The Minister of Defense, Maya Fernández, confirmed that each branch of the Armed Forces must carry out administrative summaries, to clarify the content of the leaked emails in the cyberattack on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In parallel, Congress will begin to discuss legislative changes, which includes the creation of a National Cybersecurity Agency.
The Minister Maya Fernandez exhibited at the Intelligence and Defense committees of the Congress, in three secret sessions, the actions of the Government for the hacking of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which leaked hundreds of thousands of confidential emails and documents.
On the occasion, the Secretary of State reported the decisions of the last week by the Government.
It is about the administrative summary in progress for the hacking, letters to the State Defense Council and the Military Justice, in addition to the designation of the General of the Army Intelligence Brigade, Mario Grez, as internal prosecutor of the case.
As the Executive has insisted, Minister Maya Fernández said that she found out on September 20 of what had happened, in the midst of her presence at the United Nations Assembly in New York, together with the president Gabriel Boric.
In addition, Fernández confirmed that summaries were also instructed to clarify the contents of the leaked emails.
Creation of the National Cybersecurity Agency gains strength in Congress
Legislatively, the senate defense committee agreed to vote this day in general, the Framework Law on Cybersecurity and Critical Information Infrastructure.
Las Ministers of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, and of the Segpres, Ana Lya Uriarte, They assured that they have been working on the indications for the intelligence projects for a long time, but that these facts make it necessary to review this process with a sense of urgency.
The senador RN, Kenneth Pugh, It is from the idea that the project must be modified and it must aim at the creation of a National Cybersecurity Agency, idea that is shared transversally in Congress.
Pugh, who was also a vice admiral in the Navy, said that the damage to relations between the state and the permanent forces is also part of the attack.
“Chile is in the middle of the desert and the light is off.” That is the impression of the socialist senator of the commission, Gaston Saavedra, who stated that it must be assumed that in cybersecurity there is a long way to go to protect the State.
Controversy by mail of Vice Admiral Navajas revealed in the hacking of the EMCO
The damage to relations between the military forces and the political authority has been an obligatory comment in Congress these days.
For Saavedra, it is key to understand that the Armed Forces are not due to any government of any particular color, rather than to the State of Chile.
The socialist senator asked to investigate the Vice Admiral of the Navy, fifth seniority of the institution and member of the Martial Court, Ramiro Navajas Santini, one of the first “splashes” with the cyberattack.
“Support for Imprisoned Naval Comrades” is the name of the email sent by Navajas on August 27 of last year to a quarantine of high-ranking officers of the institution, requesting a donation of 18 thousand pesos to buy boxes of food for nine ex-marines convicted of Crimes against humanity.
He calls the dictatorship a ‘Military Government’, says that they are condemned ‘for alleged acts’ of human rights violations and reaffirms his unrestricted commitment to -according to what he said- those former sailors who fully fulfilled their duty.
Opposition defended Navajas, despite criticism from the Government
The President of the Democratic Revolution, Senator Juan Ignacio Latorre, He argued that this leak can reopen wounds in the civil-military relationship.
The UDI senator, Iván Moreira, He told Channel 13 that the sailors “received orders and they carried them out” and that the focus should be on the vulnerability of the defense as a country, in addition to the fact that if a person wants to help a co-worker, these are personal decisions.
The Deputy of the Defense Commission, Camila Flores, from RN, said Navajas has the right to have an opinion on a court ruling.
In La Moneda, the Minister spokesperson, Camila Vallejo, He assured that “never ever violating Human Rights will be a duty” and that this “is not only a conviction of the Government, but it is a universal principle that must be respected in word and action.”
The authority pointed out, yes, that “it is necessary to continue collecting information and that will be in charge of the Ministry of Defense, to see what actions to take.”