Roberto Viaux

Roberto Viaux Marambio was a retired Chilean army general who in October 1970 headed one of the two groups of officers plotting to keep Salvador Allende from the presidency. A briefing book of declassified cables calls him "a general without an army."¹

Contact

The CIA station in Santiago told the American army attaché on October 5, 1970, not to deal with Viaux himself "because of the high risk involved." On October 6 a foreign attaché relayed Viaux's request for "several hundred paralyzing gas grenades" for a coup on October 9. Headquarters refused, calling a "mini-coup at this juncture" counterproductive, and told the station to encourage him "in a suitable manner to maintain his posture so that he may join larger movement later." Agency officers "who posed as third country nationals" then took over the contact. "We wish to encourage Viaux to expand and refine his coup planning," headquarters cabled on October 10. "Gain some influence over his actions." On October 13 it authorized 20,000 dollars in cash and a promise of 250,000 dollars in life insurance "as a demonstration of U.S. support," and asked: "What is to keep Schneider from making statement in early hours which will freeze those military leaders who might otherwise join Viaux?" The station answered the same day that "Viaux intends to kidnap Generals Schneider and Prats within the next 48 hours in order to precipitate a coup."²

On October 15 Thomas Karamessines described Viaux's plans to Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig. They put his chances at no more than "one chance in twenty" and decided to send him a warning against acting alone. Kissinger later testified that he had turned the plotting off at this meeting. The cable that went to Santiago the next day said it was "firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup." A CIA officer identified in the Senate's report as "Mr. Sarno" testified that Viaux's people told him of the first kidnapping attempt in advance: "They indicated it was going to be at some sort of a banquet which the General (Schneider) would be attending." After that attempt failed on October 19 the station reported: "General Viaux knowledgeable of above operation but not directly involved."¹²

The Shooting

General René Schneider was shot on the morning of October 22 by Viaux's men, who used handguns. The submachine guns the agency had sent by diplomatic pouch had gone to the group of General Camilo Valenzuela. A Chilean military court found that the two generals "had been in contact throughout the coup plotting." It sentenced Viaux to twenty years as "intellectual author" of the kidnapping and Valenzuela to three years of exile. The agency later paid Viaux's representatives 35,000 dollars, in the words of its report to the House Intelligence Committee, "in an effort to keep previous contact secret, maintain the good will of the group and for humanitarian reasons." They had asked for 250,000.¹²