The coup d'état that took place in Venezuela last April was intended to have a foothold in Santiago, Chile. Faced with the imminent asylum in our country of Chávez's right-hand man, José Vicente Rangel, two agents from that country's Directorate of Police Intelligence (Disip) traveled to our country to assassinate him and his family.

Upon entering Chile, at the International Police office at Pudahuel Airport, the officer in charge asked them if they were visiting for leisure. The burly men replied that they were there for work. And they did not lie.

What they did not confess was that they were operational agents of Disip (Directorate of Police Intelligence), Venezuela's political agency. And even less so that they had an objective to fulfill in Santiago: to finalize all the details to assassinate the then-Minister of Defense—now Vice President—of Venezuela, his wife, children, and grandchildren in our country.

The two Venezuelan agents arrived in Chile on Monday, April 8 of this year. That day, they looked for the local press to see news from their country, but found that the media's concerns were the death of the Mexican actress María Félix and that Colo Colo was continuing its winning streak against the bus drivers' team.

They did not understand anything. For them, there was something more important. While waiting for their suitcases at the Arturo Merino Benítez Airport, they knew that only three days remained until the frustrated coup d'état against President Hugo Chávez.

Their mission was to pursue and then exterminate the inner circle close to Chávez after they requested political asylum. It was a perfect crime. A plan created in Venezuela, coordinated from Peru, and executed in Chile with the help and logistics of a comrade-in-arms. A former high-ranking Chilean military officer.

Upon arriving in Santiago, their contact in Chile was waiting for them: Brigadier (R) Manuel Provis Carrasco, a former agent of the DINA and the CNI. Disip sources in Venezuela explain that Provis was a trusted man for the agents, and that for this reason, he knew the plan.

However, those close to the operation in Chile indicated that it is possible that Provis had not received further details of the mission at the beginning. The Venezuelans also told "Manolo" that they were conducting investigations into opponents in Chile. "The Disip agents' plan was confidential and came from a high authority within that Venezuelan agency.

Provis, also named 'Omar Shariff' by the agents due to his resemblance to the Egyptian actor, I don't know if he was informed of everything at the beginning." Furthermore, the agents sometimes moved around alone.

But that they were together, and even more so, that the agents stayed at the house of a relative of the brigadier, "there is no doubt," noted a witness who saw the Disip agents with the Chilean military officer. "They even hugged when they saw each other."

Once calmer, the foreign agents informed Brigadier Provis of their interest in obtaining background information on a politician from their country with ties to Chile. They also informed him that in two more days (April 11) there would be a coup d'état in their country.

The Disip agents were certain of the information that the then-Minister of Defense and now Vice President of Venezuela, José Vicente Rangel, would seek asylum in Chile along with his wife, the Chilean painter Ana Avalos, their children, and grandchildren.

Their mission was to assassinate them all. For the agents, Vicente Rangel represented a future political enemy of the coup plotters, and he could gain more strength from abroad.

The job of Brigadier Manuel Provis, who retired from the Army in December of last year, was to assist the Venezuelan agents in whatever they needed. To get them cell phones, weapons, serve as their guide, protect them, and provide them with the intelligence information they required.

The trust between Brigadier Provis and the Venezuelan agents was such that, in order not to leave a record of them in hotels and apartments, he housed them for a few days in the home of a relative located in the Las Condes commune. What those involved in this macabre plan did not know was that they were being followed, even to the doors of the house on Sebastián Elcano street.

The Disip agents who arrived in Chile identified themselves as Samuel and Víctor Hugo. Samuel was the one in charge of the mission in Chile. Witnesses who spent time with him describe him as a burly man, 1.80 meters tall.

Approximately 50 years old. He claimed to be an active colonel in the Venezuelan army and a personal friend of Brigadier Provis. According to Colonel Samuel, Provis had taken very good care of him in Israel, a place where the Chilean brigadier was on a military mission.

