Details reveal much of the plot that culminated in the assassination of the former Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army and his wife. Alejandra Matus Envi

Below, "La Tercera" reproduces selected paragraphs from the ruling by Judge María Servini.

• I.- "Account of the facts"

"These proceedings began on September 30, 1974, at 03:00 hours, via the report signed by the head of the 23rd Precinct of the Federal Police, Commissioner Vicente Andrés Brizio, stating that at 00:50 hours, an anonymous telephone call was received informing the authorities that an explosive device had detonated inside a vehicle on Malabia and Segui streets, causing the death of its two occupants. "After various investigative steps were taken by the court, it was established that on September 30, 1974, an individual identified as Kenneth Enyart, a technician by profession, born on October 18, 1946, of American nationality and holding passport No. D2287732, left the country through Ezeiza airport.

• "Attached at pages 285/291 is the report produced by the Argentine judicial delegation, composed of Drs. Siro de Martini and Daniel Saint Jean, then secretaries of this court, regarding activities carried out in the United States during the month of June 1979. It emerges from said report that the only reference to the assassination of General Prats during the trial for the death of Orlando Letelier and his secretary was made by the defense of the co-accused Cubans, when attempting to interrogate Townley about this and other attacks in which the aforementioned was allegedly involved, which was not permitted by Judge Parker. Beyond that, the only element of real importance would be Townley's passport under the name Enyart, in which the entry and exit from Argentina are recorded at the time of General Prats' assassination. Given the agreement made with Townley, which consisted of speaking only about what occurred in the United States, he was reticent to speak about other episodes."

• "At page 296, Sofía Esther Prats provides testimonial evidence, stating that through her aunt Ana Lemus de Gómez, who was a friend of Arancibia Clavel's mother, she learned that the aforementioned Arancibia returned to Chile on the night of September 30, and also that he had hosted Mr. Michael Townley at his home in Buenos Aires."

• "Certified photocopies of the statements provided by Enrique Lautaro Arancibia Clavel and Jaime Patricio Vicente Arrau Henríquez are attached, in case No. 949 of the National Court of Federal Criminal and Correctional Matters No. 5, Secretariat No. 9, titled 'Acuña, Roberto Eladio and others (...)', from which it emerges that the aforementioned Arancibia Clavel used the cover name 'Luis Felipe Harizmendi', that he worked for the DINA, knew its director, Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, and possessed a Chilean identity card under the name 'Luis Felipe Alemparte Díaz' with his photograph, which had been granted to him by Andrés Wilson, one of the cover names used by Michael Townley."

• "At pages 313/314, ENRIQUE LAUTARO ARANCIBIA CLAVEL provides a statement before this court, in which, among other things, he stated that he worked with the DINA and SIE, providing those agencies with information regarding the situation of Chilean extremists living in Argentina."

• "At page 1063 is the testimonial statement of HUGO ALBERTO ZAMBELLI, who stated that at the end of 1974, when he was working as a principal dancer at the Teatro Astros alongside Susana Giménez, he met Enrique Lautaro Arancibia Clavel, a relationship that was consolidated in May 1975, when they moved in together. He noted that at first, Arancibia Clavel called himself 'Juan'."

• "At page 2129, Rafael Castillo provides testimonial evidence, stating that he met with Mr. Townley in the town of Annapolis and that the latter admitted to him that he had been in Buenos Aires on the day of the attack that caused the death of General Prats, and that he stated that among other people present were Raúl Iturriaga Neumann and the Chilean citizen named Enrique Lautaro Arancibia Clavel (...). It was possible, among other things, to identify the nicknames Luis Gutiérrez, Don Elías, or Diego Castro Castañeda, which corresponded to the position of head of the DINA's Foreign Department."

• "At page 2134 is the testimonial statement of Carlos Hernán Labarca Sanhuesa, who mentions '(...) that he worked under the direct supervision of Colonel Víctor Barría Barría, who was the DINA superior in Buenos Aires, although his ostensible position was that of civil attaché at the embassy. That in Chile he was called the DINA representative abroad. That the specific tasks the declarant performed were the compilation of data and information regarding terrorists (...). That in those functions he met the person who called himself Luis Felipe Alemparte, although he later learned that his true name was Enrique Lautaro Arancibia Clavel' (...). When asked by the court about his knowledge of circumstances regarding the homicide of General Prats, he stated: 'that what they assumed in the DINA was that the perpetrators must be people knowledgeable in explosives, and that the DINA agents who passed through Buenos Aires at the time of the attack with such knowledge were: Fernández Larios, Andrés Wilson (alias of Michael Townley), Sara Iturriaga'."

