Colonel Miguel Krassnoff
The first time I heard about Colonel Miguel Krassnoff was years ago, maybe close to the year 2000. He appeared at television entering the courts, because he was being judged for human rights violations during the military government of General Augusto Pinochet. I heared that he was part of DINA's circle of power, and that he murdered Miguel Enríquez, maximum leader of MIR ("Movimiento Izquierdista Revolucionario", or Left Revolutionary Movement); I immediately imaged Krassnoff torturing Enríquez to death in a dark room in a DINA's quarter ("Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional" or National Inteligence's Directorade). I mean, look at him: he is a colonel, caucasian, he absolutely seems like "military establishment", besides he has a russian last name, and look at his bad-guy-face: he just seems evil.
Later, I learned the truth. Here is his true story:
The father and the grandfather of Krassnoff were white russian military, belonged to cosac nobility, and were both hunged at the Moscow's Red Square in 1947. His mother succeded to escape to Chile with his months old baby, and she believed she had found for her and her son a secure shelter against comunism. Years later, Miguel succeded to enter the chilean Military Academy, against the will of his mother. Then, the crisis of Allende's comunist government arrived, and then, the military strike.
It was 1974, Lieutenant Krassnoff (26) and other three army members were driving a car, clearly not prepared for combat, when they accidentally see Miguel Enriquez, leader of MIR, walking on the street and entering a house. Krassnoff and a soldier went to knock the door, and before they could do that, the soldier heard a machine gun being charged at the other side of the door and he pushed Krassnoff to the ground, saving their lives. The soldier runned to get some help, and Krassnoff stayed in a heavy shooting. Miguel Enriquez died abandoned by his comrades.
The heroic behavior of Krassnoff made him earn the medal of Personal Braverty (medalla al Valor Personal), which hadn't been given in Chile for acts of war since the War of the Pacific.
The comumists and the socialists, who hold the political power at the present, hate him. Krassnoff now is victim of their revenge: he is considered part of DINA's circle of power, but at the time he was just a 26 year old lieutenant, and the number of people who declared being tortured by him is more than 1000 (that is, 2 each day, during his service at DINA). When asked about the reasons for the denounces on him, he said: "My mission at DINA (an assignment that he didn't choose) was to heard the declarations of the people who were detained, and always before I started I showed my credential and told them my first and last names. Besides, the Manual of Marighella, guerrilla instructive, orders all the detained to declare themselves tortured".
When for his merits he deserved to be promotedto general, long before his detention, his superior told him that he couldn't promote him for political reasons, then he decided to retire from the army. All the people who have known him said that he is the most correct person they've ever met, the most professional officer, an example of husband and father. When asked about, he aswer "I've never tortured a person, neither has people been tortured in my prescence". Krassnoff was sentenced to 10 years of jail.
Read more about his story (in spanish) here, or about the shooting with Miguel Enríquez here.
surfed by Peter Twister @ 3:49 PM
21 chics having a tan
1.-Necesitaba conseguir una traducción oficial de mi certificado de nacimiento al inglés, para lo cual debía acudir al Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores. El jueves tenía algunas horas libres entremedio de clases, así que partí, total no me puedo demorar tanto en UN trámite. Llegué inocentemente con mi certificado y solicité mi traducción... "¡No!, primero debes legalizarlo en el Ministerio de Justicia, y luego denuevo en el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores". ¿Legalizar un certificado? ¿Para qué? ¿Para certificarlo? En fin, ya había perdido como una hora en llegar y hacer cola, claramente no me alcanzaba el tiempo para hacer 3 trámites partiendo de cero, así que volví a la U: viaje perdido. No sabía hasta qué horas atendían en estas oficinas públicas, así que al día siguiente partí al M. de Justicia tan temprano como me fue posible: llegué a las 15:00 hrs, estaba cerrado, otro viaje perdido. Ayer fui más temprano, y para resumir más la cosa, hice cola para pagar, luego para que una señora le pusiera un timbre, luego fui al M. de Relaciones Exteriores, hice otra cola para recibir otro timbre inútil, y finalmente una cola más para la postergada traducción del certificado: "Son $7000 pesos, y estará listo en 5 días hábiles". ¡¿Quéeee?! ¿Por traducir una miserable hoja que yo podría traducir en 20 segundos? Más encima es un documento mega-estandarizado, ¿por qué se necesita un traductor? todo podría estar en una base de datos de manera de obtener la traducción tan fácil y rápido como el certificado original, pero no, sería demasiado eficiente. Todavía recuerdo las colas de gente desesperada, nadie entendía cómo pasaban horas esperando un trámite sin sentido.
