Finally, Augusto Pinochet submitted his resignation to the Upper House through a letter delivered by Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz to the president of the body, Andrés Zaldívar. The content of the document that reached the desk of the head of the Upper House is not yet known.

It is only known that it is two pages long and that it specifies that Pinochet is resigning from his position as a senator-for-life because his state of mind and health no longer allow him to perform this function. The Government, through Minister Heraldo Muñoz and President Lagos himself, expressed their agreement with the decision of the general (ret.).

Source: La Tercera, Thursday, July 4, 2002

The Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court resolved, by four votes to one, to grant a final dismissal to the prosecuted senator-for-life Augusto Pinochet in the "Caravan of Death" case. Pinochet, criminally prosecuted as an accessory to the multiple homicides committed by the so-called "Caravan of Death," will not continue to stand trial, as it is understood that he is affected by a mental alienation, a cause contemplated as dementia or insanity in the criminal legislation currently in force in the Metropolitan Region (article 408, number 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), where the new Code of Criminal Procedure is not yet in effect. In its 34th consideration, the ruling states that "the mental problems of Pinochet Ugarte, in the judgment of these magistrates, disqualify him from having a trial substantiated against him. He cannot be a suitable subject to sustain a criminal procedural relationship, as his procedural capacity to act is affected." This condition, according to the magistrates, is "irreversible." According to the medical reports conducted on Pinochet and attached by his defense attorney, Pablo Rodríguez Grez, the senator-for-life who had been stripped of his immunity suffers from moderate subcortical vascular dementia, which would cause disorders in memory and thought. The minority vote was from Justice José Luis Pérez, who was in favor of a temporary dismissal similar to the ruling of July 9, 2001, issued by the Sixth Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals. In favor of the final dismissal of the general (ret.) were Justices Alberto Chaigneau, Enrique Cury, Milton Juica, and Nibaldo Segura. Regarding the other individuals prosecuted in the Pinochet case, the case remains the same. These are General (ret.) Sergio Arellano Stark; former Captain Armando Fernández Larios; Colonel (ret.) Sergio Arredondo; former Brigadier Pedro Espinoza; and Daniel Rojas Hidalgo. Applicable norms The justices reaffirmed, in the seventh consideration of the ruling, that it is not possible to apply the regulations of the New Code of Criminal Procedure in the Metropolitan Region—such as number 10, included in the appellate ruling of July 9—since these, as established by various legal regulations, "shall apply exclusively to events that occurred prior to the entry into force of such provisions." And it adds: "Since these norms are not in force by express order, not only of procedural provisions, both functional and organic, but especially by a specific constitutional precept, it is not understood how they could be subjects of either systematic or teleological interpretation, for the purposes of their application, without seriously contravening the Constitution that governs us." The resolution also rejects the application of the international treaties to which Pinochet's defense referred during the arguments. The justices considered that "the current criminal procedural legislation in force in the Metropolitan Region, and regarding events that occurred prior to the new regulations, contains sufficient norms that ensure the rights of the accused and their guarantee to be tried with due process of law. Examples of this are articles 318 bis, 320, 322, 323, 324, 329, 330, 333, 334, and 336 of the Code of Criminal Procedure." The magistrates, after reviewing the medical examinations performed on Augusto Pinochet, resolved that "the (mental) alienation (he suffers) was acquired subsequent to the commission of the crimes being investigated in this case, which makes it necessary to apply the norms that the Code of Criminal Procedure in paragraph 2 of title III of book IV establishes for the accused who falls into alienation." That is to say, the justices took into account the norms regarding the guarantees of due process. This is because Pinochet would not be in a condition to provide the necessary elements to defend himself successfully and utilize the rights that must be recognized for him, due to being mentally alienated. A final ruling It transpired in judicial sources that the justices of the Second Chamber met starting at 11:00 a.m., a meeting that lasted until 1:20 p.m., where Justice Chaigneau, who was in charge of drafting the ruling, presented it to the justices. The drafting of Chaigneau's ruling was not only legal but also scientific, as it delved into and analyzed Pinochet's mental health state. Then, the four justices who heard Chaigneau's draft reached the conviction that Pinochet's mental health "is unrecoverable." It transpired that Justice Milton Juica, who was presumed to be a minority vote along with José Luis Pérez and whose position was to either reopen the trial against Pinochet or end it definitively, became convinced that the accused Pinochet has no possibilities for improvement and opted to join the majority vote, which was in favor of the final dismissal. Sentence The justices of the Second Chamber, before issuing the final dismissal of Pinochet, accepted the cassation appeal in the form filed by the plaintiffs Hugo Gutiérrez and Juan Pavín. After that, in accordance with the law, they issued a replacement sentence ex officio. This last ruling, of 17 pages, states: "Due to what has been said and in accordance with what is provided by article 686 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, this Court, proceeding ex officio in accordance with its legal powers, must resolve that the procedure against Augusto Pinochet Ugarte shall not continue and, consequently, issue a final dismissal in his favor." The resolution also specifies that "there being no reasons to consider that his freedom constitutes a danger, or in the terms of article 688 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the accused shall remain at liberty."

Source: El Mostrador, Monday, July 1, 2002

Regarding the Caravan of Death Case: Judge Guzmán prosecuted Pinochet for kidnapping and homicide

The magistrate prosecuted the senator-for-life who had been stripped of his immunity as a co-author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping followed by homicide in cases where the victims have not been found, and for homicide in the case of the bodies that have been found, which makes a total of 74 cases.

In an absolutely unexpected resolution, the investigating judge, Juan Guzmán Tapia, notified the defense of General (ret.) Augusto Pinochet that he had subjected him to prosecution as a co-author of crimes linked to the Caravan of Death.

After this decision, it is very difficult for the Pinochet case to be taken away from Guzmán, because that would be seen as pressure regarding his judicial decisions. Other analyses estimate that "the right wing stretched the rope too far." The magistrate's resolution also extends these charges to former Brigadier Pedro Espinoza; Colonel (ret.) Marcelo Moren Brito; General (ret.) Sergio Arellano Stark; and Colonel (ret.) Sergio Arredondo.

To make his decision, the magistrate must have considered as an investigative statement the letters rogatory he sent to London when Pinochet was detained.

Source: EL MOSTRADOR, Friday, December 1, 2000

Court accepts stripping of Pinochet's immunity for Operation Condor

In an unexpected ruling, by 14 votes to 9, the Plenary of the Court of Appeals resolved this morning to accept the request to strip the immunity of the former Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, for his link to the so-called Operation Condor.

With today's resolution, the former ruler could be prosecuted for his responsibility in the disappearance of hundreds of victims within the framework of the aforementioned operation.

Source: El Mercurio, May 28, 2004

Judge Guzmán prosecuted Augusto Pinochet for Operation Condor

Investigating judge Juan Guzmán Tapia subjected General (ret.) Augusto Pinochet Ugarte to prosecution for nine counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated homicide perpetrated within the framework of Operation Condor, as the repressive coordination of the dictatorships of the Southern Cone of Latin America to eliminate their opponents in the late seventies and early eighties was known.

