Carlos Cardoen

Entrance to Colchagua Museum, property of Cardoen.

Carlos Remigio Cardoen Cornejo (born in Santa Cruz, Chile, May 1, 1942), is a Chilean metallurgical engineer, weapons scientist and agricultural businessman.

Weapon industry

Carlos Cardoen meeting with former Iraqi President Saddam Hussain

As a weapon expert he ran FAMAE in the late 1980s. He allegedly illegally sold zirconium supplemented armaments to Iraq under the Saddam Regime, exported from the United States, for which he has an international arrest warrant.^[1]

During the height of the Beagle crisis in 1978 Cardoen was contacted by Chilean Air Force commander Fernando Matthei and designed on his request a light bomb, that could be dropped from any airforce plane, in only 15 days. When asking Matthei what did he want the bomb for, he reportedly answered: "para joder"' (to harass)'.^[2]

Agriculture and tourism

From the 1990s onwards Cardoen has invested capital into the wine, energy, match, fruit juice and tourism businesses in Chile, especially in O'Higgins, his home region. Due to his involvement in cultural and touristic projects he has been awarded the "Premio a lo Chileno" in 2006 and "Orden al Mérito Docente y Cultural Gabriela Mistral" in 2005. He has been suffering from colon cancer for many years.

See also

• Iran-Contra
• Fábricas y Maestranzas del Ejército de Chile

References

External links

Media related to Carlos Cardoen at Wikimedia Commons

• Museo de Colchagua
• El caso Irán-Corfo at the Wayback Machine (archived October 27, 2009)
• Orden de captura internacional at the Wayback Machine (archived February 14, 2005)
• The Chilean Connection
• Sumario del Caso Cardoen
• Cardoen Industries
• (en italian) "Scoop: Ecco come il Sismi doveva rapire Carlos Remigio Cardoen" ("Scoop: Here's how The Sismi was to kidnap Carlos Remigio Cardoen"