Codelco Surpluses

La Tercera, June 25, 2019

Regarding the article in La Tercera discussing Codelco’s surpluses published on Monday, June 24, in the Pulso section of La Tercera, it may have been overlooked that of the US$ 5.019 billion indicated to have gone to the Armed Forces, only a smaller portion has been invested to date in the renewal of strategic capabilities. I mention this because it could create the impression among readers that those funds have already been spent, which is clearly not the case. Regardless of the fact that the Copper Law guarantees minimum floors, the Armed Forces are not authorized to make disbursements without the approvals of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Finance, and in some cases, when the amounts are larger, from the Presidency of the Republic. Furthermore, the surpluses from Codelco are transferred to the Ministry of Defense, which regulates and decides how much is allocated to the armed institutions.

Clearly, there is a need to evolve from the Copper Law to a financing scheme for strategic capabilities as is currently being discussed in Congress, but with the prudence of not creating a national security problem while resolving one related to Codelco, which I am not convinced can be resolved merely by addressing the allocation of the surpluses.

Richard Kouyoumdjian Inglis
Vice President of AthenaLab