MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Consulate “intruders” free.

Four members of the Chilean Army involved in the breaking in of the Argentine Consulate in Punta Arenas three weeks ago and who remained under arrest, were set free “to help with the investigation and military Justice actions”.

The decision was announced following orders from the Commander of the Chilean Army Fifth Division seated in Punta Arenas, General Luis Clavel Marshall.

Two of the directly involved in the intrusion of the Consulate belong to Chilean Army Intelligence.

On Sunday morning November 9 the Argentine Deputy Consul in Punta Arenas Jose Andrés Basbus discovered two intruders in the consulate office who had opened the safe and were filming documentation. Mr. Basbus struggled briefly with one of them but finally both managed to flee leaving behind a jacket with identification.

The following day, Monday November 10, an embarrassed Chilean government officially admitted that Army Intelligence personnel had broken into the consulate and president Ricardo Lagos personally apologised to Argentine president Nestor Kirchner.

Lt. Colonel Victor Hugo Poza Reyes, head of Military Intelligence of the Magallanes Region was sacked and General Waldo Zauritz Sepúblveda, a promising candidate to become Chile's nest Army Commander in Chief, resigned.

In spite of media speculation on both sides of the Andes as to the true nature of the intrusion, following these decisions both Argentina and Chile considered the incident "belonged to the past".

However a magistrate named for the case resigned jurisdiction to military Justice.