According to periodistra Chilean Dauno Tortoro, the major general of the British army, Alan Sherman, it recognized before a correspondent of the Mexican newspaper " Excelsior" , that in October of the last year, the ex- dictator had traveled to London to the front of a military mission with the knowledge and support of the Chilean government, to complete the details of an important armament division with British companies, like the Royal Ordnance and the British Aerospace.

The first business of this nature was not its first trip either nor in which it participated. The Chilean military expenses are numerous and superior to the levels average of Latin America. That turns to Chile an appetizing client within a market plagued of commission agents, intermediaries and agents with influence, that the acquisitions of armament determine.

The military cost of Chile is a bulky number that is obtained, when adding the amounts that year after year spend of direct way the Armed Forces and the organisms and public companies associated them: FAMAE, ASMAR, ENAER, Main directorate of National mobilization, Military Geographic Institute, Hydrographic Institute of the Navy, Main directorate of the Civil Aeronautics and Aerial-photogrammetric Service.

The bottoms come from two sources: the Reserved Law of Budget of the Nation (fiscal bottoms) and Laws (state Codelco contributes forced of the mining company). Both sources are predetermined in their amounts by legal bodies created or modified by the military dictatorship. Once the Armed Forces receive the assets determined by the different sources from financing of the sector defense, those money are destined to cover the necessities with two great headings, known in that average like "operational expenses" and "investment in warlike equipment". The first scope is covered by the direct fiscal contribution, and the second by the Reserved Laws. But, who determines the destiny of the bottoms assigned in the budget to the Armed Forces? The own institutions of the national defense. Since we have already said above this one has been one of the agreements that the dictatorship led by general Pinochet imposed to the parties of the call National Agreement to initiate the transition to the "democracy in Chile.

The weight of the warlike industry in the planet demonstrates it, among other factors, the amount of tie people: more than 18 million workers and technicians they work in industries of this nature, that, as well, they contract near 800,000 scientists. The impulse given by the Chilean dictatorship to the war industry, allowed that at the beginning of the decade of the 80, Chile became the first exporter of arms of the Latin American subcontinent towards Third World Countries, although very behind the world-wide leaders in this business.

Factories and Arsenals of the Army (FAMAE), institutional organic technically independent license and organism but that, actually, is a dependency subordinated to this one, maintains and develops contracts of coproduction with companies deprived of Great Britain, Switzerland, China, Malaya Spain, with whom it shares, among others, of material production, standing out the manufacture of guns SIG and armored cars Mowag (one of the three world-wide producers of the Piraña version 6x6 and 8x8, next to Switzerland and the United States).

Within the most ambitious projects of FAMAE it is the coproduction of the rocket Ray with the Royal Ordnance of England, destined from the present year to units of the Army of Chile and other Armed Forces, as well as the reacondicionamiento of transports armored, transformed into units all land, with capacity to become vehicles of transport of troops, cars alternatively equipped with artillery, central of communications, platforms of air defense and missile launcher.

Shortly before making delivery formal of the control from the Nation to Patricio Allwyn, Pinochet raised to the Agreement that the fulfillment of the goals of development and modernization of the Armed Forces required one narrow tripartite collaboration: the own Armed Forces, the deprived company, and the governmental authorities. The concertacionistas governments have accepted this proposal and they are had it jeopardize in it. Since then, the Chilean State has delivered important attacks tending to abroad look for clients, as well as partners for the coproduction of the war material, and has promoted such manufactures at level of its international relations. This way, segúin reports Tortoro, have subscribed numerous clear agreements and negotiated, narrowing bonds with foreign companies between which they emphasize the Swiss SIG, Mowag, and Oerlikon; the French GIAT, Creusot Loire, Thomson Brandt, the English Royal Ordnance and the Belgian Cockerill Mechanical.

