On April 5, 1996, the corpse of a person who could not initially be identified was found on El Pinar beach, located twenty-eight kilometers east of Montevideo, Uruguay. It was presumably the Chilean chemical engineer and former DINA agent, Eugenio Berríos Sagredo, who was last seen alive on November 15, 1992, in a confusing incident recorded at the Parque de La Plata police station, in the Province of Canelones, fifty kilometers from Montevideo.

He had arrived there seeking protection and reporting that he had been kidnapped by Uruguayan military personnel, from whom he had managed to escape. Shortly thereafter, he was handed over to an officer of the Uruguayan Army, and the police unit's logbook was altered; it was eventually lost.

These events remained unknown for some time, but were finally brought to the attention of various Uruguayan parliamentarians through an anonymous letter. As a result of the investigation carried out by a parliamentary commission, the government dismissed the then-police chief, Colonel Ramón Rivas.

It has been reported that Berríos left Chile in 1991, after an order was issued for his arrest and summons to testify in the Letelier case, and entered Uruguay illegally in 1992, coming from Argentina, in a joint operation in which Chilean, Argentine, and Uruguayan security and military services allegedly participated, with the objective of transferring and hiding Berríos.

According to lawyers linked to human rights defense, this transfer and concealment of Berríos would demonstrate that the relationships established in the 1970s by the security services of the Southern Cone countries were still "operative and operating."

See: Report of the Archbishopric of Santiago (1996) on the Berríos Case.

Source: Nizkor Team Note: May 10, 2001

Martin Michael Borck Keim, Santiago Gerónimo Caradeux Franulic, Carlos Ángel Espinoza López, Pedro Alejandro Jara Morales, José Guillermo Montenegro Valenzuela, and Felipe Enrique Cabrera Palacios were identified by the Fifth Department of Investigations as those responsible for the disappearance and death of the former chemist and member of the DINA Exterior Brigade, Eugenio Berríos Sagredo, in Uruguay.

The case was presented to the Sixth Criminal Court of Santiago by high-ranking officers of the Fifth Department of Investigations.

This demonstrates that the Army obstructed justice to prevent Eugenio Berríos from testifying in the Letelier case in 1991, where he was the key witness to establish the illicit association of the DINA.

Until November 1991, the head of the Army Intelligence Directorate was General Hernán Ramírez Rurange, who was prosecuted as a cover-up in the crime of the union leader Tucapel Jiménez, and he was replaced in December of the same year by General Eugenio Covarrubias.

This information was fully known by the Concertación government, in particular by the Undersecretary of the Interior, the Christian Democrat Jorge Burgos.

_

Nizkor Team, May 12, 2001

Chile: Active-duty Army officers responsible for the disappearance and death of the sarin gas chemist, Eugenio Berríos, in Uruguay

[List of names omitted in source text repetition]

The active-duty officer Martin Michael Borck Keim is an expert in computer science, recently graduated from the War Academy, and is one of the best German interpreters in the military institution.

This police breakthrough was fully known by the government, in particular by the Undersecretary of the Interior, the Christian Democrat Jorge Burgos. Six Army officers, all currently on active duty and who were agents of the Army Intelligence Directorate, have been identified by the Fifth Department of Investigations as those responsible for the disappearance and death of the former star chemist of the DINA, Eugenio Berríos Sagredo, in Uruguay.

This is established in the report on the broad order to investigate that was delivered this Tuesday to the Sixth Criminal Court of Santiago by high-ranking officers of the Fifth Department of Investigations, a document to which El Mostrador had exclusive access.

The fact would reveal that the Army obstructed justice to prevent Eugenio Berríos from testifying in the Letelier case in 1991, where he was the key witness to establish the illicit association of the DINA.

Until November 1991, the head of the Army Intelligence Directorate was General Hernán Ramírez Rurange, prosecuted as a cover-up in the crime of the union leader Tucapel Jiménez. He was replaced in December of the same year by General Eugenio Covarrubias.

