures play in favor, which have made much rethink the need to have well-trained, equipped and organized armed forces.
It plays in favor of General Iturriaga his training as a commando and paratrooper, being the son of a military man of recognized prestige, which will make life easier for those retired from the army, those who did not feel very comfortable with General Martínez and less after the reflections he announced in his last public account.
He knows and lives the Chilean army since he was born, so they will not come to him with stories, he knows what his soldiers and his compatriots want, and he has already passed several complex tests to get where he arrived. Have confidence that he will be a good general in chief and will be a worthy successor of Carrera, knowing how to take care of the saber used by the first chief of this army always victorious, never defeated.
The content expressed in this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
