Jose Toribio Merino

Santiago José Toribio Merino Castro (La Serena, December 14, 1915-Viña del Mar, August 30, 1996) was a Chilean sailor with the rank of admiral of the Chilean Navy, who He served as Commander-in-Chief of that institution. He was a member of the Military Government Junta during the sixteen years that the military dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet lasted, from the coup d'état of September 11, 1973 to December 8. March 1990.

As part of the Board, he was in charge of the country's economy, and chaired the Economic Committee of Ministers. In 1975 he participated in the elaboration of the Statute of the Governing Board, going on to preside over the First Legislative Commission related to the economic sector and foreign relations and the Fourth Legislative Commission related to the defense sector.

Childhood and youth

Son of Vice Admiral José Toribio Merino Saavedra, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, and Bertina Castro Varela. He had a brother and two sisters. When he was four years old, the family moved to Viña del Mar and when he was 12, to Paris when his father was appointed by President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo as delegate of the Chilean commission that was to attend the Conferences on the Limitation of Armaments of the League of Nations, a position he held from 1927 to 1930.

During this period, the young Merino was sent to the Golden Green College and the Sagesse Conventen in London, and then to the American High School in Paris. He stayed there for a year and a half and then for almost a year, finish his studies in France. This wandering around different schools allowed him to master two languages (English and French) which, according to what he recounts in his memoirs, were of enormous importance in his future life because they provided him with the tools that allowed him to enlighten himself and be up-to-date in a wide range of branches of both professional and cultural knowledge.

In 1930, back in Chile, he returned to the Colegio de los Sagrados Corazones de Viña del Mar and wanted to enter the Naval School, but he did not pass the admission exam because his knowledge of Spanish and Chilean history and geography they had remained only at the third high school level.

Naval Training

The following year he accomplished his mission and was accepted as a first-year cadet at the Naval Academy at the age of 15. He graduated in 1936 with the rank of midshipman and went on a training trip aboard the oil tanker Maipo , which was commanded by captain Luis Villarroel de la Rosa. The itinerary included: Valparaíso, Easter Island, United States —the ports of San Diego and Los Angeles— and return to Valparaíso after sixty days; He completed his training on board the corvette General Baquedano and on the battleship Almirante Latorre and, finally, at the Talcahuano naval base, where he spent two years during which he took courses artillery, torpedoes, submarines, underwater weapons, navigation, communications and other matters that allowed him to rise to the rank of second lieutenant.

At the end of 1941, he volunteered to explore the land that separates the Almirantazgo Sound from the Beagle Channel in Tierra del Fuego, as there was the purpose of building a road connecting both points. The following year he was assigned to the cutter Cabrales belonging to the Third Naval Zone based in Punta Arenas, but the sudden death of his father forced him to return to Valparaíso. He was then sent to take an artillery specialty course aboard the cruiser Blanco Encalada (2nd), graduating, with first place, as a specialist officer in this matter in March 1943. Upon completion of the course he was assigned to the battleship Almirante Latorre where he took over as officer of tower 5.

Participation in World War II

USS Raleigh.

That same year he volunteered to board a US ship operating in the Pacific theater of World War II.

According to his memoirs, from April 1944 to September 1945 he remained aboard the USS Raleigh, an Omaha-class light cruiser of the United States Navy. On this ship, she successively held the positions of assistant to the Damage Control department, assistant to the Gunnery officer and Fire Control officer. He participated in two anti-aircraft battles and ground operations, one of which nearly cost him his life; after that, he contracted malaria and the treatment seriously damaged his hearing .

Return to Chile

In September 1945, he returned to Chile to assume the position of Gunner officer of the destroyer Serrano 2nd. Everything he learned on board the Raleigh was turned into two books for institutional use: the Average Control Manual and the Combat Information Centers Manual >.

In 1950, as a lieutenant commander, he was transferred again to the battleship Almirante Latorre, where he designed and implemented the Combat Information Center, which did not exist in that unit. The following year he went to the cruise ship O & # 39; Higgins , a ship recently acquired from the United States. He was part of his first crew with the official position in charge of Damage Control. In October of that year he met Margarita Riofrío Bustos, with whom he married on March 1, 1952; the couple had three daughters.