For his part, Víctor Hugo was approximately 40 years old, with a mustache. He was fat and nearly 1.70 meters tall. He never claimed to be a military man, only a member of Disip.

Agents Samuel and Víctor Hugo sometimes traveled alone on the Metro. They looked for their own restaurants and drank coffee while reviewing documents related to the Rangel family. In the days leading up to the coup, the Venezuelans checked background information on their properties; they even went to Dicom in Tobalaba to legally obtain more information on the family.

Specifically, they were looking through the relatives of the spouse, Ana Avalos, for information on how much money there was in Chile, what properties the asylum-seeking family might arrive at, and to see the addresses of the Chilean painter's sisters.

The plan had been designed in Caracas and coordinated from Lima, but they had to have all options covered. The Disip operatives anxiously awaited the arrival of the Rangel family in Chile. The plan was not complicated: they would simulate a robbery and liquidate whoever was in the house; it would not be the first robbery with fatal victims.

Fast and effective. There was no time, nor organization, for kidnappings, departures from the country, or more elaborate operations.

The agents finalize the details

Through the news in Chile and informed by their superiors from Venezuela, the Disip agents headed to El Ibérico, a well-known restaurant in Borde Río, to finalize the details of the imminent arrival of the then-Minister of Defense's family.

While Samuel and Víctor Hugo complained about the poor quality of the local coffee, they gave more details about the coup in Venezuela to their Chilean contact. They pointed out that the then-Director of Operations of Disip, Eliecer Otaiza, was the one who had sent them to Chile, and that he was in Peru waiting for President Hugo Chávez to arrive in Lima via asylum.

Disip sources in Venezuela confirmed to La Nación Domingo that the plan in Peru was to assassinate Chávez, a task that Otaiza himself would carry out. Otaiza had dictated the same fate for the Rangel-Avalos family in our country.

In Peru, Eliecer Otaiza had close networks. His close relationship with Vladimiro Montesinos was well known. Otaiza personally took charge of covering up and protecting the macabre former advisor to Alberto Fujimori until the moment of his capture.

Who is the contact?

The relationship between Disip and the DINA is old and began during Operation Condor (which united the intelligence agencies of Latin America in their fight against leftist militants and subversive groups).

Otaiza, who claims to be the reincarnation of Napoleon, approved the contact with the Chilean Brigadier Manuel Provis to be the liaison for the mission in Chile due to the Chilean's "good curriculum" in repressive activities.

Brigadier Manuel Provis Carrasco, alias "Francisco Valenzuela," graduated in 1970 from the School of the Americas with a specialty in combat weapons orientation. He was also assigned to the Villa Grimaldi torture center and belonged to the DINA's Caupolicán brigade.

At the end of 1977, when he was a DINA captain, he suggested to former agent Marcia Merino (known as "La Flaca Alejandra" by her former comrades in the MIR) that in order to avoid problems in the future, she should legally die and change her face and identity. And so it was. The former MIR member underwent plastic surgery at the Clínica Santa María.

For his part, former DINA agent Luz Arce recalls that at the end of 1989 she received a call from the then-Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Provis Carrasco, who told her he had just arrived from Israel. His new assignment would be the Ministry of Defense, and he offered her work in the BIE (Army Intelligence Brigade).

Provis continued in repressive tasks and was commander of the CNI barracks on Borgoño street in charge of the Metropolitan Area.

On November 2, 1999, the Ministry of Defense published in the Diario Oficial the designation of Army Brigadier Manuel Provis Carrasco as the replacement for the head of the VIII Region during the presidential elections. Provis Carrasco retired from the Army in December of last year. He now works in the health sector.

The operation becomes complicated

While the coup in Venezuela was weakening thanks to the support of the chavistas and various world leaders, the Disip agents traveled to Viña del Mar as tourists. According to them, everything would go as planned.

