JUDGE IN HUBER CASE STARTS NEW ROUND OF INTERROGATIONS

The investigative judge in the Col. Huber murder case, Claudio Pavez, began another round of interrogations on Friday aimed at establishing who in Chile’s military hierarchy may have been involved in the 1992 murder of former Army Chief of Acquisitions Gerardo Huber.

Pavez began by questioning Capt. Pedro Araya, former technical secretary for Chile’s Army Weapons Factory (FAMAE). Araya was sentenced on August 4th to five years and one day in prison for his role in the 1991 illegal arms shipment to Croatia. Investigators have now linked the weapons scandal to Huber’s murder.

Col. Huber disappeared from a friend’s home in Cajón del Maipo on Jan 29, 1992, shortly before he was due to testify about his role in the illegal arms shipment. Huber had previously appeared before Hernan Correa, former investigative judge in the Croatia arms case, and appeared willing to cut a deal with prosecutors.

In Araya’s August testimony he implicated that seven high-ranking Chilean generals, including then Commander-in-Chief Gen. Augusto Pinochet, were ultimately responsible for the weapons scandal. In the August investigation, none of the implicated men were found guilty.

The decision to close the case without thoroughly investigating the generals was one of the reasons cited in the military court’s unanimous decision to reopen the case on Oct. 18. The decision by the court annulled Araya’s sentence as well as the sentences of other low-level military officials found guilty of weapons trafficking.

Another reason cited by the tribunal was the omission of a key document, signed by Gen. Pinochet, ordering military divisions in Regions I, II, and IV to send “operational” military weaponry to FAMAE for eventual shipment to Sri Lanka. The order followed a Nov. 20, 1991 Defense Ministry decision, titled Resolution 470, authorizing FAMAE to ship the weapons. Part of the shipment left the country on Nov. 30, 1991; it was seized by United Nations officials en route to Croatia the next day.

The document illustrates Gen. Pinochet’s involvement in the Croatia arms case and provides a possible motive for the eventual murder of Col. Huber.
On Monday, Chilean newspapers reported that Judge Pavez was also looking into the possibility that Col. Huber was held for a week before he was murdered and tossed into the Maipo River. Pavez is now investigating the possibility that Huber was taken to the Army Intelligence School, or to former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s home El Melocotón. Both buildings are located between the Toyo Bridge, where Huber’s abandoned car was discovered, and the area of the river where his body was found.