This is the first time that a prosecution has been issued in all of South America against one of the authors of this coordination, in which the governments of Uruguay and Argentina, among others, were also involved.

After ordering medical examinations to be carried out and meeting on several occasions with the three experts in charge of the proceedings, the magistrate considered that there is evidence that the former military officer had some degree of responsibility in the disappearance and death of Chilean citizens.

The magistrate's resolution is recorded in two parts. In the first, he explains that the former military officer is not insane and, therefore, can face a trial, and in the second, he subjects him to prosecution.

The judge ordered house arrest for the former military officer, which will likely take place at his residence in La Dehesa, and anticipated that he will notify him shortly. Asked about the difficulty of making this resolution, the magistrate commented that "when I studied all the statements well, all the elements of judgment that I had in view, and the personal perceptions that I had of him, it was not difficult, it was quite easy." The judge cited as the main foundations of his determination, among other characteristics of Pinochet, "his coherence, the understanding of the questions, and the pertinent answers," after which he denied that the prosecution responds to the dissemination of the report on political imprisonment and torture. Currently, Pinochet is also deprived of his immunity as a former ruler for the responsibility he may bear in the 1974 attack that cost the life of General Carlos Prats and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert, in Buenos Aires, although the determination must still be ratified by the Supreme Court. Likewise, he is being investigated by investigating judge Sergio Muñoz for the millionaire accounts detected in his name at the Riggs Bank in the United States, valued between US$4 million and US$8 million. In this process, it is being investigated whether the origin of the money is lawful and the tax evasion he allegedly committed by not paying the respective taxes on the deposits.

Source: El Mostrador, December 13, 2004

Condor: Arrest of Pinochet suspended with an amparo appeal

The defense of retired General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte formalized the filing of an amparo appeal in favor of the former uniformed officer, which paralyzed, for the moment, the house arrest decreed against him after he was prosecuted within the framework of Operation Condor.

The arrest warrant was issued by investigating judge Juan Guzmán, who considered that Pinochet is "mentally fit" to face a trial for his alleged responsibility in nine counts of permanent kidnapping and one count of aggravated homicide perpetrated during that repressive coordination.

However, with the document filed by the former military officer's defense, the arrest warrant was frozen until the Santiago Court of Appeals makes a decision on the matter, although the trial against Pinochet continues its course.

Judge Guzmán admitted that before decreeing Pinochet's house arrest, he must wait for the resolution adopted by the capital's appellate court. Meanwhile, lawyer Eduardo Contreras, a plaintiff against the former military officer, specified that the document has no influence regarding the prosecution issued by the magistrate. "This has no repercussions regarding the prosecution, unless the amparo appeal were won by Pinochet's defense.

In light of the evidence that exists, taking into account that there were previously two rulings stripping his immunity, it is absolutely impossible for Judge Guzmán's ruling to be revoked," he noted. Domicile set in Los Boldos The magistrate also approved the presentation by the Army's General Auditor's Office, which set the domicile of General (ret.) Pinochet at the Los Boldos plot.

Guzmán had planned to notify the former military officer of that resolution at the residence he has in La Dehesa, so he must now travel to the estate located in the vicinity of Bucalemu, Fifth Region.

Source: El Mostrador, December 14, 2004

Prats Case: Judge Solís grants dismissal to Pinochet

Following the Supreme Court's rejection of stripping Augusto Pinochet's immunity, Minister Alejandro Solís opted to issue a final dismissal of the former dictator in the case of the double homicide of General (ret.) Carlos Prats and his wife Sofía Cuthbert.

With the measure, the judge complied with the provisions of the highest court, which, in practice, by denying the stripping of immunity, prevented him from continuing to investigate Pinochet's responsibility.

On March 24, the plenary of the Supreme Court rejected stripping Pinochet's immunity, arguing formal reasons, fundamentally the existence of a previous ruling. Solís maintains the entire high command of the DINA under prosecution.

Source: La Nacion, April 1, 2005

Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet dies

Dictator Augusto Pinochet passed away this Sunday at 91 years of age at the Military Hospital of Santiago, where he had been admitted for a week after suffering a myocardial infarction that almost cost him his life.

Pinochet ruled the destiny of Chile with an iron fist between 1973 and 1990, heading a dictatorship that eliminated and repressed thousands of opponents. The Chilean justice system was in the process of prosecuting the general for some of the crimes committed by the military government he led. "The Military Hospital of Santiago announces the sensitive passing of the former President of the Republic and former Commander-in-Chief of the Army, General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte," is the text of a brief statement issued by the Military Hospital. "At 1:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. in Spain), the patient suffered an unexpected and serious decompensation that forced his transfer in critical condition to the Intensive Care Unit, where all medical resuscitation measures were applied, failing to achieve a positive medical response, passing away at 2:15 p.m.," the statement says. Pinochet's body will be transferred this afternoon (midnight in Spain) to the Military School of Santiago, where the burning chapel will be installed for at least 48 hours, according to military sources. During his convalescence after the heart attack, Michelle Bachelet's government already announced that he would not be given State honors. Without State honors The dictator's funeral will be next Tuesday, as reported by the Chilean Army, while the Government has confirmed that it will not have State honors. "On Tuesday, December 12, at 12:00 p.m. [four in the afternoon in Spain], a funeral mass will be held at the Military School, and at the end of it, funeral honors will be performed in the institute's courtyard of honor," the army specifies in a statement. The Government, meanwhile, has said that there will be no State honors for Pinochet and that only the Minister of Defense, Vivianne Blanlot, will represent the Executive at the mass. At the end of a meeting between President Michelle Bachelet and the political committee of ministers, government spokesperson Ricardo Lagos Weber indicated that, nevertheless, it has been authorized to fly the flag at half-mast in Army facilities and military units of the country. Lagos Weber indicated that Pinochet's remains will be cremated and his ashes will be handed over to his relatives. Augusto Pinochet's body was transferred early this morning to the Military School, where he will be mourned until Tuesday with the honors that the Army regulations establish for its former commanders-in-chief. The transfer of the coffin took place at 5:00 a.m. Spanish time, several hours after what was announced as a security measure, the police said, due to the acts of violence that broke out in the center and other sectors at dusk and the beginning of the night. Even the approximately 4,000 supporters of the former dictator who had gathered in front of the Military School with lit candles and other gestures of homage to the former general had decreased by more than half when the transfer finally took place, amidst strong security measures. Riots at La Moneda The reactions of Chileans have been immediate and of opposite signs. The demonstrations, in which some 5,000 people have participated in the capital alone, have resulted in dozens of arrests, according to official sources. The detractors of the deceased dictator began with chants, banners, and flags in the Plaza de Armas, and many of the relatives of the forcibly disappeared uncorked bottles of champagne. The Alameda Bernardo O'Higgins, the main artery that crosses the Chilean capital, was packed with people celebrating Pinochet's death. At least six police officers and one civilian have been injured, and four people have been arrested amidst the clashes that occurred early this morning between the detractors of dictator Augusto Pinochet and the Carabineros in the Alameda park in Santiago, in front of the La Moneda Palace. The protesters began to gather in front of La Moneda to celebrate the general's death. After some overcame the containment barriers set up in the Plaza de la Ciudadanía, the Carabineros tried to control them with tear gas and anti-riot water cannons. Faced with the increase in clashes, the Presidential Guard decided to close the door of the La Moneda Palace. Some of the protesters have torn down traffic lights and the barriers on Alameda Street, while other hooded individuals throw stones at the public force's vehicles. On the contrary, in front of the Military Hospital where Pinochet was interned, hundreds of sympathizers mourned his death, carrying photographs of the former dictator and occasionally singing the national anthem. Some of his supporters reacted with violence against the national and foreign press covering the events at the gates of the Hospital. Thousands of crimes Pinochet's death occurred before he could answer to Justice for the thousands of crimes committed by the dictatorship he headed. According to estimates, some 3,200 people died at the hands of State agents, of whom 1,192 remain as forcibly disappeared. More than 28,000 opponents were tortured, according to official data, and around 300,000 had to go into exile for political reasons. Currently, the former dictator was being prosecuted for some of the crimes of which he was accused. In fact, during his convalescence at the Military Hospital, his house arrest was lifted. The Caravan of Death, Operation Condor, or Operation Colombo were some of the names of the campaigns of repression of opponents. The judicial process against the dictator began in October 1998, when, by order of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, he was arrested in London, where he spent 17 months. The cumbersome legal procedures did not result in his delivery to Spain, and Pinochet finally returned to Chile due to health problems. However, the legal door was opened to his prosecution, and the Chilean justice system, with Judge Juan Guzmán at the head, began to act. At the time of his death, Pinochet was prosecuted as the alleged author of kidnappings (disappearances), homicides, and torture in at least three cases for human rights violations, in addition to a case of fraud against the treasury and use of false passports in relation to the discovery, in 2004, of numerous secret accounts in his name at the Riggs Bank in the US and other foreign banks, in which he accumulated a fortune calculated so far at 26 million dollars. According to Chilean laws, after his death, Pinochet must be dismissed in all the cases that involved him.

