The Chilean Air Force (FACH) asked the Supreme Court to annul any delivery of documentation related to the case of the plane crash recorded on December 9, 2019 in the Drake Passage and which was classified as “Hercules C-130 Case” for “national security reasons”.
As reported Radio DNA, the commander in chief of the institution, Arturo Merino Nunezpresented a 15-page text asking the highest court to “annul the delivery of the documents containing secret information, due to the affectation of National Security.”
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It should be remembered that the Punta Arenas Guarantee Court issued two resolutions, where it allows the delivery of the secret records issued by the FACH to the regional prosecutor of Magallanes, Eugenio Campos-Luceroto the plaintiff families.
On December 9, 2019, after 6:00 p.m., a Hercules C-130 plane was involved in a plane crash over the Drake Sea. The ship was carrying out a logistics flight from the Chabunco Air Base -Punta Arenas- to the Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva Base in Antarctica. All 38 people on board died in the accident.
FACH’s arguments
The Air Force indicated that its position is argued in art. 19 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in relation to article 8 of the Political Constitution of the Republic and the provisions of art. 436 of the Code of Military Justice and articles 144 and 144 Bis of the same Military Code.
“The Armed Forces, including of course the Chilean Air Force, are an integral part of the State of Chile (…) Thus, being organs of the State, they are subject to the principle of legality, established in article 6 of the fundamental charter, and to the obligation to protect National Security,” they indicate in the document.
In addition, they specified that giving this type of information is “disclosing in detail operating standards; configuration of war material; deployment maneuvers; operation or service plans; conformation of the institutional staff (their preparation, functions and positions); among other strategic aspects.
In this context, they added that the information will allow “any internal or external intelligence organization or group to obtain valuable information to counteract actions aimed at protecting National Security.”
reactions
The lawyer for the victims of the tragedy, Maximilian Delgadotold the same media outlet that the FACH “is desperately seeking for the Supreme Court to annul resolutions to which all the participants appeared in Punta Arenas.”
“The lawyer for the Air Force and the lawyer for the State Defense Council did not discuss any relevant technical background that the two magistrates could determine are secret,” he added.
In this line, he expressed that “with this the only thing that is sought is that this tragedy is not investigated and not clarified. They, having the (experience) to investigate, were not able to determine what happened to the C-130.”
Finally, he commented that “they seek to hide, cover up and prevent us from investigating and what is happening in this case is absolutely unpresentable and shameful. We hope that the Supreme Court rejects this request, but also that the administrative political authority takes action on the matter with the acting of these intuitions”.
