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Juan Bernardino Arevalo Torres

Victim of the military dictatorship.

Background

National ID (RUT)6961307-1

Case summary

Juan Bernardino Arévalo Torres was a Corporal 2nd Class in the Army who served as an agent of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) during the military dictatorship. In 2012, his name was included on a list of 1,500 former agents against whom the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared filed a criminal complaint for illicit association.

Automatically generated summary. Please consult the original sources below for verified information.

MemoriaViva[1]

A true political tremor was caused this Monday when the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared (AFDD) filed a criminal complaint for illicit association, following the leak of a list of 1,500 former DINA agents, the most exhaustive known to date.

It should be recalled that this list includes some renowned figures of the ruling Alianza coalition, such as the current mayor of Providencia, Cristián Labbé, or the RN deputy Rosauro Martínez, in addition to dozens of officers and non-commissioned officers of the Armed Forces.

This led the UDI to criticize the "return to the past" regarding human rights violations, while RN compared the case to that of the false political exonerated, which is still under investigation. Radio Bío-Bío was able to access the official list of former DINA agents, which also specifies details such as the agents' active service dates, any eventual death, or observations regarding their performance, which we offer below—ordered alphabetically—and in various formats for analysis.

Source: biobio.cl, April 13, 2012

Fears that those sued for belonging to the DINA will argue they were unaware of what was happening

According to official figures, during the Pinochet dictatorship, more than 3,200 Chileans died at the hands of state agents, of whom about 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 a thousand members of the DINA who were sued for illicit association continues to generate repercussions. This is mainly due to the recognized men who stand out in politics today who were part of this repressive institution during the military dictatorship.

In view of this, the deputy and one of the precursors of the complaint, 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 criminal responsibility in this illicit association that was the DINA." In dialogue with Cambio21, he added that "the complaint 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 make our recent history transparent and [to identify] 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 body that was mainly in charge of torturing people." "In my opinion, people who belonged to the DINA and who are linked to politics today should not do so, and people should consider their vote," the legislator explained. Finally, Tarud said that "it is good that it is known who were part of a repressive body 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 selected group from 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 "fulfilled 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 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 about 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 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 involves more than a thousand agents, some prosecuted, others convicted, and not a few already deceased.

[List of names omitted for brevity in translation]

Source: elclarin.cl, July 8, 2013

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References

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How to cite this record

DondeEstan.cl (2026). Juan Bernardino Arevalo Torres. Retrieved on June 4, 2026, from https://dondeestan.cl/record/arevalo-torres-juan-bernardino. Original sources: Memoria Viva (https://memoriaviva.com/criminales/arevalo-torres-juan-bernardino).