Source: El Pais, December 10, 2006

Brazil supplied Pinochet with biochemical substances to poison adversaries

The chemical weapons that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet used to poison his political adversaries were called botulinum neurotoxins, and it was the government of the Brazilian military dictatorship that provided them.

The official death toll during the 17 years the Chilean dictator was in power (1973-1990) was 3,225 dead and disappeared, in addition to 37,000 political prisoners. Part of those deaths were caused by poisoning with the biochemical weapon that arrived from Brazil, a poison much stronger than cyanide.

Botulinum neurotoxin produces intoxication with paralysis and leads to death by asphyxiation. As is known, Brazil supported the 1973 Chilean military coup. The then-military government of Brasília offered full aid to Pinochet, from financial to diplomatic.

Both dictatorial governments continued to help each other during the years of repression. What was less known, and which is being investigated by the current democratic governments of Brazil and Chile, is the biochemical aid that Brazil offered to Pinochet to be able to eliminate his political adversaries more effectively, as reported by the Brazilian newspaper O Globo.

To disguise the smuggling of the toxin obtained in Brazil, the Chilean Bacteriological Institute, today the Public Health Institute (ISP), was used as a front. It was the doctor Ingrid Heltmann Ghigliotto, former director of the ISP who was imprisoned during the military regime, who told the DPA agency that she found in the institute's basements two boxes with ampoules of botulinum toxins from the Butantan Institute of São Paulo, which would have been enough to kill half the inhabitants of Santiago de Chile.

The Ministry of Health of Brasília states that it does not have records of shipments to the former Bacteriological Institute of Santiago. In turn, in São Paulo, the Butantan Institute says that there is no record of the shipment of botulinum anatoxin to Chile in the 70s to 80s.

It was the CIA that first discovered in 1978 the Chilean dictator's interest in the use of chemical weapons like those that arrived from Brazil to eliminate his adversaries more effectively. While the Chileans involved in the story begin to be identified, the collaborators in Brazil who offered Pinochet the deadly toxin are still unknown.

In this country, the work of the Truth Commission, created by President Dilma Rousseff to clarify all the crimes perpetrated during the military dictatorship that still remain hidden or forgotten, is underway. It could be an occasion to know for certain the truth and the magnitude of this information that the Chilean justice system is investigating.

Source: El Pais, September 15, 2013

The "drunkenness," stupidity, and arrogance of the Chilean military officers who organized the criminal Operation Condor:

In Argentina, a massive trial is being held against the criminals of the Armies of South America who devised the so-called Condor Plan to exterminate people with progressive thinking. The "intelligent spies" left all kinds of traces.

The carelessness left documents that speak of the "secret" invitations to a seminar-meeting that was held in Chile and gave rise to the repressive plan that caused the greatest massacre of left-wing people in the Southern Cone.

See exclusively the invitation from Manuel Contreras, former head of the DINA, to his peers in the "intelligence" of other Armies of America. It is the year 1975. Pinochet is in power, and the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) has a lot of work to do.

Left-wing groups are trying to recover in Chile after massive arrests, exiles, and crimes, and the DINA is trying to exterminate them. How? The plan is to join forces with the military leaders of the Southern Cone dictatorships of America to end the threat of these groups.

The director of the DINA at that time, Manuel Contreras, is in charge of contacting the "intelligence" agencies of the southern countries to arrange a meeting in Santiago. The chiefs from Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, and, sporadically, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador attend the meeting.

The "secret" "intelligence" meeting is held successfully. The chiefs reach an agreement to carry out a joint operation to end the threat of left-leaning movements. This is called "Operation Condor," in honor of the bird immortalized on the national coat of arms of the host country.

Currently, there are more than 100 people whose trail was lost in extermination operations by agents of the repressive agencies and who are part of the current trial being held in Argentina. But there may be more victims of the operation.

It was not until 1992 that the so-called "Archives of Terror" were discovered in Paraguay, a series of documents that prove the existence of the bloody organization. It turns out that the "secret" Intelligence operation left behind several documents that confirmed its existence and its crimes.

The documents found correspond to letters sent by Manuel Contreras in which he invites to a national Intelligence work meeting, which had "a strictly secret character" in Santiago. How is it explained that espionage agencies leave traces of their criminal organization, or how is it that a secret meeting is summoned through a letter?

More than intelligence, the organizational meeting had almost humorous touches, if it were not for the tragic consequences it brought. For example, there were social meetings of the participants, photographs, visits to authorities, and semi-public encounters.

In other words, the supposed "top" spies of America left all kinds of traces... Stupidity and arrogance: the explanation of the evidence Human Rights lawyer and director of the Corporation for the Promotion and Defense of the Rights of the People (CODEPU), Hiram Villagra, explains that this attitude was not by chance.

