The records accessed by CIPER demonstrate that at least 827 former agents of the dictatorship's repressive apparatuses came from the PDI, Carabineros, and the Army. Many of them returned to their original institutions and, following the return to democracy, continued to build careers within them.

Some went on to occupy leadership positions. Several were even hired as civilians after retiring. Among the former agents who returned to the ranks without facing questioning, there were some who worked in intelligence and in the training of new generations of police officers.

For decades after the return to democracy, former agents of the dictatorship's repressive bodies built careers in the PDI, Carabineros, and the Army—institutions that opened their doors to them despite the fact that they had served in entities where opponents of the military regime were kidnapped, tortured, murdered, and forcibly disappeared.

According to official documents reviewed by CIPER, a total of at least 827 officials from both police forces and the Army had been assigned to the DINA and the CNI. The return of these former agents to their original institutions was not questioned by the governments of that era, led by the Concertación (DC, PS, and PPD).

The files analyzed by CIPER indicate that at least 111 former repressive agents belonged to the PDI. Another 126 were from the ranks of Carabineros (including only nine officers). And 590 came from the Army (152 officers and 438 non-commissioned officers).

A review of the backgrounds of those reincorporated into the police and the Army shows that several occupied leadership positions in areas related to narcotics investigation, the training of new officials, special operations, logistics, intelligence, criminalistics, and administration, as recorded in the registers of the three institutions reviewed by CIPER.

Among these former agents, notable figures include, among others, José Enberg Castro, who was a professor at the Army War Academy until 2021 (see the report: “The exorbitant fiscal expenditure on Armed Forces pensions: $3.8 trillion between 2011 and 2015”) and Kurt Dechent Palau, a graduate of the School of the Americas (see link) who was appointed zone chief during electoral processes (see link) and who, at least until 2019, was listed as an interest representative for the German company Diehl Defence, which specializes in the manufacture of air-to-air and air-to-surface missile systems (see link) .

Another of the most striking cases is that of retired Army officer Alberto Elías Magluf, who is currently a permanent staff member of the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred, formerly Onemi), an institution where he serves as head of the Supply Division.

In April 2023, he was even appointed third in the order of succession for that entity by order of President Gabriel Boric (see link).

This retired colonel, in his previous capacity as acting head of Army Acquisitions, was the very person who signed the contract for the purchase of a Cessna aircraft in 2012, an operation investigated by the justice system for fraud against the state ( see document ).

As reported by La Tercera this week, the visiting minister of the Court Martial, Ana María Osorio, notified the indictment of Magluf and three other former military personnel in this judicial matter.

The files reviewed for this report are now part of the online document search engine “Dictatorship Papers,” an initiative developed by CIPER with the collaboration of the Center for Journalistic Research and Projects (CIP) of the Diego Portales University ( access the “Dictatorship Papers” search engine here ).

THE PDI AGENTS

According to the official records accessed by CIPER, at least 111 agents of the civil police were assigned on special duty to the DINA and later to the CNI between 1973 and 1990 ( see document ).

Some, such as sub-commissioner Armando Almendra Muñoz, were assigned to the Lincoyán Brigade, which operated inside the Foreign Ministry and performed analysis tasks ( see judicial statement ). Others, such as Manuel Chirinos Ramírez, carried out tasks in units like the Purén Brigade, which was in charge of detaining and eliminating militants and leadership figures of the Socialist and Communist parties ( see judicial statement ).

Likewise, there were agents who participated directly in the interrogation of detainees or in crimes against humanity, such as the late prefect Juan Ángel Urbina Cáceres, who was sentenced in a first-instance ruling by the Santiago Court of Appeals to ten years as the perpetrator of the crime of qualified kidnapping in Operation Colombo, which took place in 1975 ( see statement ).

During the dictatorship, the standard practice was for agents to return to their institution after their time in the secret police. This procedure continued during democracy, facilitating the reincorporation of several of them into the civil police or allowing them to remain there, even when one of the main tasks of this institution was precisely the investigation of the kidnappings and murders committed by the military regime.

According to official records reviewed by CIPER, three of these agents remained in the PDI until the first decade of this century, and a fourth until 1997. The first three are Sergio Audiel Mellado Faúndez, Ricardo Montecinos Fuentes, and Andrés Aburto Bustamante. The other is Carlos Jorge Serrano González.

Mellado, who did not retire until 2009, even became the head of the National Informatics and Telecommunications Headquarters. Once retired, this agent was also hired as an advisor at the Carabineros Social Security Directorate, Dipreca.

CARABINEROS: CONVICTED OFFICERS

According to the official Carabineros records reviewed by CIPER, a total of 126 agents served in the DINA and the CNI. Only nine of them were officers ( see document ).

After the recovery of democracy, seven of those officers remained linked to the uniformed police for many years, as was the case with Captain Dina Petric, who in the 1980s worked in the CNI under the orders of Álvaro Corbalán, who has been convicted in multiple human rights cases ( see document ).

