The Military Absences of the Head of State of the Republic of Chile

El Líbero, December 21, 2023

The President’s absences from ceremonies of long-standing republican tradition are not without consequence, and one cannot expect them to go unnoticed or be easily forgotten.

It did not go unnoticed that the President of the Republic did not attend to preside over the ceremonies of graduation of the lieutenants of the Chilean Army on Tuesday, December 12, and of the midshipmen of the Chilean Navy on Wednesday, December 13 of the same month.

In his absence, both ceremonies were presided over by the Minister of National Defense, Ms. Maya Fernández Allende. Strangely, the President did attend the ceremony of the Air Force, an institution that in 2022 did not have the presence of the Head of State, which did occur that year with the Navy and the Army in what some call a kind of compensation or selective attendance, which, if true, is neither understood nor logical.

The President of the Republic of Chile is both Head of State and Head of Government, and it is in his capacity as Head of State that he attends the republican act in which the Undersecretary for the Armed Forces reads and makes public the appointment decrees, the flag is sworn (in the case of the Chilean Navy and Air Force), and the decoration “President of the Republic” in the rank of knight is awarded to the graduate with the highest rank in their class.

When a Head of State has been unable to attend, they have been substituted by the Vice President of the Republic, but it has never happened, at least in the last 60 or 70 years, that the Head of State, being in the country, was substituted by the Minister of National Defense, who certainly performs her role very well and manages perfectly in these types of ceremonies.

The problem lies in the message that this fact conveys. The message that comes through loud and clear is that these solemn ceremonies are not important to the Head of State. And that message resonates strongly and clearly with both those graduating and those attending, and worse still, with the institutions that graduate their new officers, young Chileans who, in the naval or air graduation ceremony, also commit before God, their flag, and the highest authorities of the country to give their lives in service to the homeland, if necessary.

The erroneous message or signal to the military world begins with the fact that, reviewing the history of the Arturo Prat Naval School, there are no modern records of a President of the Republic being absent from the graduation of midshipmen, and I suspect something similar occurs at the General Bernardo O’Higgins Military School.

The military world, in all countries, is about forms and symbols. It matters greatly that the President does not attend, it matters that he does so without a tie when everyone else is displaying their best attire and the uniformed personnel are showcasing their impeccable parade uniforms, which are meticulously prepared, precisely because of the investiture of the Head of State who presides over the ceremony.

Perhaps our current President does not feel comfortable as Head of State and is happier in his role as head of the political coalition that brought him to power, but in Chile, the head of state comes with the role of President of the Republic, and Chileans expect that role to be fulfilled with the same decorum that has been a tradition of Chilean presidents, including President Salvador Allende, with whom the current President feels very identified, but who did not fail in the forms or in the ceremonial aspects proper to a Head of State.

Perhaps we will never know why the President did not attend the graduations of the Navy and the Army, but hopefully he and his team, in the two years they have left, understand that their absences from ceremonies of long-standing republican tradition are not without consequence and that they cannot expect them to go unnoticed or be easily forgotten, especially by the midshipmen, lieutenants, and their families, who now hold the sad record of being the only ones in the recent history of the country to graduate without the presence of the Head of State of Chile.

Richard Kouyoumdjian
Vice President AthenaLab

Source: El Líbero