Julio Canessa

Canessa circa 1998

Lieutenant General Julio Canessa Roberts (19 March 1925 – 24 January 2015) was a Chilean military and political figure. He was a member of the Government Junta that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, representing the Army. He was also a designated Senator between 1998 and 2006.

General Canessa was Army Vice Commander-in-chief from 1983 to 1985 and a member of the Government Junta from 1985 to 1986. He was replaced by Humberto Gordon.^[1] In 1998, he was designated Senator after a nomination from the National Security Council. As a Senator he opposed the Concert of Parties for Democracy on the Indigenous law, seeing it as bad for development,^[2] and in 2001 he defended landmines as necessary.^[3] Later the positions of the Designated Senators were eliminated because of the Constitutional Reforms of 2004. He died at the age of 89 on 24 January 2015.^[4]

References

1. Los Angeles Times
2. Pobladoras, indígenas, and the state: conflicts over women's rights in Chile by Patricia Richards, pg 137
3. Landmine monitor report 2002: toward a mine-free world by International Campaign to Ban Landmines, pg 171
4. "Fallece Julio Canessa, miembro de la Junta Militar de Gobierno entre 1985 y 1986". Biobío Chile (in Spanish). 24 January 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2015.