Officer Petric retired in 1999 ( see document ), but was later hired as a civilian in 2012.

Major Norma Salinas Vallejos was another officer who remained linked to Carabineros for many years after her time in the dictatorship's secret police. Her final assignment was the 48th Precinct of Santiago.

Officer Iván Quiroz Ruiz remained in the institution until 1997, despite the fact that he was already being investigated at that time by the military justice system for his participation in Operation Albania, a CNI action that resulted in the murders of Esther Cabrera, Elizabeth Escobar, Patricia Quiroz, Hernán Rivera, Ricardo Silva, Manuel Valencia, and José Valenzuela, all members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR).

For this case, he was sentenced to ten years and one day as the perpetrator of the homicides. Following that 2008 judicial resolution, he remained a fugitive until he was finally captured by the PDI ( see document ).

Quiroz was also convicted for his participation in the qualified homicides of journalist José Carrasco and Communist militant Abraham Muskatblit, which occurred in September 1986 in Santiago.

Another officer who remained in the institution until 1997 and was later convicted of homicide was Miguel Soto Duarte, who was sanctioned by the justice system for the murder of Paulina Aguirre Tobar, a 20-year-old MIR militant, whose autopsy report indicates that she received two shots to the head, one to the neck, three to the right hand, and two to the left forearm ( see document ).

Meanwhile, among the non-commissioned officers, a total of 31 remained in the institution for many years after the return to democracy, performing duties in precincts, the Traffic Accident Investigation Section (SIAT), the Non-Commissioned Officers' School, the Air-Police Prefecture, and Special Forces.

THE ARMY BATTALION

The Army was the military branch that provided the most agents to the DINA and the CNI. According to institutional records reviewed by CIPER, there were at least 152 officers and 438 non-commissioned officers ( see document ).

This list, of course, is not exhaustive and does not include key figures such as the director of the DINA, Manuel Contreras, and officers Raúl Iturriaga and José Zara, both involved in the murder of General Carlos Prats, which occurred in Argentina in 1974, among other crimes. Nor does it include Colonel Miguel Krassnoff, who has been convicted in multiple cases for homicide and kidnapping.

Nevertheless, in this roster, the Army officially acknowledges that it assigned personnel to perform duties as DINA and CNI agents. Of these, several remained active in democracy or were hired once retired, despite facing trials for crimes against humanity.

Some of the most notorious cases correspond to the aforementioned officers José Enberg Castro, Kurt Dechent Palau, and Alberto Elías Magluf.

But there are more. For example, retired officer Jorge Pérez Labayru was an advisor to the National Mobilization General Directorate (DGMN) until 2018 (see link). For his part, retired Lieutenant Colonel Nazario Aracena Robles was hired as a supervisor of security, cleaning, ornamentation, and landscaping for the Military School from February 1, 2013, to December 31 of the same year.

Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Miranda Murray was in service for 32 years and worked on a fee basis until 2015. His colleague José Pérez Manríquez worked in the Undersecretariat of Defense until 2011, when he was dismissed from his position.

A similar case occurred with Colonel Rodolfo Ortega Prado, who in 2005 was appointed military attaché in Spain during the government of Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006). In 2016, he published the book Military History of the Virtues of the Chilean Army.

Colonel Martín Borck Keim served in 2007—during the first government of Michelle Bachelet—as executive secretary of the Demining Commission that operated with the Ministry of Defense. Additionally, in 2011, he served as director of the Army's Non-Commissioned Officers' School (see link).

Likewise, several of these former agents were also appointed as zone chiefs for the successive electoral acts the country has experienced since 1990. One of them was retired Colonel Rodolfo Martinic Marusic (see link), who also served as director of the Army's Mountain School until 2002 (see link).

Meanwhile, other officers, such as retired Captain Luis Fuenzalida Bernal, were assigned to the Military Polytechnic Academy. In his case, he was a professor, among other things, of supply courses during 2013 and 2014, and, for one day, of the subject of organization and control and ethics in 2016 (see link).

Another CNI agent who remained in the ranks of the Army for many years was Carl Marowski Pilowski, who retired in 2015. His service record includes his work as director of the Joint Peacekeeping Operations Center of Chile (CECOPAC), a position he held between 2002 and 2004.

In September 2016, Carl Marowski attended the Defense Commission of the Chamber of Deputies as secretary general of the War Academy, as CIPER reported at the time (see link).

Some of the officers who performed duties in the repressive bodies were also assigned to the areas of logistics, acquisition, and projects, the administrative core of the processes for purchasing and renewing military weapons and spare parts.

For example, Colonel Néstor Vera Salvo appears signing resolutions on behalf of the Army even during the first government of Sebastián Piñera, in 2011 (see link). Others, such as Jaime Norambuena Aguilar, worked at FAMAE until the beginning of the century. A similar situation occurred with Humberto Nilo Penroz, who was an advisor to the Army Housing Savings Headquarters (JAVE).