The same year as his wedding, he took over as commander of the corvette Papudo; in 1954 he was assigned to the Naval War Academy, where he took a regular General Staff course; and the next he was posted to the Chilean embassy in Great Britain as deputy naval attaché and armaments adviser during the construction of the destroyers Williams (2nd) and Riveros (3rd).

In 1958 he was transferred to the General Staff of the Navy; the following year he took over as commander of the transport Angamos and in 1960 he was sent as an instructor to the Naval War Academy where he wrote a manual on Higher Logistics and another on Geopolitics.

He was commander of the DDG-19 Admiral Williams destroyer of the Admiral class and in July 1963 he took over as Chief of Staff of the Squadron Commander-in-Chief. During said period, he also held the position of commodore of the Chilean Task Force in the UNITAS operation.

The war that almost decreed

In 1964 he was appointed deputy chief of the General Staff of the Navy, a period in which he visited the Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabriel Valdés, who narrated the episode as follows:

He told me he brought some important news: the Argentine fleet was undone. The battleship Belgrano was in repair and could not move; another was on his way to Europe and the submarines, without use. He told me that as a representative of the Navy at the Ministry of Defence, he wanted to propose the destruction of this fleet with the Chilean naval forces who were willing to attack and thus liquidate the matter. I was terrified and said, “But, sir, that is war!” "Yes, but we won, and that's what matters," he replied. As I was stunned with his unusual plan, I crossed the Palacio de la Moneda to the president's office (Eduardo Frei Montalva). He got me in the Carrera Lounge and told him this scene. He answered me harshly: "Tell him to return to his office and he will speak to him the Minister of Defense." I came back to give you this message. Merino retired without giving word."

Gabriel Valdés. Dreams and memories

In 1966, he was appointed by the Foreign Ministry as president of a committee of jurists to prepare the Beagle Channel case for a possible presentation at the International Court in The Hague.

Southern Pacific Nautical Brotherhood

The Southern Pacific Nautical Brotherhood, in which the participants were apparently united by an interest in nautical sports, was formed in August 1968 and at its founding meeting Agustín Edwards Eastman was named first Commodore and Merino, second. the company El Mercurio SA, owned by the same owner, La Papelera (as the Paper and Cardboard Manufacturing Company was known) of the Matte group- and Banco de Chile. Sergio de Castro was dean of that faculty that had a lot of autonomous territory in the days of Fernando Castillo Velasco's rectory. At that time, after the takeover of the UC by the students, Sergio de Castro met Jaime Guzmán, the young law student, admirer of the Spanish general Francisco Franco who founded the Movimiento Gremial Universitario and became the main political ideologue of the dictatorship of general Augusto Pinochet. Both were staunch opponents of the student movement led by the FEUC that led Castillo to be the first lay rector of the Catholic University. This was a Chilean secret society related to sailing and yachting based in Algarrobo that served as a front for subversive operations in preparation for the military coup.

In 1969 he took over as director of Armaments of the Navy.

Career during the Popular Unity

In January 1970, he headed the General Directorate of Navy Services and in November of the same year he took over as Commander-in-Chief of the Squadron until March 1972, when he began to command the First Naval Zone based in Valparaíso.

As of that year, with the enactment of the arms control law, an intelligence group was formed under the General Staff of the 1st Naval Zone, under the command of Admiral José Toribio Merino, whose function was to systematize the information of organizations and individuals from the Popular Unity and the MIR, which became known internally as the Cochayuyo plan, which also had the objective of territorial control and the neutralization of these groups.

During the Popular Unity government, this law allowed the coordination of officers from different branches of the Armed Forces and Carabineros, who carried out innumerable raids on state companies, as well as various towns.

As Commander-in-Chief of the First Naval Zone and Naval Judge, he requested the impeachment and arrest of senator Carlos Altamirano and deputy Óscar Guillermo Garretón, whom he accused of sedition by squadron units in August 1973. On Sunday, the 9th On September 11, he wrote to Generals Pinochet and Leigh that D-Day had been set for September 11 at 6:00 a.m.

Military Background

Ranks

Military coup

On September 11, 1973, he usurped the command of the Chilean Navy, imprisoning Admiral Raúl Montero Cornejo at his home, appointing himself Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, becoming part of the Military Government Junta that, Led later by General Augusto Pinochet, it overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende (which had been declared unconstitutional by the Chamber of Deputies in its resolutions 32 and 33 of August 22, 1973) through a coup that began a dictatorship condemned worldwide for multiple and systematic violations of human rights.

