China commits $15 billion in development funds for Latin America

SANTIAGO, Chile -- In a bid to strengthen ties with an important regional trade partner, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a U.N. economic conference in Chile on Tuesday that his country was ready to invest and lend $15 billion for Latin American infrastructure, manufacturing and sustainable technology projects.

Wen wound up his state visit to Latin America with a stop in Santiago, the Chilean capital, where in talks with President Sebastian Pinera he promised to double bilateral trade, now worth $30 billion a year, by 2015. China is a major customer for Chile’s copper, fruit and wine exports.

Wen said $10 billion of the development funds would come in loans from the Chinese Development Bank for roads, ports and railways, and $5 billion would be placed in a "cooperation fund" that would finance new technologies. He also said his country would increase the scholarships available to Latin American students to study in China.

The aim is to help the region develop more value-added exports than just natural resources, he said.

"China has become the biggest market for several Latin American countries," said Wen, who was making his third state visit to the region. He also praised the region for having so far withstood the ripple effects of the U.S. and European financial crises of recent years, saying it has demonstrated "cohesion, action and influence."

Chilean court to rule on Neruda exhumation

REPORTING FROM SANTIAGO, CHILE, AND BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- A Chilean judge is expected to rule early next month on a request that the body of Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda be exhumed to test recent allegations that he was poisoned by government forces in 1973, days after they overthrew President Salvador Allende.

According to the official version, Neruda died of prostate cancer in a hospital in Santiago on Sept. 23, 12 days after Allende was toppled in a coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Friends say Neruda’s condition days before his death was excellent but that he deteriorated rapidly — and suspiciously — after the coup.

The Communist Party of Chile has always had suspicions that Neruda, a close friend of Allende, might have been poisoned, but that theory was given more credence in June, when the poet’s chauffeur went public for the first time with similar suspicions.

"The only way to clear it up is with an exhumation," Eduardo Contreras, a lawyer for the Communist Party who made the official request, told The Times on Saturday.

Chilean judge charges former U.S. military officer in 1973 deaths

REPORTING FROM SANTIAGO, CHILE, AND BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- A Chilean judge is seeking the extradition of a former U.S. military officer to face murder charges in the 1973 slaying of freelance journalist and filmmaker Charles Horman, a case dramatized in the Oscar-winning film “Missing,” court sources confirmed Tuesday.

Judge Jorge Zepeda wants former U.S. Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis, whose whereabouts were not immediately clear Tuesday, to face trial in Chile for his alleged involvement in the deaths of Horman and U.S. student Frank Teruggi. The two Americans were arrested and executed by Chilean forces shortly after President Salvador Allende was overthrown in a military coup on Sept. 11, 1973.

Horman, 31, was working as a screenwriter for state-run Chile Films when military rebel forces led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet attacked the presidential palace La Moneda. Allende committed suicide that day rather than surrender.

Horman was arrested Sept. 17 and executed the next day, according to court documents. His body later was found on a Santiago street. Teruggi, 24, was killed on Sept. 22 and his body also dumped on a street in the capital. Davis then was head of the U.S. military group attached to the American Embassy in Santiago.

A recent truth commission found that 41,000 people were arrested, tortured or killed during Pinochet’s 16-year reign of terror. At least 3,200 are thought to have died.

Zepeda wrote in court documents that his investigation bore out suspicions from the outset that “there was participation [in the murders] by citizens of the same nationality.” Zepeda wrote that Davis did nothing to stop the execution of the two Americans “although he had the opportunity of doing so,” and that he is suspected of giving Pinochet officials a “list of subversive U.S. citizens in Chile.”

A former top official with Chile’s DINA intelligence agency, Gen. Pedro Espinoza, was also charged with homicide in the cases.

In documents seeking authorization of the Davis extradition, Zepeda said he received cooperation from the U.S. State Department in preparing the case.

The State Department does not comment on specific extradition matters, but the U.S. government supports a thorough investigation into the Horman and Teruggi deaths, said spokesman Will Ostick.

The 1982 film directed by Costa-Gavras and starring Jack Lemmon as Horman’s father and Sissy Spacek as his wife, won an academy award for best screenplay.

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--Fabiola Gutierrez and Chris Kraul

Photo: Members of the military junta that seized power in Chile on Sept. 11, 1973, in a bloody coup against President Salvador Allende, salute during Independence Day celebrations Sept. 18, 1973. From left, air force Gen. Gustavo Leigh; army chief and coup leader Gen. Augusto Pinochet;  navy chief Adm. Jose Toribio Merino; and police director Gen. Cesar Mendoza. Credit: Associated Press