But without a doubt, the person who had the longest active career was Juan Vidal García Huidobro, who reached the rank of general and in 2012 was decorated at La Moneda by President Piñera, along with the High Command of the time (see link).

Source: ciperchile.cl, September 8, 2023

Army still pays salaries to former DINA agents

According to the Army's institutional website for 2013, retired and rehired colonels Patricio Zambelli Restelli and Hugo Acevedo Godoy, and former non-commissioned officer Eugenio Álvarez Gonzalez—all of them former DINA agents—receive monthly payments.

The Army allocates several million pesos monthly to pay salaries to former agents of the repressive bodies of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship who appear on its payrolls as "fee-based" personnel, as can be verified on the institutional website of that military branch.

The situation contradicts what the then-commander-in-chief, General Oscar Izurieta, current Undersecretary of Defense, declared in September 2009 to the Defense Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, stating that by that date "there were no" former agents receiving payments from the Army.

According to the Army's institutional website for 2013, retired and rehired colonels Patricio Zambelli Restelli and Hugo Acevedo Godoy, and former non-commissioned officer Eugenio Álvarez Gonzalez—all of them former DINA agents—receive monthly payments.

Also receiving monthly payments are former operational agents of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the successor to the DINA: Nazario Aracena Robles, Iván Droguett Ruiz, and Nora Carreño Barrera.

None of them have been convicted or indicted for crimes against humanity to date, despite the fact that they performed operational duties in brigades linked to crimes, which they have denied in their judicial statements.

The person who is indeed indicted for the crimes of the Caravan of Death in the city of Antofagasta in October 1973 is retired General Gonzalo Santelices Cuevas, who receives a monthly remuneration of 1,670,000 pesos as an "advisor to the General Staff of the Army Intelligence Directorate (Dine)."

Santelices did not belong to the DINA or the CNI, but while in command of the Santiago Military Garrison, in February 2008, he was discharged from the Army by the government of President Michelle Bachelet, following the publication of a report in the newspaper La Nación Domingo that included his judicial statement, given in September 2002, admitting his participation in that crime.

Bachelet will compete in the presidential runoff on December 15 against the right-wing official candidate Evelyn Matthei.

Santelices declared that on the night of October 18, 1973, he kidnapped 14 political prisoners from the Antofagasta jail and took them in trucks to the Quebrada del Way on the outskirts of that city.

With personnel under his command, he lined up the prisoners so that the Caravan of Death squadron, commanded by General Sergio Arellano, could murder them.

Afterward, he loaded the bodies onto the trucks and left them piled up in the street in front of the local morgue, where their families found them.

Patricio Zambelli Restelli receives 1,300,000 pesos monthly from the Army as an "advisor for Planning of the Army Intelligence Directorate (Dine)."

According to a judicial statement from May 2010, Zambelli is an intelligence expert and operated as an agent at the Villa Grimaldi prison camp "alongside Miguel Krassnoff" while prisoners were being tortured and murdered there.

In 1976, he was part of the DINA's Caupolicán Brigade, which that year kidnapped all the members of the clandestine leadership of the Communist Party, who were ultimately murdered in another of the organization's barracks (Simón Bolívar).

Hugo Acevedo receives 750,000 pesos monthly as an "advisor for structural projects at the San Bernardo Infantry School."

In the DINA, Acevedo was part of the "Rengo" Brigade and later moved to the CNI, where he performed operational duties until the end of the dictatorship in 1990.

Eugenio Álvarez, who also belonged to the DINA and the CNI, receives 340,000 pesos per month as an "administrative advisor to the Army Maintenance Directorate."

Former Lieutenant Colonel Nazario Aracena, a former CNI operational agent, earns 787,000 pesos monthly as a "Security supervisor for the Army General Staff."

Nora Carreño, a former CNI operational agent, earns 660,000 pesos per month as an "advisor to the Command of the Santiago Military Garrison," while Iván Droguett receives 420,000 pesos monthly as an "advisor to the Army General Staff."

Jorge Tarud, a member of the Defense Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, considered the situation "outrageous" and told EFE that the commander-in-chief of the Army, General Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba, and the Undersecretary of Defense, Óscar Izurieta, will be summoned by said commission "to provide explanations to the country."

He also considered that the former agents should be dismissed from their duties immediately.

Meanwhile, Mireya García, vice president of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared (AFDD), pointed out that "with this information, it is clear that the Army remains committed to those who violated human rights under the dictatorship."

In her view, it is even more serious that the Army "attacked a democratic institution, such as the Defense Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, when its commander-in-chief, General Izurieta, stated in 2009 that by that date there were no former agents being funded by the Army. Now we see that it is not true," she concluded.

Source: elmostrador.cl, October 6, 2023