Washington Carrasco Fernández

Washington Carrasco Fernández (9 June 1922 – 5 April 2021) was a Chilean military officer, who held the rank of lieutenant general in the Chilean Army.

He served as Minister of National Defense of Chile during the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet between 1981 and 1982.

Biography Carrasco was the son of Julio Carrasco Stuardo and Julieta Fernández Aracena. In 1948, he married Olivia Eliana Fournier González in Temuco, Chile. The couple had no children.

Military career At the time of the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, Carrasco was garrison chief in Concepción and Arauco.

He soon became part of Pinochet’s inner circle and was appointed head of Chile’s military mission in Washington, D.C., United States.

On 15 January 1975 he was appointed Intendant of Magallanes Region and Chilean Antarctica, replacing General Augusto Lutz, a post he held until February 1977, when he was succeeded by General Nilo Floody. At the same time he served as commander-in-chief of the V Army Division and of the Southern Joint Command.

In 1979, he became deputy Commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army. In December 1981 he was appointed acting Minister of Defense, formally taking office in April 1982. During his tenure he was accused, in his capacity as a military judge, of approving the execution of four miners from Lota. However, declassified documents from the CIA later established that while he supported the coup, he opposed mass executions, allegedly stopping further massacres planned by General Sergio Arellano Stark. “Arellano considered me weak,” Carrasco stated, “but all I did was stop his massacres in Concepción.”

After retirement, he served from 2000 to 2006 as chairman of the board of the O'Higginian Institute of Chile.

He died in Santiago on 5 April 2021 at the age of 98.