The feeling of superiority shared by the Intelligence agents, who acted with complete lack of concern. "They were sure of impunity, and thus they acted openly. They exchanged correspondence," says lawyer Villagra. "The Condor meeting was financed by the DINA and meant a quite important anti-subversive apparatus," recalls the lawyer.

The professional delves into his thesis of the arrogance of the military officers who even used public entities for the sending of missives to allied countries to form the criminal organization. "It was so crude that whoever was the manager of the Aeronautical Museum was sent to send a letter to all the chiefs of the countries to coordinate Condor." Meanwhile, the PC lawyer, Eduardo Contreras, explains that among the members of Operation Condor, there was a feeling of eternal permanence in power; being so, who was going to stop them? "When the coups d'état occurred, all of them pushed by the US, they had the feeling that through violence their governments were going to be eternal. In some way, they were right; many of the actions, new institutions, and changes they introduced in the peoples remain to this day," said the lawyer who filed a complaint against Pinochet and achieved the stripping of his immunity. "That air of arrogance came from having the businessmen and the media on their side, which made them presume that they could do whatever they could think of, because they were never going to be discovered. The arrogance of the dictatorships and the dictators is enormous; they thought they were never going to be condemned or prosecuted," he concluded. There is a tendency to confuse that the files known today are the product of carelessness, that Intelligence did not function as such. However, the situation was different. It was the drunkenness of power that worked against them. The feeling of invincibility was their condemnation. It was those stored tracks that managed to bring the dictators and their henchmen to the dock.

Source: Cambio 21, March 27, 2014

20 years after the Riggs Case: more than $3 billion seized from Pinochet goes to the Judiciary

The funds were transferred to the current account of the Administrative Corporation of the Judiciary (CAPJ) because Pinochet's heirs did not claim them within the legal period of six months. It should be mentioned that these funds were not part of the forfeiture ordered by the Supreme Court in 2018, which forced the Pinochet family to transfer US$ 1.6 million to the treasury, pointing out that the general (ret.) had engaged in conduct related to the embezzlement of public funds.

After almost two decades of intense investigations and litigation, more than 3 billion Chilean pesos, equivalent to approximately US$ 3.3 million, which were seized from dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte within the framework of the Riggs Case, have finally ended up in the hands of the Judiciary of Chile.

As reported by El Mercurio, the long legal battle concluded with the liquidation of three time deposits that were in a banking entity. The Riggs case, which dates back to August 2004, was an investigation that focused on the assets of the deceased general and leader of the Chilean dictatorship, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.

In 2018, the Supreme Court ordered the forfeiture of a portion of the funds related to Pinochet, determining that his family had to transfer to the treasury an amount equivalent to US$ 1.6 million, which at that time represented a little more than one billion Chilean pesos.

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court also concluded that Pinochet's heirs were "third-party responsible" in this case and that the general (ret.) had engaged in "conduct that involved the embezzlement of public funds." These legal decisions marked a milestone in the fight against impunity in Chile and set an important precedent.

The State Defense Council (CDE) was the agency that requested the minister of the capital's appellate court, Guillermo de la Barra, to make the funds held in the court available to the Administrative Corporation of the Judiciary (CAPJ).

Minister De la Barra granted this request in 2020, based on article 677 of the Chilean Code of Criminal Procedure, which establishes that money made available to the courts that is not subject to seizure or claimed within the indicated deadlines shall be drawn to the order of the CAPJ for its purposes.

However, the legal history of these funds did not end there. The defense of Lucía Hiriart, the deceased widow of Augusto Pinochet, filed an appeal arguing that she was no longer the owner of the forfeited assets.

Minister De la Barra rejected this appeal, and in December 2021, the Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed his decision. The sentence became final a year ago, but the delivery of the funds could not be carried out in August 2022 due to precautionary measures imposed by the 7th Civil Court of Santiago, in response to a lawsuit filed by the CDE.

According to the morning newspaper, these resources will be allocated to the purposes of the Administrative Corporation of the Judiciary (CAPJ).

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 20, 2023

Quebrada El Way in Antofagasta: Testimony of human rights violations during the Dictatorship in Chile

In Antofagasta, the Quebrada El Way stands as a tragic reminder of the atrocities committed by the Caravan of Death in 1973. This site, where fourteen political prisoners were executed, symbolizes the struggle for memory and justice in the face of systematic human rights violations during the civil-military dictatorship in Chile.

The Quebrada El Way, located in Antofagasta, Chile, is a site of great historical and symbolic relevance due to the atrocities committed during the civil-military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. In the early hours of October 19, 1973, fourteen political prisoners were brutally executed at this place by the infamous Caravan of Death, an army delegation led by Sergio Arellano Stark.

This group traveled the country from south to north between September 30 and October 22, 1973, murdering 104 people, leaving a deep wound in the history of Chile, according to the historical background provided by the Providencia Group.

Antofagasta The horror of the Caravan of Death manifested itself in Antofagasta when, under direct orders to "accelerate processes and standardize criteria in the administration of justice," false war councils were carried out.

The political prisoners, previously imprisoned, were taken from their cells and executed summarily. The fourteen bodies were transported to the morgue of the Regional Hospital of Antofagasta, where a gendarme named Octavio Sepúlveda was a witness to the horrible conditions in which they were found.

The bodies presented serious bullet wounds, to the point of being almost unrecognizable. This brutality left an indelible mark on the local community. The role of the press and the manipulation of information The local press, controlled by the regime, reported the murders as an action against "political activism and terrorist conspiracy," thus justifying the executions before public opinion.

The death certificates were manipulated by military orders to cover up the real cause of the deaths. Memory and Commemoration With the return to democracy, various human rights groups and relatives of the victims have worked tirelessly to preserve the memory of these events.

In 2001, the "Plaza of Human Rights" was built at the entrance of the Quebrada El Way, symbolizing a space of resistance and memory for future generations. This plaza was reinaugurated in 2007, and subsequently, a new plaque was added in 2015.

The recognition of the Quebrada El Way as a Historical Monument is essential to honor the memory of the political executed and as a symbol of resistance against impunity. This site, in addition to being a place for reflection, reminds us of the importance of defending human rights and the dignity of people, highlighting the long struggle of the relatives and organizations that keep the memory of the dictatorship's crimes alive.

Call to memory and justice The history of the Quebrada El Way and the events that occurred during the Caravan of Death in Antofagasta are a reminder of the systematic human rights violations committed during the dictatorship in Chile.

Preserving this place as a site of memory is crucial to ensure that future generations understand the importance of justice and human rights, thus preventing these atrocious crimes from falling into oblivion.

Source: diarioantofagasta.cl, August 9, 2024

Civil court orders Pinochet's heirs to pay more than 16 million dollars to the Treasury

The resolution of the 7th Civil Court of Santiago states that "it is proven" that Augusto Pinochet "engaged in conduct that involved the misappropriation of public funds." The first-instance ruling could still be appealed.

