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

Some reached leadership positions. Several even remained employed as civilians after retiring. Among the former agents who returned to the ranks without facing scrutiny 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 pursued 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, 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 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 manager for the German company Diehl Defence, which specializes in the manufacture of air-to-air and air-to-ground 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, the former 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 official records accessed by CIPER, at least 111 agents of the civil police were assigned on service commission 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 within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and performed analysis tasks ( see judicial statement ).

Others, such as Manuel Chirinos Ramírez, carried out tasks in units such as the Purén Brigade, which was responsible for detaining and eliminating militants and leadership 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 aggravated kidnapping in Operation Colombo, which occurred 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 their retention within it, 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 head of the National Headquarters for Informatics and Telecommunications. Once retired, this agent was also hired as an advisor to the Carabineros Social Security Directorate, Dipreca.

CARABINEROS: CONVICTED OFFICERS

According to official Carabineros records reviewed by CIPER, a total of 126 agents performed duties in the DINA and 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 last assignment was the 48th Police Station 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 led to 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. After 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 aggravated 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 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 police stations, 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 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 DINA director Manuel Contreras and officers Raúl Iturriaga and José Zara, both involved in the assassination 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 during democracy or were hired after retiring, 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 situation 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 Non-Commissioned Officers School (see link).

Likewise, several of these former agents were also appointed as plaza chiefs for the successive electoral events 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 Mountain School until 2002 (see link).

Meanwhile, other officers, such as retired Captain Luis Fuenzalida Bernal, were attached 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 Army ranks for many years was Carl Marowski Pilowski, who retired in 2015. His resume 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 reported by CIPER 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 in 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 one 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