The officers identified by Investigations are: Martin Michael Borck Keim, an expert in computer science, recently graduated from the War Academy, and one of the best German interpreters in the military institution.

Santiago Gerónimo Caradeux Franulic, nicknamed "El Chago," also studied at the War Academy and later completed a course at the Naval School. He was also the second-in-command of the Maipo Regiment in Santiago.

The list continues with the following officers: Carlos Ángel Espinoza López, Pedro Alejandro Jara Morales, José Guillermo Montenegro Valenzuela, and Felipe Enrique Cabrera Palacios.

Eugenio Berríos Sagredo, a biochemist by profession, escaped from Chile in November 1991 under the identity of Hernán Tulio Paredes Orellana, a person of incredible resemblance to the former DINA agent.

The resemblance between the two men reveals, according to sources consulted for this article, the degree of perfection of Chilean intelligence in creating so-called "HF" or false histories. Berríos's departure from Chile occurred just as he was being sought by the Supreme Court investigating judge, Adolfo Bañados, as a key witness in the Letelier Case, because Berríos worked at the house on Vía Naranja that the DINA had in Lo Curro, where he prepared sarin gas.

His testimony could have made it possible to uncover the secret "Project Andrea," which consisted of the creation of chemical weapons for a possible war with Argentina in 1978, as can be inferred from the same Letelier case file.

The seven-page document establishes that a high-ranking officer of the Chilean Investigations police, after receiving the broad order to investigate issued last December by the head of the Sixth Criminal Court, Olga Pérez Meza, traveled to Buenos Aires and coordinated with the Interpol NCB of that country to search for the entries and exits of the Chilean Army officers who were suspected of involvement in Berríos's death.

Subsequently, the Investigations officer traveled to Uruguay on March 28, 2001, carrying a large set of photographs of former DINA, CNI, and other DINE agents.

Days before that trip, on March 22, a request for proceedings had been sent to Uruguay—where Berríos disappeared—to the judge of the town of Pando, Alvaro González González, who is handling the case for the death of Eugenio Berríos in that country.

The Uruguayan magistrate referred the request to Montevideo, as the witnesses who could identify the military personnel live in that city. The identities of these people are being withheld by this media outlet for their own safety.

Subsequently, the aforementioned Investigations officer and another police officer from the Fifth Department moved to the Uruguayan capital, and on April 5, the judge of the 12th Shift Criminal Court of First Instance, José Ferreira Stevenazi, together with the representative of the National Criminal Prosecutor's Office and the Public Defender on duty, summoned the two witnesses.

In a photo identification procedure, they identified the Army officers without hesitation.

The military personnel identified are those who allegedly accompanied Berríos for almost all of 1992, when he resided in Montevideo at 1117 Buixereo Street, in the Pocitos neighborhood.

The meetings

This police breakthrough was fully known by the government, in particular by the Undersecretary of the Interior, the Christian Democrat Jorge Burgos.

Investigations, concerned about the influence that the new discovery in the Berríos case could have on national politics, sent the Fifth Department officer in charge of the proceedings to La Moneda. Around 7:00 PM on a day in mid-April, at the seat of government, he met with Burgos, as well as the head of the Public Security and Information Directorate (DISPI), Gustavo Villalobos, and two of the undersecretary's advisors, Jorge Morales and Carlos Mackenney.

According to a government source who participated in the meeting, they discussed the possibility that the information obtained by Investigations could trigger a political crisis, a matter that was ultimately dismissed.

The idea that Investigations conveyed to the government officials was that it was necessary to appoint a visiting judge from the Santiago Court of Appeals or, eventually, an investigating magistrate from the Supreme Court to investigate the case. These, of course, will be the next steps in this story.

[Source: Jorge Molina Sanhueza of the digital newspaper Primera Linea, Santiago de Chile, May 9, 2001]

Source: Nizkor Team, May 12, 2001