• "At pages 138 to 148, there is a letter dated July 27, 1976, from Luis Gutiérrez to Luis Felipe Alemparte (Arancibia), where a statement by Deputy Sacucci and photos of him are sent to be published in the press with the objective of activating a 'black operation' in order to 'help our Italian friends'."

• "At page 75, there is a manuscript dated October 17, 1977, that says: 'Enrique, your problem with the cops, Andrés will solve it for you in a kick, but it would give you away that you are CNI (...), signed 'El Pelado'."

• "At page 175 (...) there is a letter dated April 18, 1975, from Buenos Aires to Santiago, where it is mentioned: 'I am sending printed material from the country's press regarding the Colombo case. The invoices that accompanied Colombo will be paid during the course of the week, along with 15 Argentine invoices'."

• "In a memorandum on pages 166/167, dated August 9, 1975, there are 'requests from Martín (Ciga Correa), he requests to be donated a Sterling submachine gun or similar, requests silencers for .45 and .38, to know if there are going to be more jobs in Argentina'. If 'Operation Europe' is going to need 'collaboration from them'."

• "At pages 1 to 92, there are letters and memoranda of the same tenor as those indicated, where Arancibia requests and sends material and information, showing fluid and close dealings and relationships with Martín Ciga Correa, Michael Townley, Alfredo Delle Chiaie, and others mentioned in this investigation, highlighting the missive on page 11 dated May 12, 1978, from Luis Felipe (Arancibia) to 'Pelao' (Cristhoph George Willieke, a classmate of Alfredo Canales Taricco, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Cheyre (current Commander-in-Chief of the Army), and like all the previous ones, officers of the Military School at the time of the coup. Willeke, or 'Loco' Willeke, became famous for knocking down a high-voltage tower with a .50 caliber machine gun when firing at a resident of the shantytown located behind the Military School (Ho Chi Minh). The press said it had been an explosive attack), in which he mentions: 'Regarding the Flaco (Townley), I have received information from the north indicating that the Flaco spoke not only about Let (Letelier) but about three operations in Argentina and one in Europe. They are going to give me the names of those involved that the Flaco let slip to the FBI'."

• "Likewise, it is of utmost importance to take into account what emerges from the note on page 7 in which Enrique Arancibia Clavel, signing as Luis Felipe Alemparte, informs 'Pelao' (C. George Willike) that 'Jaime later spoke with another official from the embassy and he told him that in September 1974, a Mr. Letelier, a resident of Baires, introduced himself to A.W. (Andrés Wilson or Michael Townley) and asked him to collaborate on the P. Affair' (presumably the Prats case)."

• "A person named Francisco Abelardo Edison Fuentes Ciscutti, of Chilean nationality, appeared spontaneously before the court and stated that he had joined the Chilean military intelligence service in 1973. Regarding the Prats case, he was able to provide data about the intervention of Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, alias Diego Castro Castañeda, who was the highest-ranking officer in the DINA's foreign service in Argentina, who would be in charge of notifying Enrique Lautaro Arancibia Clavel, alias Alemparte, who orchestrated what was necessary to carry out that order. But faced with a first failed assassination attempt, he decided to involve a select brigade of the DINA's Foreign Department; furthermore, he comments that upon bringing the notification about killing General Prats, Arancibia Clavel connected with two Italian terrorists with the surnames Delle Chiaie and Vinciguerra; likewise, he mentions that despite not having directed the second attack on Prats, Arancibia had active participation in it."

Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, alias Diego Castro Castañeda

• "The undersigned and the prosecutor of the case interrogated VINCIGUERRA, who is detained in a Milan prison, having been transferred for the hearing to the Rebibbia prison in Rome, who, among other things, responded to the interrogations (...) stating: 'By way of help, he would refer to Operation Condor. He stated that it was a pact that brought together several secret services of Latin America in an anti-communist function, to defeat the only danger that threatened the Western world. In the scope of this Operation Condor, it leads with certainty to what was the death of General Prats (...). Referring to the Prats case, he clarified that 'this was the same operation' (...). He said he knew an Enrique who was the head of the DINA in Buenos Aires, not remembering if he was for the whole country'."

"Legal qualification"

• "It has been sufficiently proven in these proceedings that the accused, Enrique Lautaro Arancibia Clavel, was a member of the organization called the National Intelligence Directorate, commonly known as DINA."
• "This organization was formed within the de facto government of General Augusto Pinochet (...) it was under the command of the then-Colonel Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, later promoted to Chilean Army General; with Brigadier Pedro Espinoza as his second-in-command."

Source: La Tercera, April 18, 2005