Often, while enjoying Chilean seafood and wine, the Disip officials complained about the supposed money that José Vicente Rangel would have in Chile. They spoke of hundreds of thousands of dollars and how much they hated him.

They knew of his affection for Chile. Rangel, a 73-year-old lawyer and journalist, is considered one of Chávez's most loyal collaborators. For the agents, assassinating him was a mission that had to be accomplished.

The Venezuelan Vice President's closeness to Chile is not only through his wife. In 1948, Rangel completed part of his law studies at the University of Chile. Later, in our country, he married Ana Avalos, who would stand out in Venezuela as a visual artist (sculptor and ceramist) and television producer.

The agents and Provis knew through background information they brought from Caracas that the couple would arrive in Chile along with their two children and their two grandchildren. Everyone was on the list to be assassinated. The order was clear: there should be no heir of Rangel left, no survivor close to Chávez. At least that was the plan of the Disip's head of operations, Eliecer Otaiza.

As the crisis against Hugo Chávez worsened, the press in Chile published that Ana Avalos had called the wife of the then-Chilean ambassador in Caracas, Marcos Alvarez, to see the possibility of obtaining asylum in our country in case events worsened. This information, however, was denied by the Minister Secretary General of Government, Heraldo Muñoz.

The Secretary of State said then that there was nothing official regarding the matter and that the information circulating that morning was only rumors. Later, Ambassador Alvarez himself joined in, saying that no one from the Venezuelan government had approached the embassy with such an objective.

For their part, the Disip agents received confirmation that asylum had been requested and that the plan to execute them continued.

While uncertainty and concern increased in Caracas, the Venezuelan agents called their country every half hour to know what to do. Although support for Chávez increased and the coup weakened, in Chile everything continued its course.

However, when the imminent return of the president to the presidential palace gained strength, the anguish of those in charge of executing the plan in Chile intensified. Finally, the political events that cost Chávez his power for 48 hours changed.

The news announced that Rangel spoke twice with Chávez while the latter was detained and that he also participated in the movement to restore him to power.

For its part, Disip expressed broad support for the protesters in favor of Chávez. The Directorate of Police Intelligence fixed a position in favor of the Venezuelan people one day after the coup and assured that they would not go out into the street to repress the chavista demonstrations.

In our country, the Venezuelan agents lost contact with their intelligence agency, because priorities were changing for Disip. Samuel and Víctor Hugo bought local newspapers looking for information, and found unrelated and frivolous topics, such as the fact that the host Margot Kahl was working on a solo project after Alvaro Salas refused to work with her.

Very little information from Venezuela. So, they asked the former DINA agent, Manuel Provis, to take them to a cyber-café in Providencia to see news from the Venezuelan media.

When they sat in front of the computer, they realized that Chávez had returned to power and that the dark mission to assassinate the Rangel-Avalos family was canceled. José Vicente Rangel would not seek asylum. Rangel would not arrive in Chile. There were no opponents to eliminate, there were no victims.

Brigadier Provis did not understand what had happened. His Venezuelan friends neither. What to do now? What if someone looks for them in Venezuela?

The message reached them clearly from Peru. Eliecer Otaiza ordered them to stay a few days, because according to him, things would change, there would be another coup. But it never came. Chávez was returning to power.

The mastermind

There are many suspicions that the mastermind of this frustrated crime was someone superior to Eliecer Otaiza. But the agents themselves in Chile always claimed that the director of Disip, Captain Carlos Aguilera, was innocent and unaware of the plan for the Rangel massacre. They always pointed the responsibility to Otaiza.

A Venezuelan journalist compares the Disip's director of operations to Vladimiro Montesinos. "They believe they have an image of being indispensable. Chávez, with a past as a conspirator, lives in paranoia.

Eliecer was in charge of his security. He warned him of threats and, if necessary, created them. He would go out in public to affirm it: 'They want to kill Chávez.' When Chávez was about to make public his decision to remove Otaiza from his position, a Disip official was just captured with explosive charges that he intended to leave on the runway where Chávez's plane would land.