During the eight years of transition, the international press nacionañ and has informed into numerous trips of Chilean military commands accompanied by civil employees by the Ministry of Defense of that country to deal in the world-wide markets of arms.
These trips and contacts with world-wide the war industry aim at important acquisitions of war material in those areas in which Chile does not count on capacity to make its own arms (tanks, airplanes, boats, helicopters, submarines). The most ambitious plans known modernization of armaments of the Army include the purchase (or negotiated), of about 130 tanks of the type Leopard-1 A1/A1, several tens from which or they have arrived. The Air Force, on the other hand, has received twenty-five airplanes Mirage M-5m Elkan, by a value informed into eighty million dollars, two cargo planes (a Beechraft 200 turboprop, and a twin-jet Gulfstream III), an airplane tanker Boeing 707, first of a series of dual Mirage fighter bombers, first of three F-5 ordered, and first of twenty-four House-101. The FACH is, in addition, in process of study and analysis to define what airplanes to buy to replace fifteen to twenty A-37 airplanes before year 2000, with a budget of five hundred million dollars (the doubt is between the F-16, the F-18, the Mirage 2000-V, or the 39 JAS Gripen of Sweden, that an unit cost of forty million dollars has).

In this same context, the Navy is involved in projects of the more ambitious and expensive military acquisitions of last the thirty years. Most impressive it is the purchase, by 438,500,000 dollars, of two submarines of the partnership franc-Spanish Direction DES Constructions Bazán Naval-Shipyards. These plans of modernization and acquisitions count on the endorsement of the civilian authorities, that has given their approval and not only has accompanied to the military missions until the international markets, but that also has made argumentations to justify the expenses. For the ex- minister of Defense of president Frei, and present ambassador in Argentina, Edmundo Perez Yoma, the modernization of the Chilean troops is a medium necessity of and long term, inasmuch as it is hoped that when finalizing the Chile century is exporting manufactured products and raw materials by about 30,000 million dollars, "which forces a dissuasive policy that is fundamental complement of the foreign policy, and it means to react with all the technology that can be obtained according to the resources which it is had (...) what implies (to count on) greater warlike capacity, productive, administrative and political".

Along with the drug and in many cases become related with élla, the commerce of armaments is one of the most important and lucrative markets of substitution in the days of crisis, where fabulous fortunes of dark professionals of the contraband and the black money laundering are developed actually, capable ademas of the bribe and the bribe between the highest political dignities of the buying States. According to Rogelio Garci'a Lupo, specialized Argentine journalist in defense subjects, these were the healthful and patriotic atmospheres that seem to have been sharing general Pinochet, when it was stopped in London the 16 of October of 1998. This news was confirmed later by mouth of British general Alan Sherman, chief of a main directorate of the Association of British Industrialists of the Defense, that declared that Pinochet "looked for to receive its commission by the acquisition of three English boats for the Navy of Chile". According to Garci'a Lupo, the management that Pinochet made in London, "was translated in expenses by 443 million dollars, with a personal commission for the exdictador of 4,43 million dollars".

Another operation that Pinochet estubo taking care of in London, went the purchase to the British Aerospace of 16 airplanes battle by 600 million dollars (84,000 million pesetas). Through R. Garci'a Lupo we have been able to also know 3 things but:

that Pinochet traveled to London invited by the British, whose main shareholder is the British Royal Family;
that it descended from the airplane in the reserved enclosure of that company in the airport of Heathrow, and
that the Aerospace will pay to the accounts of the clinics and lawyers to the PS of Pinochet and that also will eliminate the percentage to him of the corresponding commission by its management in the common negotiated one.
Also we have known by interval of this investigator, which it was Pinochet that advised to British Aerospace that bought 35% of the war industry Grippen, of Sweden. The Swedish compete with the British in this heading of the Chilean market:

< < the entrance in Grippen will allow the British not to be left outside the Chilean market even though the company of Sweden adjudges the operation. Also it was Pinochet that it promoted in 1997 the formation of the company Famae-Ordnance Ltd., between the state Chilean Factories and Arsenals of the Army and the Briton Royal Ordnance, in order to commercialize materials anywhere in the world military, like the Rayo missile > > . (Ibíd)

Garci'a Lupo, confirms that under the present government, Pinochet conserves the faculty of eligir the material military with total autonomy, as well as to negotiate the price and the conditions of sale. This freedom to contract is explained because the bottoms for the war are collected from the copper export, the main currency source of Chile, as it is established by law: