Sergio Badiola Broberg

Sergio Osvaldo Badiola Broberg (25 August 1930 – 9 March 2021) was a Chilean army general and government official.

He also served as Minister Secretary-General of Government and Intendant of the Santiago Metropolitan Region during the military regime of Augusto Pinochet.

Early life and education Badiola was born on 25 August 1930, the son of Humberto Badiola and Blanca Broberg de Badiola. He graduated from the Escuela Militar del Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins and attended the School of the Americas in the United States in July 1960.

He married María Gabriela Rodríguez Arriagada, with whom he had two daughters, María Gabriela and María Ximena. The latter, a journalist, married Roberto Javier Souper Vega, son of Colonel Roberto Souper Onfray, who led the failed coup known as the Tanquetazo on 29 June 1973.

Military career A communications-branch officer in the Chilean Army, Badiola served at the Andean Detachment No. 4 "La Concepción" in Lautaro, at the Army’s School of Telecommunications, and later at the Chilean Military Academy. In 1971, under the socialist president Salvador Allende, he was appointed aide-de-camp to the president. During the 1973 coup d'etat, Badiola acted as liaison between Allende and the commanders-in-chief of the Chilean Armed Forces.

After the coup, he became aide to General Ernesto Baeza Michelsen at the Directorate-General of the Investigations Police of Chile (PDI). In 1974, he was appointed commander of the Signal Regiment No. 1 "El Loa" and later served as Chief of Staff of the Intendancy of Antofagasta. In 1976, Badiola became Director of Army Personnel and subsequently National Director of the Division of Civil Organizations within the Ministry Secretariat General of Government.

Between January and March 1977, he headed the National Division of Social Communication (Dinacos), the junta’s agency for press control and censorship. On 14 December 1979, Pinochet appointed him Minister Secretary-General of Government, a position he held until 20 October 1980.

He later served as Director of Recruitment and Mobilisation of the Armed Forces, then as military attaché in Spain, Director-General of the Dirección General de Deportes y Recreación (Digeder), and finally as Intendant of the Santiago Metropolitan Region from 1986 to 1988.

Death Badiola died in Santiago de Chile on 9 March 2021, aged 90.

His funeral took place the same day at the Parque del Recuerdo Cemetery after a mass in the San Juan Apóstol Church, Vitacura.

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