Álvaro Corbalán studied at the National Institute and at the age of 14 he entered the Military School of Santiago. In 1971, he took a course at the School of the Americas. Before the military coup, he was in the Military Intelligence Service; he was then assigned to the Military Intelligence Service until 1980. Later on, he was transferred to the National Information Center ("Central Nacional de Informaciones", CNI), and became director of the Joint Command, belonging to the Chilean Army, and commander of the Borgoño Barracks, where he was in charge of the Anti-Subversive Division. His name was associated with the so-called Operation Albania and the murder of the leader of the Unique Central of Workers of Chile ("Central Única de Trabajadores de Chile", CUT) Tucapel Jiménez, among other cases.