Sergio Covarrubias

Sergio Covarrubias Sanhueza (11 October 1923 – 28 July 2017) was a Chilean Army general and political figure who served as Chief of the Presidential General Staff and later as Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs under the military government of General Augusto Pinochet.

Biography

He was the son of Gabriel Covarrubias Parodi, an executive of the Banco de Chile, and Elena Sanhueza Navarrete. He married María Angélica Cuevas Zuloaga on 24 October 1957, a union that lasted until her death.

Covarrubias served as military attaché in Spain before being recalled by Pinochet to assume leadership of the newly created Presidential General Staff in 1974. From that position he gained substantial political influence and became one of the earliest and strongest advocates of the “Chicago Boys”. He was considered the intellectual architect behind the military advisers closest to Pinochet and a key figure in the Presidential Advisory Committee (ASEP), precursor to today's Ministry General Secretariat of the Presidency.

He later commanded the Southern Joint Command (CCA) from 1979 to 1981 and subsequently served as Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs from 1982 until the end of the regime in 1990.

He died in July 2017 in Santiago.