Carlos Cardoen: the Chilean billionaire who can not leave his country

Cardoen is accused of illegally importing zirconium from the United States, an element used in the manufacture of cluster bombs to add a powerful incendiary effect and that his company, Industrias Cardoen, had sold to the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1993, Interpol issued an international arrest warrant against Cardoen at the request of the United States regarding these charges.

However, it is not until March 22 of this year that the United States Department of Justice. finally registered a formal request for arrest of the 77 – year – old businessman.

The Supreme Court of Chile ruled a house arrest for Cardoen and entrusted it to the United States. 60 days to formalize the request for extradition.

Cardoen insists that the bombs were sold to Iraq with full knowledge of the facts and with the consent of the United States. and his lawyers plead against the request for extradition.

Since Interpol launched its "red alert", Cardoen has devoted his time and wealth to promoting his original region, in the Colchagua Valley, as well as to the preservation of the culture of the indigenous peoples of Chile.

This latest initiative has earned him many accolades. In 2005, he was awarded the Order of Educational and Cultural Merit Gabriela Mistral. When the then Minister of Education, Sergio Bitar, announced as winner, he declared that "no one on Earth is an angel".

Tribute to minors

Cardoen put his hometown of Santa Cruz "on the map", according to his son Andrés, who runs the family foundation.

"My father's museum has sparked interest for the region," he said, referring to the private artifact collection of Cardoen, one of the most important of its kind. 39, South America.

Among the exhibits exhibited at the Colchagua Museum in Cardoen is the original document written at the first meeting of the Government of Chile in 1810.

It also has one of the largest mapuches indigenous jewelry collections and a vast audiovisual tribute to the 33 Chilean miners – and their rescuers – who were trapped underground for 69 days in 2010.

"My father is not the kind of collector whose business is contained in four walls he wants to share, it's his pbadion," said Andrés Cardoen.

Wines, cars and weapons

Luis Navarra, from the Santa Cruz tourist office, is a short drive from the valley, the "world of Disney wine".

With an extension of more than a million hectares, Viña Santa Cruz de Cardoen is the epicenter of his company aimed at including viticulture among the attractions of the region.

A cable car takes tourists on a high plateau above the Cardoen Automobile Museum, where one of the four DeLoreans modified for the movie Back to the Future, 1985, rubs shoulders with a selection of clbadic cars.

However, while many Chileans appreciate Cardoen's efforts to share his treasures with the people of Santa Cruz, his pioneering role in the private arms industry has long been the subject of controversy .

Daniel Prieto, a defense badyst and professor of international politics who worked with Cardoen until 1985, said that Industrias Cardoen had been developing weapons for defensive purposes since the late 1970s, when tensions with the Argentina were becoming stronger.

During the regime of General Augusto Pinochet, Chile could not import arms because of an international embargo. With the two neighboring countries on the brink of a war in 1978, the private arms industry in Chile has become of paramount importance.

"The weapons were made to defend Chile," said Prieto. "But when the war between the Falklands and Malvinas broke out (in 1982, between Argentina and the United Kingdom), the Argentine threat dissipated."

Prieto reminds that there had been a lot of discussion about what Industrias Cardoen should do with his weapon technology. Finally, it was decided that foreign markets would be sought to buy the product.

Change of attitude

Iraq was one of those foreign markets. Cardoen insists that the bombs made by his company for use in Iraq between 1982 and 1991 were sold with full knowledge of the facts and with the consent of the United States.

But when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990, catalyzing a US-led counteroffensive, the US position changed, the badyst said.

"By that time, I had left Cardown Industries, but I could see from the outside how the attitude of the United States towards Carlos had changed and they bombed two production plants that he owned in Iraq, "remembers Prieto.

The United States has also confiscated properties owned by Cardoen in Miami. It is unclear why the United States he did not ask the extradition of the businessman at the same time as he asked Interpol to issue the mandate of Stop, but the long delay has not gone unnoticed.

"(USA) demanded arrest (from Cardoen) for extradition for nearly 26 years after the first charge," said Cardoen's lawyer, Joanna Heskia.

"It's a claim based on crimes that do not exist in Chile, so they can not be prosecuted," he said.

But American authorities insist that Cardoen be tried in the United States. for alleged violation of customs law by wrongly declaring that the zirconium imported by your company was intended for civilian use and not for military use.

Difficult posture

Lawyer Heskia said that Cardoen's defense team "expects to prove by judicial means that the charges against Cardoen are arbitrary and illegitimate and that they have contributed to this." that Interpol maintains an illegal red alert quarter century. "

Despite the constant and long-standing warning of Interpol, support to Cardoen in Chile has been maintained for decades, with each of the three most recent presidents having expressed support.

Only two weeks before the United States To register his arrest request, a group of 23 senators asked President Sebastián Piñera to support Cardoen against the extension of the "illegal" alert.

Marcelo Santander, Curator of the Colchagua Museum, insists that "Carlos is one of the individuals who has done the most to preserve the culture of our country".

Cardoen says that he was a victim of the United States. but he remains provocative.

While awaiting Chile's decision to extradite him to the United States, he told the local press: "I sold him to the Iraqi regime with all the support (from the United States, however), the wind politics has changed in search of a scapegoat. "

BBC.