Fears that those charged with belonging to the DINA will argue they were unaware of what was happening. Deputy estimates that "they will hide behind the fact that they had responsibilities..."

According to official figures, during the Pinochet dictatorship, more than 3,200 Chileans died at the hands of State agents, of whom some 1,200 remain forcibly disappeared; more than 38,000 were tortured and suffered political imprisonment, and several hundred thousand were forced into exile.

The list of more than one thousand members of the DINA who were charged with illicit association continues to generate repercussions. This is mainly due to the well-known men who today stand out in politics who were part of this repressive institution during the military dictatorship.

In light of this, the deputy and one of the precursors of the lawsuit, together with the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared, Hugo Gutiérrez (PC), maintained that "we will have to wait until the Court declares it admissible; from there, the trial will be held to investigate the criminal responsibility in this illicit association that was created, which was the DINA."

In a dialogue with Cambio21, he added that "the lawsuit aims to condemn those who persecuted people and tortured those who thought differently from the military regime."

"People like Mayor Cristián Labbé or Deputy Rosauro Martínez (RN) cannot continue to appear in politics and in Chilean society when they were part of the torture of thousands of Chileans," said the parliamentarian.

Finally, he indicated that "for twenty years I have processed many criminal complaints, defending human rights, and if this is one more that I will have to wait for until it is resolved, I will do so."

For his part, Deputy Jorge Tarud (PPD) told Cambio21 that "all actions to bring transparency to our recent history and those who participated in a criminal organization and illicit association to commit crimes, as the DINA was, seem positive to me."

In that vein, he added that "now all those who have participated in the DINA must concretely express what their activity was, because certainly some will hide behind the fact that they had administrative responsibilities, when we all know that it was a repressive organization that was mainly in charge of torturing people."

"In my opinion, people who belonged to the DINA and who are currently linked to politics should not be, and people should consider their vote in that regard," the legislator explained.

Lastly, Tarud said that "it is good that it is known who were part of a repressive organization and who they are today, such as Mr. Labbé, mayor of Providencia."

A real list?

As it was established, at the end of 2007, a select group of the Army took on the task of building, for the first time, a list of officers and non-commissioned officers who were part of the DINA.

The task was stamped in a "secret" document, dated August 28, 2008, signed by the then Chief of the Army General Staff, General Alfredo Ewing Pinochet, which contains the list of officers and non-commissioned officers who "carried out an extra-institutional mission in the Army General Command, assigned to the DINA, between September 11, 1973, and December 1977."

The document, however, remained kept in an archive until now. In addition to the list of agents, it reveals that the DINA existed from the very day of September 11, 1973, the date of the coup against the democratic government of Salvador Allende.

According to official figures, during the Pinochet dictatorship, more than 3,200 Chileans died at the hands of State agents, of whom some 1,200 remain forcibly disappeared; more than 38,000 were tortured and suffered political imprisonment, and several hundred thousand were forced into exile.

The cases of the forcibly disappeared occurred in their vast majority between September 11, 1973, and December 1977, the period in which the DINA operated, later replaced by the National Intelligence Center (CNI).

Source: cambio21.cl, April 12, 2012

The complete list of DINA agents

The complete list of DINA agents (Document delivered by the Army to the Courts of Justice)

The following is the complete list of DINA agents, which was delivered a few years ago by the Army to the Courts of Justice. The text was kept under lock and key for a long period, but time leaked it to human rights lawyers and a journalist specializing in this matter.

This document, which has never been published in a printed medium, has reached Clarín from the desk of a journalist who has followed multiple cases of human rights violations during the dictatorship. The document, therefore, is completely authentic. It concerns more than one thousand agents, some prosecuted, others convicted, and not a few already deceased.

[List of names omitted for brevity]

Source: elclarin.cl, July 8, 2013