Alejandro Medina Lois

In the late 1940s he entered the Escuela Militar del Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins and became an artillery officer in the early 1950s.^[4] He later completed studies as a staff officer and attended training for Latin American officers at the School of the Americas in the Panama Canal Zone and at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.^[4]

At the time of the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, Medina commanded the Parachute and Special Forces School (Escpar-Fes) in Peldehue, part of the Lautaro Special Operations Brigade.^[4] On 11 September 1973, he was ordered by Augusto Pinochet to move to the Peñalolén barracks with a battalion of “black berets” as a reserve force. After operations in nearby areas, he was sent to reinforce actions in central Santiago.^[4]

In 1975 he was appointed Director of the Army War Academy, serving until 1977.^[5]

He was promoted to brigadier general in 1979 and on 14 December of that year became Minister of Public Health under Pinochet. On 29 December 1980 he was appointed Rector of the University of Chile, succeeding General Enrique Morel Donoso, and held the post until 21 January 1983.^[6]

In 1984 he became Commander-in-Chief of the V Division of the Chilean Army, headquartered in Punta Arenas. That same year, a bombing occurred at the Nuestra Señora de Fátima Church in Punta Arenas; the perpetrator was later identified as Lieutenant Patricio Contreras Martínez of the Army Intelligence Directorate, who died in the explosion.^[7] In 1985 he was appointed Chief of the National Defence Staff, serving until 1986 before retiring from the Army.^[8]

He reappeared publicly in 1988 at a seminar of the South American Peace Commission and later founded the Centre for Nationality Studies. From 2004 to 2006 he served as Rector of the Bernardo O’Higgins University.^[9]

He died in Santiago de Chile on 20 June 2010 after a long illness and was buried at the Parque del Recuerdo Cemetery the following day.