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Jose Toribio Merino


Admiral Santiago Jose Toribio Merino Castro was a Chilean admiral, President of the Government Junta of Chile from 1981-1990 and was the principal leader of the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat, along with General Pinochet of the Army, General Leigh of the Air Force, and General Mendoza of the National Police, that ousted President Salvador Allende. He was a member of the Government Junta from 1973-1990.

Born in La Serena, he was son of Vice Admiral Jose Toribio Merino Saavedra, , and of Bertina Castro Varela. He entered the Naval Academy in 1931, graduating in 1936 as a Midshipman. During WWII he served in the US Navy at the USS Raleigh until 1945. After WWII he served in different units of the Chilean Navy such as: Destructor Serrano (2do), Crucero O'Higgins (4to)(CL02),Corbeta Papudo(1), Transporte Angamos(3ro)

By the end of 1974, he represented the Government and State of Chile before the Spanish Government, to renegotiate contracts that appeared unfavorable to Chile. Specially, the Pegaso contract renegotiated, successfully. The study of the Statute for foreign investors was initiative of Admiral Merino. He impelled the study and the decree law of exporter promotion of Chile, which gave origin to PROCHILE. In 1975 he participated in the Statute of the Governing Junta, the Legislative Commissions and the Secretariat of Legislation were created.

Related websites

Official biography

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Jose Toribio Merino


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