Brother Against Brother

Leisure, and a Match in the Mud

In this life, you will not be forgiven if you stop winning, and you will be despised if you win all the time.

JORGE VALDANO

Chabunco Airbase, Punta Arenas

During his last visit to the Chabunco airbase,¹ Chilean President Fernando Barros Gómez, a well-mannered, placid, and moderate person that harbored no anti-Argentine feelings, had been deeply impressed by that military unit.

The President had attended a show consisting of aerobatic and simulated air combat maneuvers performed by the Mirage Pantera² and F-16³ aircraft of the Chilean Air Force (FACh). It was amazing to see how such small pieces of machinery could maneuver so gracefully at breakneck speed, while exhibiting tremendous acceleration power. The Chilean head of state was also pleasantly surprised by the lustrous ground units, particularly the Punta Arenas Armored Regiment.

Airbase Commander Miralles had shown him around the facilities while explaining to him the activities carried out by the personnel under his command. The President had also attended a presentation on natural disaster recovery plans, and, of course, attack and defense strategies against a potential conflict with Argentina.

While the presidential jet, a Boeing 737, was gearing up to take off for Santiago, a team of ten Chilean pilots, standing by their glistening Mirage Pantera and F-16 fighters, saluted the head of the Chilean government. By the time the formal greetings were over, and right before boarding, the Chilean President remarked: Miralles, you are doing a terrific job, I really appreciate it. I also want you to know that we have high expectations with regard to the economic development of the south region. We need to project an image of order and, above all, peace. As regards these two things, I’ll be unyielding.

Context

By that time, Argentina and Chile enjoyed a good, stable relationship that dated back twenty years.

Nowadays, both nations were enjoying a favorable spell of social and economic development, each defined differently according to the characteristics of each country’s people. Argentina, always unpredictable, but rich and abounding in resources, was becoming increasingly industrialized. Chile, more dependent on natural resources, but also much fonder of long-term planning, enjoyed a less troubled existence at home.

However, there was a crack in this seemingly rock-solid fraternal relationship and Latin American progress: the arms race. From Venezuela southward, there was no country which had not significantly increased its defense spending.

Globally, the United States and Europe had lost and were still losing ground to four new economic giants: Brazil, India, China, and Russia. These nations had started to compete against the United States and Europe on every front, including the fields of military, space, and computer technology, and, above all, technologies related to renewable energy resources and energy efficiency, which undoubtedly afforded these countries increased economic sovereignty and independence from oil producers.

In an unprecedented feat, the Chinese had landed the first two taikonauts⁴ on the Moon two months earlier, thus marking a milestone in present and future history, which came as a surprise to many Western intelligence agencies. The Chinese space program also aimed at setting up the first permanent colony on the Moon within the following two years.

Chabunco Airbase, Punta Arenas

As was customary every year, Punta Arenas was home to the End of the World International Soccer Championship. This year’s edition was being hosted at the Chabunco FACh airbase, and included four teams from Argentina and Chile, all from nearby military bases. The tournament served the purpose of keeping the local troops busy, as well as testing their pride and fighting spirit in a peaceful, bloodless battle.

In the last seven editions, the members of the Río Grande-based BIM5⁵ had been the undisputed winners. However, this edition looked quite different.

The BIM5 marines and the Chilean pilots from the Chabunco airbase were facing off in the final, in a cold night that seemed to anticipate an unwelcome future. The field was drenched, too fast for the Argentine style of play, which relied heavily on ball control and timing rather than on speed. Tomiczawicz, aka the Pole,⁶ a player from Misiones over 6-foot-3, had already crashed the ball twice against the crossbar. The tiny Chilean goalkeeper had already saved three one-on-one attempts by the dangerous Midget⁷ Subiela.

The fast-playing Chileans, who were shorter but also more resolute, had taken an easy two-zero lead in the first half. Although High Command orders from both sides had been given that fair play was to be strictly observed at all times, three players had already been sent off in the first half: two Argentines and one Chilean.