Eliecer Otaiza would set up an 'operation' and dismantle the action. A crude, desperate move that does not cease to have a tender connotation."

The mode of operation described by the professional is very similar to that of Lenin Guardia: when there were no conspiracies, he simply created them.

In Venezuela, they claim that Eliecer Otaiza is Chávez's prodigal son. How to remove him from his side, if he had always been like his son? The most serious thing is that, even though Otaiza formally left Disip, his networks remain active.

The frustration

Provis and the Disip agents were worried. They were disappointed in the coup plotters. They feared for their lives. If the plan leaked, the Venezuelans knew they were dead men. For security, the outings to restaurants changed to meetings at the house of Provis's relative.

The fear of being apprehended increased. When driving through the streets of Santiago, they saw a police vehicle and feared. The agents left Chile on Friday, April 19, eight days after the coup d'état. They remained in Chile for a total of eleven days.

José Vicente Rangel, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, then of Defense, and now Executive Vice President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, never knew about the assassination plan against him.

While he celebrated together with his friend Hugo Chávez, the Disip agents walked freely through the streets of Caracas. Had the coup d'état succeeded, and if the information the agents handled that the Rangels would seek asylum in Chile was true, the fate of this family would have been different.

Furthermore, had the macabre terrorist act of Disip in Chile been carried out, no one would have understood the extermination of this family of diplomats. They would probably have thought of the coup plotters as the culprits. Perhaps a robbery with a fatal ending.

The farewell between the Venezuelan Colonel Samuel, Víctor Hugo, and Brigadier Provis was loaded with gratitude and esteem. Lan Chile flight N° 560, on Friday, April 19, took the Disip operational agents back to Venezuela. In Santiago, Brigadier Provis would continue his normal life; he is already used to it. It was just one more operation.

"Hello, is this Brigadier Provis?" "Yes, this is he speaking..."

Six months after the frustrated visit of the agents to Chile, last Thursday the 17th, I called the house of Brigadier Manuel Provis Carrasco to ask him about the operation to assassinate the second-highest political authority of Venezuela and his family.

With unusual calmness, he replied that he did not know any Venezuelan military officer. Nor did he remember having been with any member of Disip in Chile, and much less being part of an attack to eliminate the Vice President of Venezuela and his family. "I have no problem acknowledging that I worked in the DINA, the CNI, and the DINE (Army Intelligence Directorate), but I do not remember having been with Venezuelan agents, not at all," the brigadier replied.

I explained to the former military officer that people close to the operation heard that Samuel (a Disip colonel) remembered him from Israel, but he insisted that he does not remember him. "Yes, I was in Israel, but I don't remember any Venezuelan. And much less was I with him in the month of April."

The calm with which the brigadier answered was surprising. Even when I told him that Disip sources pointed to him as one of the participants in the plan to assassinate the Rangel family in Chile, including minors. "No, not at all. I wouldn't do something like that," he answered slowly. "I have no contact with anyone. I am retired now."

When I asked if we could meet to talk about the subject, Brigadier Provis agreed immediately. We agreed to meet at noon the next day at a café in the Las Condes sector.

The meeting, which lasted more than two hours, was relaxed. When we sat down to enjoy a coffee, he asked me the purpose of having called his house; he did it very calmly: "Were you expecting a confession?

Were you expecting me to tell you, 'Yes, I'm going to tell you everything'? Why did you call me?" I explained that it was his right to reply. And that for me, it was necessary to have his side of the story. He nodded and explained to me that he has nothing to do with the Venezuelan gentlemen. "I haven't been to Venezuela for more than 30 years. I don't know, nor am I a friend of, any Venezuelan."

We ordered some cortados, and he asked me to give him details of how I found out about this operation. When we strayed from the subject, he returned to what brought us together. "It's not that I'm meddling in your work, but if I were you, I wouldn't publish anything.

If you do, I will have to sue. Why don't you investigate a little more? Take some time, because I assure you that you are wrong. I have nothing to do with it, and you are going to stain me for no reason at all.

I will be fired from my job and my wife might even leave me. I don't regret anything I did in the DINA or the CNI, because I didn't attack anyone. But for me to be part of an attack against a foreign family, not at all. Imagine that."

I clarified that I have been working on the case for more than four months. I also explained that there are witnesses who saw him together with the Venezuelan agents, who followed them. The brigadier sat thinking for a while as if trying to help me solve the crossword puzzle.

But his response was not at all that of a former agent trying to analyze a serious issue: "Let me think... what if they were Chileans pretending to be Venezuelans? That could be, right?" I pointed out that the Venezuelan and Chilean sources are irrefutable and we know they were Disip agents.

Again he sat thinking: "I'm trying to think... You tell me that someone saw me with them, but perhaps it's someone who looks like me. Imagine that the photos of me that appear in the human rights archives on the internet are wrong.

The one that appears there is not me." I told him that the witnesses identify him by his face and by his name. Then he asked me for something that he repeated to me on several occasions during our conversation. "I ask you, please, not to publish my real photo."

I asked the brigadier why he is worried if he is supposed to have done nothing wrong.

Another important detail for him was to know what had happened to the foreign agents. He wanted to know if they were detained or under surveillance. The strange thing is that the brigadier did not ask what these agents said about him, and even less why they involved him in this case.

I gave him details of how the agents mentioned him, and how grateful they were for his cordiality and attentions in Santiago, especially in the house of his relative. The military man, who only listened and smiled, added: "How kind they are, but I don't know them. I swear they were never in the house of the relative you mention."

I indicated that the Venezuelan Colonel Samuel always commented on how the brigadier took very good care of him in Israel. He immediately interrupted me: "Yes, I was in Israel, but I don't remember any Venezuelan." His words were very convincing.

He said it in a low and soft voice. He never got upset during our dialogue. If it hadn't been for other commitments, the meeting would have lasted for hours.

Finally, I insisted that my investigation and witnesses pointed to him as the contact for the Disip agents in Chile, but he answered me again and again that he did not know them.

If anything disturbed me about our conversation, it was that he did not ask me how they were going to kill the Venezuelan family. Nor did he ask me to tell him what the agents commented about him, or who the witnesses were who saw them together in Chile.

However, he said that if any court investigated the case, he would collaborate to help clarify his innocence. At no time did he offer for us to go immediately to a police station or an Investigations barracks to report something as serious as being involved in a terrorist attack.

international. He only insisted that I not publish anything, and smiling, he told me that he could give me a better story than this one. "Even I could help you investigate this case, but don't publish it yet.

I don't know how to investigate something like that because I am already retired." I reminded him that it wouldn't be difficult for him to check the information; after all, he had worked in intelligence for many years.

The brigadier looked at me and smiled again. The bill for the coffees arrived, and he offered to pay. As we said goodbye, Brigadier Provis thanked me for my time, and I returned his courtesy. As I headed to my vehicle, I thought that Chile was changing a little.

After all, I had just had a long and mature conversation with an important protagonist of the feared DINA and CNI, and it had not been in a courtroom, nor behind bars, nor during an interrogation. The one smiling now was me. by Víctor Gutiérrez

Source: Primeralinea.cl, October 20, 2002

Woman 'unmasks' former intelligence agent during a neighborhood meeting

On Wednesday of last week, Silvia del Solar, a resident of one of the apartments in the San Jorge building, located at 460 Máximo Jeria Street, Ñuñoa, decided to ask the building's administrator if he was indeed the same person linked to various cases involving human rights violations.

He remained silent for a moment and only confirmed that he was indeed Manuel José Provis Carrasco. Silvia del Solar “Del Solar, currently without political affiliation but with left-wing sensibilities, currently works as a researcher for the Reading, Writing, and Mathematics (LEM) program that the University of Santiago carries out on behalf of the Ministry of Education; she is also a professor at the Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano and a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Program for Educational Research (PIIE).

The professional fears being 'guarded' by a person who appears associated with different cases of human rights violations, during the time he served in the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), the National Information Center (CNI), and the Army Intelligence Battalion (BIE).

Pro-human rights organizations attribute to this former agent the recruitment of the MIR member Marcia Merino, better known as the ‘flaca Alejandra,’ to denounce her party comrades. He also rose to the position of head of the Metropolitan Political Division of the CNI at the time of the assassination of journalist José Carrasco Tapia.

Likewise, he is mentioned in a report by journalist Víctor Gutiérrez, published in Primera Línea, where he is linked to the planning of an attack that intended to end the life of the Venezuelan Vice President, José Vicente Rangel, who was very close to Hugo Chávez, when he visited Chile in 2002.

Recently, the minister investigating the death of Colonel Gerardo Huber, Claudio Pavez, has interrogated Provis as an accused party, and he is prohibited from leaving the country, as the judge believes that he, along with other individuals, has not yet provided all the information to resolve the case of the death of the Famae officer, who appears linked to arms trafficking to Croatia.

An unprecedented meeting -What can you tell us about what happened on Wednesday? -On Wednesday we met because the interim president of the building, who works in the Army organizing internal training for that institution, was going to submit his resignation.

I had anticipated that I was going to address the issue of Provis, and I had even already mentioned it to the other members of the board, as a matter of information and without value judgments. -Can you explain something more about the committee or the characteristics of the neighborhood body? -A steering committee is organized by subjects who live in the community, who in turn hire an administrator.

In this case, Manuel Provis was presented for the position by the outgoing president of the community about six months ago, I don't remember very well. On that occasion, I presented three candidates, but only this gentleman was taken because there were three of us on the board and two were in favor of hiring this gentleman.

So he was hired. -As you mentioned to me prior to the interview, up until that moment you knew he was a former uniformed officer, but at no time that he was linked to human rights cases. What happened then when you see him again, already knowing these new facts? -I'll tell you, he stands up when I go down to the building hall, where the meeting is held, he stands up to greet me, stretches his hand out long, and I say good afternoon.

I explain to him that it is not necessary for us to shake hands. I sat down; there was quite a bit of perplexity among those present, but no one dared to ask the reason for my reaction. -So, what happened? -Well, the beginning of the meeting was somewhat ambiguous.

Later, at one point, two people questioned him about the previous minutes. The quality of his services was also called into question, whether he was fulfilling them adequately, etc. At that moment, we were in the absence of the oldest member of the board after the president, who was resigning that day, so I say that this gentleman, who is absent today, has some reservations regarding the fulfillment of his contract, that we would be neglected by Provis. -What does Manuel Provis answer? -He asks me for references on what he might not have done well.

I tell him I don't know, unfortunately, Mr. Luis is not here, but there is dissatisfaction because you are not complying, for example, with the number of contracted visits. At that moment, he starts to be aggressive with me.

So, I ask him if his last name is Provis Carrasco and he confirms it. Given that, I point out that I want to know if you are being prosecuted for the assassination of journalist José Carrasco; he flies into a rage and tries to turn the subject into a personal confrontation with me, something the resigned president contributes to. -Did he resign? -He said he was resigning on January 13.

Now, no one in the community said yes or no. So, his resignation appeared to be implicitly accepted as of January 13, and we called a meeting for this Wednesday at 8:00 PM to re-elect the board. Human rights violations and concern for pets -At any point did he suggest that you were doing something unfair by not allowing him to work? -No, he even threatened to resign hastily, as if offended, but I think that rather than offended, he reacted that way because he is afraid of this type of confrontation.