As of September 11, 1973, a group called the Intelligence Service of the Jurisdictional Area Command for Internal Security (SICAJSI) was created, in which officials from the Navy and Carabineros (the uniformed Chilean police) participated.; at the beginning of 1974 it was renamed the Regional Intelligence Center (Cire).

Member of the Governing Board

On September 11, 1973, at eight in the morning, Admiral Merino issued a proclamation summarizing the reasons for the coup:

The Armed Forces, essentially professional bodies, cannot remain impassable to the collapse of our homeland and the desperation of millions of Chileans.

This is not a coup d’état, as it is a type of scheme that does not fit with our way of being and repugnates our legalistic conscience and deep civic conviction. Only the restoration of a rule of law is pursued in accordance with the aspirations of all Chileans, whose failure has been denounced by the Most High Court, as well as by the Chamber of Deputies, which is the taxation agency and which has made it present in a comprehensive document.

The Executive Power has been overwhelmed by circumstances and extremist elements are destroying property and lives without mercy. The Executive has lacked the authority and firmness to control this disquieting situation of peaceful coexistence to which Chileans are accustomed. This cannot continue and it is our firm intention to stop it as soon as possible. We do not have, now or in the future, commitments to any political party. Only the most capable and honest will govern.

Formed in a school of civics, of respect for the human person, of coexistence of justice and patriotism, there is no other purpose that is not the happiness of all Chileans, no matter what their position is, but that they can live in peace, tranquility and without fear of tomorrow, nor of them, nor of their children.

As a member of the Governing Board, he was in charge of the country's economic sector and presided over the Economic Committee of Ministers, which adopted its first economic measures through decree laws; among them were the liberalization of the prices of goods and services, the establishment of a single exchange area and the liberalization of interest rates. In the same way, he devoted himself to the reorganization of state companies and the normalization of those that had been intervened during the government of Salvador Allende.

In 1974, on behalf of Chile, he renegotiated several contracts with Spain, such as the Pegaso. During his trip to Madrid he received from Generalissimo Francisco Franco the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabel la Católica. That same year, he promoted the study of the statute for foreign investors, which allowed the elaboration of Decree Law No. 600, fundamental in the promotion and incentive of foreign investment and which has been maintained.

In 1975 he participated in the elaboration of the Statute of the Governing Board, creating the Legislative Commissions, and the Secretariat of Legislation. Merino went on to preside over the First Legislative Commission related to economic affairs and foreign relations and the Fourth that focused on the Defense sector. During this period, he promoted the Decree Law to subsidize afforestation, establishing incentives to develop plantations of this nature in the country.

His was the initiative that allowed the debtors of the Home Savings and Loan System to renegotiate their debts, for which Decree Law No. 3,480 was issued.

In 1980 he participated in the elaboration of Decree Law No. 3500 that allowed the creation of the Pension Fund Administrators, to which he gave his support and approval. That same year, the new Constitution that separated the Executive and Legislative powers was approved.

President of the Board

José Toribio Merino (second from left to right) with the other members of the Board of Government (1985).

Admiral Merino went on to preside on March 11, 1981, the Governing Board that constituted the Legislative Power and, in addition, headed the First Legislative Commission.

In 1982, the liberalization of the Chilean economy together with the world recession had the effects of a deep economic crisis, which forced the government to take drastic measures. From the Legislative Branch, he participated in projects to develop the modernization of the financial system, allowing the State to guarantee deposits and savings, and lower tariffs on imports.

He promoted the Law for the Promotion of the Merchant Navy, presented the drafts to replace Book III of the Commercial Code; promoted the repeal of the Law that allowed therapeutic abortion. In 1988 he submitted to the Government a development plan for the Fifth Region, drawn up in accordance with his directives.

In 1989 he proposed the publication of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Law. It corresponded to him to preside over the Joint Legislative Commission to reform the Constitution (reforms agreed with the political opposition that he had won in the plebiscite of 1988) whose text was ratified by the referendum of June 30, 1989.

During the period in which he was president of the Governing Board (1981-1990), 3,660 decree laws and 1,090 laws were promulgated.

Merino Tuesdays

Pinochet and Merino during an interview in La Moneda (1984).

