The Cuban packages (1972) was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an conspiracy theory involving President

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

, his Minister of the Interior, Hernán del Canto and the Director of the Civil Police Eduardo Paredes. It was cited by the authors of the Chamber of Deputies' Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile’s Democracy as one of the instances of government officials' illegality. The packages turned out to have contained automatic weapons, grenades and ammunition destined to form a small "revolutionary" army in Chile. These specific packages were part of an ongoing smuggling of weapons from Cuba that were delivered regularly twice a week via

Cubana de Aviación Cubana de Aviación S.A., commonly known as Cubana, is Cuba's flag carrier, as well as the country's largest airline. It was founded in , becoming one of the earliest airlines to emerge in Latin America. It has its corporate headquarters in Ha ...

, hidden inside the diplomatic pouches.La Tercera Newspaper interview with ex-DGI Norberto Fuentes in PDF, p. 15

History

The regular flight of

arrived normally to Pudahuel Airport on the afternoon of March 11, 1972. Nonetheless, as soon as the airplane touched ground, a caravan of cars and police patrols entered the runway and surrounded the plane. From the cargo hold they removed 11 big and heavy packages that were loaded onto the cars and sped away. Customs officials stopped the cars and insisted in processing the packages before they could be removed from the airport perimeter. Eduardo Paredes, director of the civil police, who had arrived from

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

in the same plane (and who claimed the packages as his personal cargo) refused the officials' request for access and ordered them to withdraw. When the customs officers in turn refused to allow them to proceed, they received a personal call from the Interior Minister, Hernán del Canto, who ordered them to let the packages be interned without further ado. The bypassing of customs was organized by Canto and Congress later succeeded to impeach him. The news leaked immediately into the newspapers. During the following weeks the government, attacked by the press,

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

and the National Comptroller, gave several contradictory excuses about the content of the packages. They said that they were books, food, cigarettes and crafts; later they explained that they were paintings for a Cuban art show that was to be mounted at the National Museum of Art. Even later they mentioned technology for the civil police (to explain the presence of their director at the airport) and even mango ice cream sent by

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...

as a present to

. Allende in person decided to put an end to the speculations and the political pressure. He declared in a public interview that "...in fact, the flight... that arrived to Pudahuel, transported some gifts that were sent by the Cuban Prime Minister personally to me as well as to other Chilean authorities". Later it was found that the packages contained heavy Cuban weaponry for Allende's militant supporters. At least 3000-4000 AK-47s were delivered this way.

Footnotes

External links

The FPMR Youth Were Cuban Military
{{Navboxes , title = History of Chile , list = {{Salvador Allende {{1973 Chilean coup d'état Presidency of Salvador Allende Political scandals in Chile 1972 in Chile Arms trafficking Chile–Cuba relations 1972 in Cuba

History

See also

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