Carlos Remigio Cardoen Cornejo (born 1 May 1942, Santa Cruz, Chile) is a Chilean arms dealer, metallurgical engineer, weapons scientist and

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

businessman. Cardoen rose to prominence in the 1980's amidst the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

arms embargo An arms embargo is a restriction or a set of sanctions that applies either solely to weaponry or also to "dual-use technology." An arms embargo may serve one or more purposes: * to signal disapproval of the behavior of a certain actor * to maintain ...

against Chile, when he became " Pinochet's favourite arms manufacturer". When

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

fell out of favor with the United States in connection with the 1990

invasion of Kuwait The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, codenamed Project 17, began on 2 August 1990 and marked the beginning of the Gulf War. After defeating the Kuwait, State of Kuwait on 4 August 1990, Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq went on to militarily occupy the country fo ...

Cardoen, who had weapon dealings with Iraq, was accused by the US of zirconium trafficking. Since then he has been on the

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

wanted list. On various occasions Cardoen has received support from National Congress and the

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

to end the Interpol arrest warrant.

Weapons industry

250px, Carlos Cardoen meeting with former President of Iraq, Iraqi President

As a weapons expert, he ran Industrias Cardoen in the late 1980s. He allegedly illegally sold zirconium-supplemented armaments to Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq under

, exported from the United States, for which he has an international

arrest warrant An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by a judge or magistrate on behalf of the state which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual or the search and seizure of an individual's property. Canada Arrest warrants are issued by a jud ...

. Yet, Cardoen claims the United States, which in the 1980s supported Hussein's Iraq in its war against Iran, was aware and implicitly consented to this trade until Saddam Hussein fell out of favour. During the height of the Beagle crisis in 1978 Cardoen was contacted by

Chilean Air Force The Chilean Air Force () is the air force of Chile and branch of the Chilean military. History The first step towards the current FACh is taken by Lieutenant Colonel, Teniente Coronel training as a pilot in France. Although a local academy was c ...

commander and member of the Chilean junta,

Fernando Matthei Fernando Matthei Aubel (11 July 1925 – 19 November 2017) was a Chilean Air Force general who was part of the military junta that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, replacing the dismissed Gustavo Leigh as commander-in-chief of the Chilean Air ...

and designed on his request a light bomb, that could be dropped from any airforce plane, in only 15 days. When asking Matthei what did he want the bomb for, he reportedly answered: ''"para joder"'' ("to mess around"). In the mid-1980 Cardoen bought the Italian swimmer delivery vehicle and minisub manufacturer Cos.Mo.S. His attempts to sell the firm under the table to Iraq ended in scandal and the closure of the company. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but he was never brought to justice. Cardoen claims Iraq owes him US$50 million from weapon purchases.

Agriculture and tourism

From the 1990s onwards Cardoen has invested capital into the wine, energy, match, fruit juice and tourism businesses in Chile, especially in O'Higgins, his home region. Due to his involvement in cultural and tourism projects he has been awarded the "Premio a lo Chileno" in 2006 and "Orden al Mérito Docente y Cultural Gabriela Mistral" in 2005. He has been suffering from

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...

for many years.

References

External links

Museo de Colchagua official website
* *
The Chilean Connection"Scoop: Ecco come il Sismi doveva rapire Carlos Remigio Cardoen" ("Scoop: Here's how The Sismi was to kidnap Carlos Remigio Cardoen")
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardoen, Carlos 1942 births 20th-century Chilean businesspeople 20th-century Chilean engineers Cos.Mo.S Fugitives Instituto Regional Federico Errázuriz alumni Chilean people of Belgian descent Living people People from Santa Cruz, Chile Weapons scientists and engineers Arms traders

Weapons industry

Agriculture and tourism

See also

References

External links