René Schneider Chereau ( ; December 31, 1913 – October 25, 1970) was a Chilean military official who served as commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army at the time of the 1970 Chilean presidential election, when he was assassinated during a botched kidnapping attempt. He coined the doctrine of military-political mutual exclusivity that became known as the Schneider Doctrine.

Early and personal life

René Schneider Chereau was born in Concepción, Chile to Víctor Schneider, an ethnic German immigrant, and Elisa Chereau Robert, a French immigrant, who worked in the tanning trade in the early 20th century in the city of Curicó. He completed his fifth year of humanities at the José Victorino Lastarria Boys' High School No. 5. After this, he entered the Military Academy at the age of 15 in 1929.

Schneider had been married to Carolina Elisa del Carmen Arce Durandeau since 1941, with whom he had four children: Elisa Carolina Leonor, Raúl Alfredo Leoncio, René Víctor Isaac, and Víctor Guillermo. He is also the great-grandfather of Emilia Schneider, the first transgender president of the Federation of Students of the University of Chile (Fech) and the first transgender parliamentarian in Chilean history.

Schneider was known among his friends for his good humor, simplicity, and solidarity. In 1948, he gave half of a lottery prize he won to a classmate who was experiencing financial difficulties. Carlos Prats, a friend and fellow soldier of Schneider, spoke of him in a 1985 memoir:<blockquote>René Schneider was a friend through and through. With a profound professional vocation, his evident intelligence, and the common sense with which he faced the most complex problems gave a sense of security and self-confidence, which stimulated the solidarity of those of us who collaborated with him on specific tasks. Austere in his habits and with great sensitivity, he knew how to ease the tensions of his position by concentrating in his few free moments on reading, classical music, or oil painting, his favorite hobby.</blockquote>

Military career

He entered the Military School as a cadet on February 20, 1930, completing his secondary education there. Graduating as an Infantry Second Lieutenant in December 1930, he was assigned to the 1st Infantry Regiment "Buin"

Final attempt

On October 22, 1970, the coup-plotters again attempted to kidnap Schneider. His official car was ambushed at an intersection in the capital city of Santiago. Schneider drew a gun to defend himself, and was shot point-blank several times. According to a report by the Chilean military police, "five individuals, one of whom, making use of a blunt instrument similar to a sledgehammer, broke the rear window and then fired at General Schneider, striking him in the region of the spleen, in the left shoulder, and in the left wrist." and Viaux also was convicted of kidnapping. The lawsuit asserted that the CIA had aided both groups, but the charges were deemed not-satisfactorily-proven. Peter Kornbluh, director of the National Security Archive's Chile Documentation Project, asserts that CIA documents show "Viaux was not acting independently or unilaterally, but clearly as a co-conspirator with Valenzuela..."

Lawsuits

On September 10, 2001, Schneider's family filed a suit against Henry Kissinger, accusing him of collaborating with Viaux in arranging for Schneider's murder. While declassified documents show the CIA, displeased with the socialist victory, had explored the idea of supporting Viaux in a coup attempt, they also show that the agency decided on tracking down other members of the Chilean military, deciding that a Viaux coup would fail. Nevertheless, Viaux, acting on the advice of the CIA, teamed up with other coup plotters. On October 15, 1970 Kissinger allegedly told U.S. President Richard Nixon that he had "turned off" plans to support Viaux, explaining that "Nothing could be worse than an abortive coup." The CIA claimed that no such "stand-down" order was ever received.

The U.S. government claims it did not intend for Schneider to be murdered, only kidnapped. When Alexander Haig, Kissinger's aide, was asked "is kidnapping not a crime?" he replied "that depends." Such an argument would carry no weight in any court of law. Christopher Hitchens noted that Chilean authorities treated the crime as a straightforward murder. He argued that, "under the law of every law-bound country (including the United States), a crime committed in the pursuit of a kidnapping is thereby aggravated, not mitigated. You may not say, with a corpse at your feet, 'I was only trying to kidnap him.'"

The lawsuit against Kissinger was eventually dismissed in the federal district court; the dismissal was subsequently upheld by the D.C. Court of Appeals. A petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court was denied.

See also

  • Family Jewels (Central Intelligence Agency)
  • Project FUBELT
  • CIA activities in Chile

Footnotes and references

  • Official biography
  • Freedom of Information Page
  • Christian C. Gustafson, Reexamining the Record: CIA Machinations in Chile in 1970
  • Online News Hour Documents on Chile
  • The Case Against Kissinger Deepens, Continued. Harper's Magazine. July 6, 2010.