Tempers were frayed, and as the players came back onto the field, a spit on the ground⁸ by Soriano, a talented dark-haired player from the city of Rosario, landed, propelled by an untimely gust of southerly wind, on the immaculate shoes of soccer star and the only European-looking Chilean player, Matías Merkel. Merkel was from Temuco, and of German descent. Argentine motherfucker, barked Merkel. I’m sorry, brother! I can clean it off if you want me to, replied Soriano, almost tongue-in-cheek. Merkel had not played during the first half because the coach was protecting him from an old injury and saving him for the closing stages of the match in the second half.

The skirmish broke out again, and the referee, Lieutenant Morini, an experienced BIM5 man, was left with no choice but to send seven more players off. The consequence was predictable: the match was called off and everyone went back to the locker room with clenched teeth.

Eventually, Chile won the match, and the championship. However, the top scorer turned out to be Soriano, with five spectacular goals, one of them scored during the first match with a magnificent chip shot right over the head of the Punta Arenas Armored Regiment’s goalkeeper.

The ensuing celebration, which included roasted Patagonian lamb, Chilean wine, and local cakes, followed by a party to be held at the officers’ mess until dawn, was suspended by mutual agreement of the commanders. The troublemakers were severely admonished.

Soriano left the officers’ main building, and when he was already heading for the Fokker F-27⁹ of the FAA¹⁰ that would fly them back to Río Grande, he showed Merkel seven fingers, signaling Argentina’s superiority in terms of total tournaments won, and then he opened his hand, wiggling his five fingers, indicating that he was the championship’s top scorer. Merkel, enraged, showed him a clenched fist full of hatred.

That night, Merkel did not sleep. His cultural and historical hatred toward the Argentines conjured up images, like ghosts in semiconscious dreams, of Soriano making fun of him, or of the Argentines being too nice to his ex-girlfriend, Frida, also of German descent. Merkel had broken up with Frida some time ago, when he caught her making out with a young backpacker from Mendoza at a Temuco nightclub.

The following night, Merkel, already drunk, was rescued out of the local nightclub in Punta Arenas by his mates, who had to work hard to drag him back to the airbase. While still intoxicated, he groaned: Shit, fucking Argentines! I should kill them all! And then he added Long live our fatherland! which words were echoed by his fellow squadron mates, who were just barely less drunk than he was. Long live our fatherland! Argentines motherfuckers! they all yelled, as they sped off recklessly in their Korean-made sports car back to the base.

Pantera Fighters

Hours later, two Mirage Pantera fighters took off from Chabunco to perform low-level training flights over the Strait of Magellan and return to base. The small jets flew low, very low, and veered toward the island of Tierra del Fuego, where, at the speed of sound, they soared many times over Argentine soil, as if releasing long-harbored feelings of deep-seated resentment. Merkel even managed to let out a teenage, triumphant howl over an open radio channel.

La Ventosa Ranch, Tierra del Fuego

Not far from there, on a sheep ranch in northwestern Río Grande, a peaceable rancher had just heard Merkel’s howl over the open channel in stunned bewilderment. To his right, Marisol Errondo, his servant, poured him a cup of hot tea as she spoke: Mr. Lucio, those voices sound Chilean, don’t they? It had been two years already since the girl had started dating Diego, one of the sheephands. Diego was Chilean, as were many of those living in the area.

Chabunco Airbase, Punta Arenas

Back at the airbase, while the final flight-practice briefing was underway, Commander Miralles walked into the room where the pilots were, and, with a smile, he said: Merkel and Rosseti, I beg you to stop flying over our neighbor’s territory; you’ll get me into trouble. Amid laughs, Merkel replied: "Don’t worry, sir. Those morons do nothing but drink mate¹¹ and watch soccer games."

As the briefing came to an end, the officers started for the officers’ mess for some drinks. They would watch once more, on a wall-sized TV screen, the soccer match from which they had emerged as victors.

¹ One of the most modern airbases in Latin America. It boasted a radar with a detection range of over 186 miles, anti-aircraft missiles, and reinforced concrete anti-aircraft bunkers.

² Mirage-5 fighter operated by the FACh. This fighter and attack aircraft was equipped with a Cyrano-4 radar and other electronic improvements. The FACh operated twelve of these units, all of them belonging to the Punta Arenas Chabunco airbase.