Almost seven years after the Supreme Court issued the sentence that ended the so-called Riggs case—in which Augusto Pinochet was prosecuted for the crimes of embezzlement of public funds—the 7th Civil Court of Santiago issued its resolution regarding a lawsuit filed by the State Defense Council (CDE).

Through this action, the state agency seeks to recover money that, until now, has not been subject to forfeiture.

As reported by the newspaper El Mercurio, the court accepted the lawsuit filed by the CDE, which pursues the profits of another's fraud by the members of Pinochet's estate, and therefore ordered the restitution of more than 16 million dollars.

The list of heirs includes the dictator's late wife, Lucía Hiriart, and 15 other people who are part of his descendants. This is a first-instance ruling, so it could still be taken to the Court of Appeals and eventually to the Supreme Court.

Unjustified income

In the 52-page resolution, the 7th Civil Court of Santiago states:

“Although it was not possible to enforce the criminal liability of Mr. Pinochet Ugarte due to his death, it is proven (…) that he engaged in conduct that involved the misappropriation of public funds, estimating that his unjustified income amounted to at least US$ 17,886,323, the origin of which is found in the reserved expenditure funds assigned to the Presidency of the Republic, the Military Household, and the Army of Chile’s Commander-in-Chief's Office.”

“Thus, the amount of the profit susceptible to being perceived by the defendants consists of the part of the illicitly originated assets of the deceased that was not subject to forfeiture, an amount that totals US$ 16,244,768.74, so that the distribution of the profit among the estate must be made pro rata to their rights in the inheritance,” the sentence says.

Such an amount, the court indicated, must be paid in Chilean pesos according to the value of the US currency at the time of payment, plus “current interest for readjustable operations from the date on which the defendants incur in default until effective payment.”

Civil action deemed not time-barred

Faced with the attempt by Pinochet's relatives to have the action declared time-barred, the ruling warns that this period must “be calculated from the moment the heirs could effectively receive the profit, which, as the prosecution's thesis has maintained, occurred once the replacement sentence was issued by the Supreme Court on August 24, 2018, since from that moment the legal situation of the defendants regarding the disputed assets was finally delimited, with the profit arising for the heirs in relation to the part of the deceased's assets that was not subject to the forfeiture penalty.”

“From this date, and until the notification of the lawsuit to the defendants, the four-year period contemplated by article 2332 of the Civil Code to declare the prescription of the action did not elapse,” they concluded.

Following the first-instance ruling, the president of the State Defense Council, Raúl Letelier, stated that “the lawsuit for the profit of another's fraud that justice today fully accepts is part of a set of actions materialized by the State Defense Council to repair the exorbitant damages caused by the embezzlement of public funds committed by Pinochet and his collaborators.”

Source: radiouchile.cl, July 24, 2025

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Impunity by administrative decree: reports of false dementia among Punta Peuco prisoners

Through medical reports of dubious technical quality, those accused of crimes against humanity seek to evade convictions by alleging mental or physical illness. A "forensic report" carried out on former agent Raúl Iturriaga Neumann by Hugo Lara Silva—a former leader of Chilean Nazism—states that the conviction is "revenge."

On March 3, 2000, at 10:25 in the morning, a plane from London landed at the Group 10 airport of the Chilean Air Force in Pudahuel. From the aircraft descended, in a wheelchair, the then-designated senator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, after spending 503 days detained in London.

To the surprise of those present—and the entire world—the former dictator, released for not being fit to stand trial, stood up and walked toward the Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

“Dead man walking,” ironically headlined the weekly The Clinic.

Indeed, the sudden “resurrection” of the sick man raised serious doubts regarding his real state of health, paving the way for a legal strategy that would be used in the future by other military personnel convicted of human rights violations in Chile.

The concept today has a name and points to all those accused of crimes against humanity who seek to escape the action of Justice by simulating physical or psychic pathologies, through reports of dubious technical quality.

The term is biological impunity and it also applies to cases that have not been able to be resolved judicially, despite the passage of long years—in some cases decades—due to the death of witnesses and perpetrators.

The latter, following the same idea, prevents ensuring due process and ends up guaranteeing impunity, especially in those cases where high-ranking officials who are of advanced age were involved. Figures on this indicate that, as of April 2024, according to the latest UDP Human Rights Report, 457 former agents died at some stage of the judicial process.

Although the passage of time continues to be a determining factor in burying cases without those responsible, the preparation of reports that allude to incipient dementia or some other psychiatric or mental health pathology has grown exponentially over the last three years.

“The fever of reports,” is what human rights lawyers who must deal with these strategies call it.

Simulation

Apart from Pinochet, another paradigmatic case is that of Edwin Dimter Bianchi, a retired Army colonel known as “El Príncipe” (The Prince)—accused of the homicide of Víctor Jara and the director of the Prison Service during the Unidad Popular, Littré Quiroga Carvajal—who remained out of prison due to a series of reports that diagnosed him with mental alienation.

The Mostrador Investigation Unit accessed one of the forensic reports that confirm the diagnosis made on the former Army officer. The document states that the methodology used includes an interview, reading of the case file, and case analysis “for one hour.” The report concludes that Dimter suffers from a major neurocognitive disorder of a progressive and irrecoverable course. “Such cognitive deficits interfere with autonomy and daily activities,” the report explains.

Despite the damning conclusions of the document, the proceedings requested by the visiting minister Paola Plaza proved that Dimter not only went frequently to the supermarket to do his household shopping, but that he traveled to the place driving his own vehicle.

The investigation, in short, allowed for the dismissal of the reports prepared by the Legal Medical Service and the Dr. José Horwitz Psychiatric Institute. “El Príncipe” (as they called him at the National Stadium), sentenced to 25 years in prison, entered Punta Peuco on October 17 of last year.

Regarding the entry of the former uniformed officer to prison, this media outlet published a note reporting the fact, requesting a statement from the Judiciary, from where they responded that “it will proceed with special care in these matters, arranging corroboration measures before any diagnosis that deserves doubts, in order to give certainty that the judicial decisions adopted are based on irrefutable evaluations.”

Despite the good intentions of those in charge of administering justice, the ability of former intelligence agents to simulate is a subject that still worries human rights lawyers. “If the person effectively has a mental health situation, there is nothing to do.

Justice cannot complain, but if the person is simulating, that would imply getting out of prison by administrative decree and constitutes a form of impunity due to fraudulent motivation,” explains lawyer Francisco Bustos.

The former executive secretary of the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior and former INDH councilor Francisco Ugás expressed the same point of view in a recent opinion column published in this media outlet. “The measures directed toward a correct examination must be extreme and rigorous, taking into consideration, first, that a large part of the agents have specialization in intelligence and have been trained to simulate... they seek to evade and abstract themselves from the action of Justice, plainly and simply, by lying regarding their state of health,” he pointed out.

Multidisciplinary teams

There are judicial sentences that also delve into the analysis of reports presented by perpetrators. In the case of the homicide of agricultural worker Pedro Curihual Paillán, committed in September 1973 in the commune of Pitrufquén, Carlos Moreno Mena was sentenced to 12 years in prison, despite the fact that the Legal Medical Service exams pointed to the existence of a dementia diagnosis in the first outpatient care of the former Carabineros lieutenant.

