Juan Emilio Cheyre Espinosa (born October 10, 1947) is a retired

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 Army General. He was Commander-in-Chief of the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

from 2002 to 2006. As Commander-in-Chief he attempted to distance the Army from former dictator General

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

, and condemned the human rights abuses of Pinochet's dictatorship. In 1973 he handed over a two-year-old child, whose parents had been murdered by the army, to a nunnery. In 2003, Cheyre as Commander-in-Chief of the Army issued an historically relevant document titled "Chilean Army: End of a Vision," in which he stated that "never again" could the circumstances that led Chile to the collapse of its democracy be met

Cheyre was succeeded as Commander-in-Chief by Army General Oscar Izurieta on March 10, 2006. He worked later as an academic at the

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (''PUC or UC Chile'') ( es, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical universities i ...

. In 2013 he was appointed as president of the "Servicio de Registro Electoral", but a few months later he withdrew from his office as a consequence of the controversy surrounding his acts in 1973 when he handed over a child. On July 8, 2016, it was reported that Cheyre was jailed earlier in the week for alleged involvement in the killing of 15 people during the first days of Pinochet's rule in 1973. On November 9, 2018, Cheyre was convicted for complicity in the deaths of 15 left wing activists in September 1973 and was sentenced to three years and a day of house arrest. Ariosto Lapostol, who was Cheyre's commanding officer at this time, was also convicted for the killings and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Qualifications

Some of Cheyre's academic qualifications include: * Licenciate in Military Sciences (Army War Academy) * Master of Science in Political Science (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile) * Master of Military Sciences (Army War Academy — it corresponds to the regular course every officer should accomplish, see Licenciate above) *

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in Political Science and Sociology (

Universidad Complutense de Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university lo ...

)

References

External links

*Curriculum Vita
J.E.Cheyre
in the Chilean Army website *Curriculum Vita
J.E.Cheyre
in the "Servicio de Registro Electoral" 1947 births Living people Chilean Army generals {{Chile-mil-bio-stub