³ The FACh had forty-six improved General Dynamics F-16 fighter-bombers fitted with APG-66 radars, which made this air force the best in Latin America.

⁴ A hybrid term coined by the media from the Chinese word taikong (space) and the Greek word naut (sailor).

⁵ Naval Infantry Brigade No. 5 (BIM5, for its initials in Spanish).

⁶ In Argentina, it is usual for a person to be given a nickname that makes reference to his or her ancestry or physical characteristics, such nickname not being considered offensive at all.

⁷ See fn. 6 above.

⁸ Spitting on the ground had become almost a tradition among soccer players, particularly among South American players. In no way was such habit intended as an insult to an opponent.

⁹ Dutch-made, FAA-operated transport aircraft. The FAA operated ten of these aircraft, which in peacetime flew as domestic government airliners.

¹⁰ Argentine Air Force (FAA, for its initials in Spanish).

¹¹ A traditional South American tea-like drink, quite popular in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and, to a lesser degree, southern Chile.

Aerial Intrusion

To most men, war is the end of loneliness.

To me, it is infinite solitude.

ALBERT CAMUS

La Ventosa Ranch, Tierra del Fuego

For the third time that month, Lucio Sarastegui, a rancher and the owner of La Ventosa, a tract of land lying some forty-five miles north of Río Grande, province of Tierra del Fuego, had been scared out of his wits by the thundering noise of the Chilean Mirage Pantera jets breaking the sound barrier over his property. "Again those chilotes,¹² your fellow countrymen, said Lucio to Diego Ibáñez, a sheephand born in the Chilean city of Puerto Montt. Yes, it’s the milicos¹³ again. They have nothing to do here in the south," replied Diego, as he rounded up the sheep into a barn that would afford them shelter from the cold, windy night.

Hurrying out of the ranch house, screaming, two women managed to catch a glimpse of two fast-moving dots flying away in a westerly direction. It’s the Chileans again! cried Marisol Errondo, a trifle scared, but also angered by the thunderous roar that somewhat muffled the howling wind, so dear to the ears of Tierra del Fuego dwellers. At the same time, she shot an angry glance at her boyfriend, Diego Ibáñez, who was at work a few feet away and seemed to be shouldering the whole blame for the events.

The low-flying Chilean fighters not only frightened workers on Argentine soil, but they often caused sheep to squash newborn lambs or break the recently-fixed wooden fence of the main sheep pen at La Ventosa. In addition, these air combat drills were tantamount to a flagrant violation of Argentina’s airspace.

This time, Lucio was determined to bring the matter to the attention of the authorities in Río Grande. First, he would call up a close friend of his, Commander Hugo Kempel, the officer in charge of the nearby BIM5.¹⁴ Both had been schoolmates at the Salesians’ Colegio Don Bosco, in Río Grande.

Even though Kempel had decided to join the armed forces following his vocation for the military career, he had given in to the dullness of politics rather than to the bitterness of the battlefield. Kempel had fought in the Falklands War, where he had lost five of his best friends. In contrast, Lucio never let up for a moment, and, on his ranch, away from the dullness of politics, he had fueled an insatiable desire for work and progress, as if sculpted by the relentless, icy wind.

To his bewilderment, Kempel answered him that the passing of Chilean Pantera fighters overhead was routine practice, and that the event had been reported to Buenos Aires months earlier. The Argentine authorities had been monitoring these illegal flights through the Río Grande airport radar station, and, especially, through a new Chinese system for detecting low-flying aircraft, known as YLC-6,¹⁵ purchased from China one year earlier. The system had been moved to Tierra del Fuego by the Air Force, at the request of Kempel himself. The idea was to gather sufficient evidence for Buenos Aires to be in a position to substantiate a potential diplomatic request to Santiago. But, hey! What are they waiting for? Bombs to start raining down on us? Lucio asked Kempel, who, lowering his gaze, replied: "I’m sorry, Redhead.¹⁶ My hands are tied. Believe it or not. Okay. I’ll take this to the press myself. I can’t believe