The problem, the document adds, is that “it does not appear in the following evaluations, nor is it consistent with the current clinical examination.”

This type of inconsistency in forensic reports, according to psychologist and lawyer Natalia Roa, is due to the inaccuracy of the diagnoses. “To diagnose, one must perform the minimum exams; it is not enough to say that the person suffers from some pathology based on a couple of interviews or impressions.

There are cases where not even one test is passed to certify a diagnosis. That is why the concern we have is that there exists a minimum standard to justify a legal consequence as relevant as a dismissal or alternative fulfillment of a sentence,” she asserts.

Another of the deficits detected in the reports is the participation of a single doctor in the diagnosis. In the case of César Manríquez Bravo, head of the DINA Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade, convicted as one of the authors of the disappearance of social worker Jacqueline Binfa and veterinarian Jorge D’Orival in 1974, one of the reports that diagnosed him with mental alienation, on January 10 of this year, was signed by a single psychiatrist from the Legal Medical Service.

For neuropsychiatrist Luis Fornazzari—consultant to the Memory Clinic and the Geriatric Psychiatry Program of St Michael's Hospital in Canada and one of those in charge of the forensic reports on former dictator Augusto Pinochet—forensic reports in these cases must be multidisciplinary. “Currently, all the care centers where we evaluate patients with any type of dementia do so with multiprofessional teams with the objective of having a multiple vision of the cognitive disorder and analyzing it from several angles,” he explains.

Regarding the diagnoses, some specialists assert, there is another factor not always well weighed: not every cognitive disorder is synonymous with a change in precautionary measures, nor does it correspond to an incurable disease. “There are cases where delirium is diagnosed, but since the conclusion is not based on exams, a distinction that is very relevant is not made: the disease can be treated with medication and it passes.

Dementia, on the other hand, by definition, is not reversible. So, being able to differentiate both conditions is very important,” explains Natalia Roa.

Fornazzari even goes beyond the inaccuracy of the diagnosis. “Culpability does not expire because they are older. We must not forget that these are crimes against humanity that have two sides: respect for the victims, on the one hand, and that patients can be treated inside prisons, with a good quality of life, even if they have dementia.

This is not about revenge, it is about justice. And crimes against humanity do not prescribe,” he states.

The neo-Nazi leader's report

There are reports for all tastes and some—without fear of exaggeration—are truly unclassifiable. This is the case of the neurological forensic report carried out on Raúl Iturriaga Neumann at the Military Hospital, in the middle of this year, by the doctor and forensic expert Hugo Lara Silva, in the context of the investigation into the qualified kidnapping of Jorge Herrera Cofré, which is being investigated in the Court of Appeals of San Miguel.

The conclusions of the document rule out any type of mental disability, ensuring that from a neurological point of view the former military officer—sentenced to a total of 515 years in prison for various crimes—can be charged normally in any criminal case.

However, the report extends into a series of sociopolitical reasonings foreign to the tenor of this type of forensic report.

One of these points concludes that Iturriaga Neumann is essentially a victim: “An 87-year-old senior citizen, a pensioner, who does not represent any danger to society or to the left, because 09/11/73 became history a long time ago (more than 50 years), now he is not a soldier, he is an elderly former soldier, the current conviction being clear revenge.”

Then, the report continues to delve into the role the former officer had in the sociopolitical history of the country. “He is not a criminal, he is a former soldier of the fatherland... who complied with the regulations in force in his time and place, for his institution and for the Republic, within the context of his work as a specialized military officer and in a period of irregular war (typical of international Marxism), based on a clear breakdown of the rule of law by the Marxist government of Salvador Allende,” the neurological report explains verbatim.

Next, the document raises some concerns that the doctor tries to highlight: “Is it that the Military and Carabineros who saved Chile from a Marxist assault on power through a flagrant violation of the constitution and who avoided a Civil War, are objects of Hatred and Revenge and the Red murderers of Military and Carabineros are deserving of Pardons and Benefits by these 8 governments including that of ‘PIÑERA and BORIC’?” (sic).

Hugo Lara Silva also explains that “international legislation on deconstruction, of the so-called ‘crimes against humanity’” should not be applied with retroactive effects and that “for equal justice applied by the United Nations, it would have to be done with retroactive effect also in the former USSR, China, Cuba, Cambodia, North Korea, Viet-Nam, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, etc.” (sic).

All these strategies, according to Lara Silva, have condemned Iturriaga Neumann to an “odious death by imprisonment.” “It is a political and medical problem that involves a military political prisoner, whether or not he participated in a detention of Marxist subversives, which is not my place to judge as a neurologist expert.

Detention that does not have any evidence or witnesses as reported by the Major General, because he never detained anyone and that is what is stated in his service record which for the Armed Forces is of essential veracity,” he states verbatim.

Before finishing the report, the expert assures that the document written was done “without hatreds of any kind, without hatreds of Marxist revenge that examines not a criminal with mild to moderate medical disability but a Major General (r) who acted in special times of Irregular War against International Marxism by order of the legitimate Government of the Republic, which restored the Rule of Law” (sic), he concludes.

It is worth mentioning that Hugo Lara Silva took over in 1997 as leader of what was one of the main neo-Nazi groups in Chile, the National Socialist Workers' Movement (MNSO), and that in the trial against the neo-Nazis who in 2006 murdered the young Tomás Vilches at the Persa Bío Bío, one of the defendants, Héctor Herrera, recounted the conversation they had that day with Lara, whom they met in a store: “Esteban greeted him and asked about his daughter, commenting that they hadn't seen each other for a long time, since the National Socialist meetings [sic].

They also talked about other neo-Nazi meetings. Doctor Lara gave him a business card, indicating that if they wanted they could go to the Lili Marlen restaurant, where important people went, such as powerful businessmen.

The greeting between Esteban and Doctor Lara was very particular, they held hands and greeted each other with a kiss,” said Herrera (who received a six-year sentence), in reference to Esteban González, better known as “Tito van Damme.”

El Mostrador contacted the Legal Medical Service, seeking to clarify the concerns raised in this report, but the agency assured that they would not make statements on the matter.

Source: elmostrador.cl, September 15, 2025

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Murderers and torturers: the ten agents of the Pinochet dictatorship who committed shocking crimes

They shot people who were already immobilized, threw boiling oil on a pregnant woman, used chemical weapons—such as sarin gas and botulinum toxin—and perpetrated terrorist attacks in Washington, Rome, and Buenos Aires.

Some were convicted and remain in Punta Peuco, others died without even being questioned by justice, such as Ingrid Olderöck, the woman with the dog that raped prisoners. These are ten agents who executed terrifying crimes during the dictatorship that began exactly 52 years ago.

This Thursday, September 11, marks 52 years since the coup d'état that brought to power the civil-military dictatorship headed by General Augusto Pinochet. This new anniversary surprises public opinion exposed to a campaign, mainly on social networks, in which some sectors claim that authoritarian government as a positive social, political, and economic period.