Admiral Merino spoke to the press on Tuesdays. This began when the journalists covering the legislative sector discovered that the commission he chaired was meeting on that day and once it was over, he went out into the corridor to take the elevator. His answers, his phrases, sometimes serious, other times with laughter, gave a lot to talk about. His weekly statements were awaited by the unexpected answers he sometimes gave:

• "I think Franco has been one of the greatest statesmen in the 20th century."
• "The troupe of humanoids that was unleashed on Vicuña Mackenna Street," talking about the Communists.
• "Only Russia, which is a land-based country, has been able to accept being a Marxist for more than 50 years, because its population does not have the dynamics of the Chilean population that was born by the sea. Because its population is semi-vegetal."
• "I am not a politician, I am a marine. I have the right to say whatever I want."
• "The candidate is going to be a person we are going to name: he has to be Chilean, older, legal, everything the Constitution says, Caucasian or Araucanian race, no matter."
• "I'm going to continue as a peaceful citizen, if they leave me alone, in my house and playing the troop and the ambush."
• "He may not be a singer, without anything happening in Chile, if he goes on, he goes on."
• "They are dememophosate who learned to speak, but not to think," talking about the Bolivians.

In one of his statements, issued after the incident involving goalkeeper Roberto Rojas in Brazil, a serious diplomatic impasse almost occurred, when he described Brazilians as "a people of primitive beings." This situation only inflamed the mobs that gathered outside the embassy, during a period in which relations between the two countries were going through a very delicate moment.

Last years

Statue made by Arturo Hevia, diagonal at the entrance to the National Maritime Museum that Merino inaugurated in 1988 and was withdrawn in 2022.

Merino continued as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy until March 8, 1990. He spent 57 years, 8 months and 7 days at the service of that institution, of which he remained on board for 24 years and 16 as head of it.

When he retired, he devoted himself to his favorite hobbies: golf, painting, photography, and taking care of his birds. He also wrote his memoirs, which he did not get to see published.

In 1988, a statue of Merino, the work of the sculptor Arturo Hevia, was installed in the National Maritime Museum. On June 17, 2022, the Court of Appeals of Santiago ordered the removal of said statue as a result of a protection appeal requested by Luis Mariano Rendón on behalf of victims of human rights violations during the military dictatorship.

The false death of Admiral Merino

On May 21, 1996, just the day of the celebration of the Naval Glories of Chile, the wrong news of the death of Admiral Merino was spread; The corresponding statement was given by the head of the Talcahuano Naval Garrison at the beginning of the ceremony in honor of the Iquique Naval Combat, in which the Minister Secretary General of the Government of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, José Joaquín Brunner Ried, participated. Funeral honors were immediately paid to him and the flag was hoisted at half mast, while in Valparaíso they received this false news with astonishment, which they hastened to deny from the Viña del Mar Naval Hospital, explaining that Merino was alive and in a stable state of health.. He would pass away months later.

Death

José Toribio Merino Castro died of lymphatic cancer in Viña del Mar on August 30, 1996 and then President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle decided to decree three days of mourning for the death of the admiral. At the Parque del Mar Cemetery in Concón, he was given the honors of a Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Navy on active duty and under the rules of naval protocol.

Eponymous

• Admiral Merino (BMS-42), ship nodriza de submarines, discharged on 15 January 2015.

Distinctions and decorations

National Awards

• 3rd class Military Medal for 15 years of service (1946).
• Military Medal of the 2nd Class Navy for 20 years of service (1951).
• Medal Grand Star to the Military Merit for 30 years of service (1961).
• Cross the Naval Merit.
• President of the Republic (1973)

Foreign Awards

• Grand Cross of the Order of Elizabeth the Catholic (SpainSpain, 1975).
• Grand Officer of the Naval Merit Order (BrazilBrazil)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Naval Merit (BrazilBrazil)
• Grand Star to the Military Merit of the Star of the Armed Forces (EcuadorEcuador)
• Commander of the Legion to Merit (United States of America
• Grand Cross of the Order of May to the Naval Merit (Argentina)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Quetzal (GuatemalaGuatemala)
• Great Cord of the Order of the Nascent Sun (JapanJapan)
• Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of South Africa ( South Africa)
• Tong-Il of the Order to Merit of National Security ( South Korea)

Notes, references and bibliography

Notes