As a contribution to historical memory and the deepening of democracy, CIPER publishes the actions of the ten agents who, in our opinion, committed the most terrible crimes of the dictatorship. The lists of repressive agents and the background of their crimes can be reviewed on the Papeles de la Dictadura (Dictatorship Papers) platform, an initiative of CIPER and the CIP of the Universidad Diego Portales, in which more than 4,000 original documents related to that period have been registered.

Although supporters of that regime, which lasted until March 1990, usually justify that these actions were executed to confront ultra-left political-military groups, the truth is that, as judicial investigations cited in this article have shown, both the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and its successor, the National Information Center (CNI), quickly turned to the kidnapping, torture, and murder of all types of opponents, including pregnant women and minors.

Rape with dogs, electricity to the genitals, beatings on the soles of the feet and ears, electric shocks on electrified bed frames, mock executions, immersion in dirty water, and acid burns are part of the arsenal executed by the agents of these organizations. And this is the story.

KRASSNOFF AND A PREGNANT WOMAN BURNED WITH OIL

Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, known as “El Ruso” (The Russian), was born on February 15, 1946, in Tyrol, Austria. The son of Semión, a Don Cossack, and Dhyna, a Kuban Cossack, his family emigrated to Chile after the Second World War.

He joined the army in 1963 and participated in the assault on the Tomás Moro presidential house during the 1973 coup d'état. In the first months of 1974, he was sent to the School of the Americas in Panama, where he trained in urban counterinsurgency. Upon his return to Chile, he joined the DINA's Caupolicán Brigade, dedicated to the execution, disappearance, and torture of civilians.

He participated in the confrontation that culminated in the murder of MIR leader Miguel Enríquez. He was the protagonist of various crimes. One of the most hair-raising was the scourging and murder of Mónica Pacheco, a woman three months pregnant, burned with boiling water and oil, as corroborated by justice.

Despite his extensive history of crimes, he remained in the Army until 1998, when he retired. Today, he is incarcerated in the Punta Peuco prison, where he is serving more than a thousand years in prison for his multiple crimes.

In these years of imprisonment, Krassnoff has received two public tributes. The first was organized, at the end of 2011, by the then-mayor of Providencia, Cristián Labbé. The last one was carried out in 2018 at the Military School.

In an interview with T13, current presidential candidate José Antonio Kast said that he had met Krassnoff during a visit of his to Punta Peuco. “I had the opportunity to cross paths with him. He gave me his book and presents his version of the facts. I know Miguel Krassnoff and, seeing him, I don't believe all the things that are said about him,” he said.

MOREN BRITO AND THE TERROR OF VILLA GRIMALDI

Colonel Marcelo Moren Brito, known as “El Ronco” (The Hoarse One) or “El Coronta,” participated in key operations of the dictatorship from September 11, 1973, when he commanded the assault on the Technical University of the State, today the University of Santiago (USACH).

Two weeks later, the then-captain joined the Caravan of Death, an operation headed by General Sergio Arellano Stark that murdered 93 political prisoners held in prisons distributed between Puerto Montt and Pisagua.

Moren Brito continued his career as commander of the clandestine detention facility Villa Grimaldi, a true center of extermination in which the vast majority of detainees were murdered after extensive torture sessions.

Located in the commune of Peñalolén, in Santiago, in that place Moren Brito personally interrogated various people subjected to scourging. In Villa Grimaldi, one of the most common forms of painful humiliation was the “parrilla” (grill): detainees, men and women, were stripped, laid down, and tied to a metal bed frame, to then apply electric shocks to them.

Judicial processes have accredited that Moren Brito also integrated the DINA's Caupolicán Brigade, from which members of the Socialist Party, the MIR, and the MAPU were especially persecuted. As he himself acknowledged before the courts, during the dictatorship he was sent on missions abroad, which included, for example, teaching new forms of interrogation, through hypnosis, to members of the Paraguayan army, although in that testimony he avoids his responsibility and maintains that Villa Grimaldi could have been just a transit point for detainees.

He was sentenced to more than 300 years in prison. He died in the Military Hospital in 2015, coincidentally, on September 11.

OLDERÖCK, THE WOMAN WITH THE DOG

The Carabineros officer, Ingrid Olderöck, left a dark memory among the men and women who passed through the clandestine detention barracks “Venda Sexy,” because she trained a German shepherd, whom she called Volodia, and which she used to rape people held in that torture center, located in the house at 3037 Irán Street, in Macul, Santiago.

Olderöck was not only a field agent of the Purén Brigade of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), but she became director of the Women's School of that criminal organization, a structure that trained about 70 women in political repression practices.

In August 1987, during the last years of the dictatorship, Olderöck granted an interview to the television of the Federal Republic of Germany, in which she admitted that torture took place in Chile, including scourging children to obtain confessions from their parents, as she recounted.

She died with impunity on March 17, 2001, at the age of 57, as a result of acute digestive hemorrhage. She was never questioned by Justice.

CORBALÁN, A SILVER GULL AND 25 MURDERS

Army officer Álvaro Corbalán Castilla, known as “El Faraón” (The Pharaoh) or “Don Juan,” served as an agent of the National Information Center (CNI) during the dictatorship. During his time in that organization, he was involved in multiple cases of serious human rights violations.

In fact, he has been convicted in various judicial instances as the author or co-author of the murder of more than 25 people.

In 1987, he led the so-called “Operation Albania,” also known as the “Corpus Christi Massacre,” an action in which CNI agents executed 12 members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) when they were already detained and defenseless.

Corvalán was also responsible in 1982 for the murder of union leader Tucapel Jiménez, a member of the Radical Party, who received 5 bullets in the skull, in addition to having his throat slit. To hide this crime, Corvalán and his agents simulated the suicide of carpenter Juan Alegría Mundaca, cutting the veins of both his arms, reaching the bone, which showed that it was not a suicide.

Juan Alegría was a worker with no political affiliation. For these crimes, Corvalán received a life sentence.

In addition, Corvalán participated in the murders of journalist José Carrasco, publicist Abraham Muskablit, painter Felipe Rivera, and architect Gastón Vidaurrázaga, which occurred in 1986.

At the beginning of the 1980s, he was in charge of security for the Viña del Mar International Song Festival and received from the designated mayor of that commune, Eugenia Garrido, a Silver Gull “for his services rendered in defense of the fatherland.”

Before being arrested and convicted, Corvalán was a member of the far-right political party Avanzada Nacional, of which he became president between August and November 1989.

MANUEL CONTRERAS, THE BRAIN OF DARKNESS

Holding the rank of Army colonel, Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda came to have more power than the vast majority of the generals of that military branch who were on active duty after the coup d'état. “El Mamo,” as his supporters and detractors called him, spread terror among Pinochet's opponents—whether they were supporters of subversive tactics or not—as head of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), the body that was born along with the dictatorship and that was responsible for the kidnapping, torture, and murder of hundreds of people.

The men and women under the command of Contreras, an officer trained by US soldiers under the National Security Doctrine at the School of the Americas in Panama, used torture such as the application of electricity to various parts of the body, beatings, broken arms, asphyxiation, and burns from acid and cigarettes, in addition to mock executions.

“El Mamo,” who died in 2015 after being sentenced to more than 500 years in prison, also spearheaded the creation of Plan Cóndor, a joint initiative of the secret police of the contemporary dictatorships of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay, which coordinated the capture and death of opponents throughout the subcontinent.

With at least 1,500 agents under his direct command and various clandestine detention centers to his credit, from Contreras's office, terrorist attacks were planned and executed in Buenos Aires (against the former Army commander-in-chief, Carlos Prats, and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert), in Rome (against DC leader Bernardo Leighton and his wife, Ana Fresno), and in Washington (against former foreign minister Orlando Letelier and his secretary, Ronni Moffitt).

In fact, the terrorist attack with double murder in the capital of the United States led to his persecution by that country and, eventually, the dissolution of the DINA in 1978 and the opening of the Letelier Case in Chile, a process that ended up taking him to prison.

However, Contreras's power was not only operational. Documentation available in CIPER's Dictatorship Papers shows that the DINA was also responsible for approving all hiring in the State, in addition to coordinating the internal war plans of each ministry, by order of Pinochet himself.

TOWNLEY AND HIS TERRORIST BOMBS

American Michael Townley Welch was an agent of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who participated in various murders inside and outside Chile. To avoid prison, he joined the United States Federal Witness Protection Program, because he provided information to that country's justice system about his participation in the explosive terrorist attack perpetrated in Washington in 1976 against former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier and his secretary, Ronni Moffitt.

The son of a Ford Motor Company executive based in Chile since 1957, Townley studied at Saint George’s College and lived in the exclusive neighborhoods of Los Dominicos and Lo Curro. Before the justice systems of the United States, Chile, and Argentina, he confessed separately to his participation in terrorist attacks executed by order of the dictatorship in America and Europe.

He also revealed how the civil-military regime used chemical weapons to murder opponents.

Townley's secret statements to the FBI were published in 2023 by the National Security Archive of the United States, including a letter written in his own hand in 1978: “If there has been sufficient motive to open this envelope, I accuse the Government of Chile of my death,” he wrote on that paper.

Those declassified documents revealed a frustrated assassination operation in Paris against socialist leader Carlos Altamirano and MIR leaders, as well as details of the manufacture of sarin gas in his house in Lo Curro, where he lived with writer Mariana Callejas.

Those declassified documents also provided background on how the Spanish UN official, Carmelo Soria, was beaten to death by agents of the DINA's Mulchén Brigade in the garden of Townley's house, as well as information on the latter's role in the recruitment of the Italian fascists who shot in Rome against Bernardo Leighton and his wife.

EMA CEBALLOS, "LA FLACA CECILIA"

Ema Ceballos Núñez, known as “La Flaca Cecilia,” was a Navy agent who performed duties in the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and later in the National Information Center (CNI). She was recruited by Carabineros officer Ingrid Olderöck and stood out for her operational participation in several crimes.

In 2017, at 70 years old, she became the first woman in Chile to enter prison to serve a sentence for a human rights violation case. On that occasion, she was sentenced to ten years and one day in prison for the qualified kidnapping of Julián Peña Maltés, which occurred in 1987, a member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) who remains disappeared to this day.

In 2024, she was convicted as a co-author of the homicide of Juan José Boncompte Andreu, to whom intelligence services attributed in those years the status of regional head of the MIR in Valdivia. According to the Supreme Court ruling, Ema Ceballos shot Boncompte in the skull during a pursuit, when he was already down and wounded by gunfire.

“I followed orders,” she said, in writing, to El Mercurio in her only contact with the press.

BERNARDO DAZA, MURDERER OF THE PLASTIC BAG

Bernardo Daza Navarro was a non-commissioned officer of the Chilean Navy and an agent of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) during the dictatorship. He was part of the Lautaro Brigade, a DINA unit that was responsible for the detention, torture, and murder of numerous leaders and militants of the Communist Party.

Among the best-known victims of this brigade is Víctor Díaz, general secretary of the PC in hiding, who was arrested in May 1976 and murdered months later, when Daza suffocated him with a plastic bag, as reconstructed by justice.

Daza Navarro was also involved in the Calle Conferencia Case, in which the DINA dismantled the PC leadership. In that operation, carried out in May 1976, several communist leaders were detained and disappeared, including Jorge Muñoz, Mario Zamorano, Uldarico Donaire, and Jaime Donato.

In 2007, Judge Víctor Montiglio prosecuted Daza Navarro and six other former uniformed officers for their responsibility in the kidnapping and homicide of Víctor Díaz. He died in 2016, while serving his sentence in Punta Peuco. Due to his death, he was dismissed from the other cases in which his name appeared.

FIFO PALMA, THE MAN FROM PATRIA Y LIBERTAD

César Palma Ramírez, known as “El Fifo,” was a civilian employee of the Chilean Air Force (FACh) and an agent of the Joint Command during the dictatorship. He committed his first crimes before the coup d'état, as a member of the far-right terrorist group Patria y Libertad.

In that capacity, he participated in the murder of President Salvador Allende's aide-de-camp, Navy Captain Arturo Araya, an event that occurred on July 27, 1973.

Palma Ramírez later joined the Joint Command, an intelligence unit created by the FACh, where he participated in numerous human rights violations. Among these are the kidnapping and disappearance of former communist councilman Carlos Contreras Maluje and the homicides of fellow Joint Command agents Carol Flores and Guillermo Bratti.

He was arrested by the Human Rights Brigade of the Investigative Police in 2008, while he was hiding in a trailer in the Araucanía Region. He died in 2016.

FUENTES MORRISON AND 39 FATAL VICTIMS

Roberto Fuentes Morrison, known as “El Wally,” was a commander of the Chilean Air Force and an agent of that military branch's intelligence service (SIFA) during the dictatorship.

From mid-1974, he acted as one of the main torturers in the basements of the Chilean Air Force (FACH) War Academy, under the orders of Colonel Edgard Cevallos Jones. That was the place where “they tortured all day and all night,” according to former agent Andrés Valenzuela.

As head of operations for the Joint Command, he was responsible for numerous detentions, kidnappings, torture, disappearances, and murders. His fatal victims total 39 people, including Miguel Rodríguez Gallardo, Arsenio Leal Pereira, Gustavo Castro Hurtado, Alonso Gahona Chávez, Luis Moraga Cruz, and Francisco Ortiz Valladares.

The torture methods used by the Joint Command, where Fuentes Morrison was one of the heads, included beatings, hanging, application of electricity to the genitals, stripping, and sexual abuse.

On June 9, 1989, already in retirement, he was murdered in an FPMR attack outside his home in Ñuñoa, Santiago. He was ambushed by two subjects who shot him 14 times.

Source: ciper.cl, September 9, 2025