I have the feeling that his mechanism was resignation upon being discovered. They are particularly interested in appearing submerged and detached from their past. -Are you afraid of what might happen after this clash? -My colleagues pointed out to me that I could be at risk.

This gentleman has keys to the building, he has access to my car... so it seems appropriate that I take out a protection order. -What is your reflection after this episode? What worries you? -I would like to say that the first thing that caught my attention about him was the contrast between the beautiful person this gentleman seems to be, his manners, so delicate, courteous to the maximum, and what his past is.

The other thing that worries me is how these people get into my house... These gentlemen appear in your personal, private, more intimate life; they have a relationship with whether you get robbed or not.

I remember that a very strong concern of this gentleman was the issue of pets in the building. So, this contrast between violating human rights and then seeing if the pet does or does not poop in the hall seems to me something surprising, something that leaves me perplexed...

I mean, I understand that all these murderers or former murderers have a daily life, but he got into my daily life and he got in as a gentleman who facilitates dialogue between neighbors, in a way acting as an arbiter for understanding as an administrator. -Finally, what do you think about the fact that an Army official, or someone linked to it in an active way, was the one who introduced Provis to you? -That gentleman, the former president at that time, said that he regretted my attitude, that this was a personal problem between me and this gentleman, and that he vouched for the fact that he had brought an upright man. So, now the administrator doesn't seem suspicious to me alone; the former president and several others seem suspicious to me. I have even discovered that the night watchman of my building has relationships with the Army or had them.

Source: El Mostrador, December 19, 2005

Romy Rutherford's stepbrother: former military member of the CNI, it is unknown if he is alive or dead

To date, according to Capredena documents, the pension continues to be deposited into the account of the presumed dead person and eventually collected month by month, it is not yet known by whom and in what form, except that it is not as an inheritance.

In 2008, Rutherford appears with an exit abroad, but without subsequent entries into the country, at least with a legal record. The mysterious disappearance of Luis Guillermo Rutherford López in 2009 –a former Army officer and member of the National Information Center (CNI)– and stepbrother of Judge Romy Rutherford, is a true puzzle.

It could perfectly well be a simulated case so that, under the protection of his former institution, he lives outside the country and does not have to testify in any trial, fully complying with the medical opinion of not doing so due to the illness that caused his discharge.

The former military man has been missing since late 2009, when he was last seen according to close friends. In January of that year, Nora Figueroa –his former partner and mother of his son Diego Rutherford– filed an action for presumed death in the civil courts of Santiago, which has not prospered.

To date, according to Capredena documents, the pension continues to be deposited into the account of the presumed dead person and eventually collected month by month, it is not yet known by whom and in what form, except that it is not as an inheritance.

In 2008, Rutherford appears with an exit abroad, but without subsequent entries into the country, at least with a legal record. According to his Army Service Record, Luis Rutherford served in the dissolved CNI, as an operative member, until February 2, 1985, when his boss, Manuel Provis Carrasco, removed him from the unit.

This, despite having received commendations for his “excellent performance” in a military action against “subversives” that occurred in 1984, in which he acted as a substitute for the unit commander, in addition to other security actions.

That operation for which he received commendations would apparently be Operation Alfa Carbón, against MIR militants, in which a group of leaders of that party was assassinated, mainly in Concepción. Months after that episode, he was hospitalized and diagnosed with “acute paranoid catatonic schizophrenia,” which led to his discharge, but without his illness being recognized as professional, despite the fact that it can appear as a product of acute psychological trauma.

In the diagnosis, he was placed in a state of interdiction (“... he must not sign any document with administrative or legal validity, nor provide a statement”), it being further determined that the psychotic process “is not recent.” His step-sister, Judge Rutherford, has refused to participate in the proceedings regarding the presumed death, possibly so as not to be recused as a member of the Court Martial, in which she maintains the prosecution of Generals (ret.) Juan Miguel Fuente-Alba and Humberto Oviedo, both former Commanders-in-Chief of the Army, for embezzlement of funds.

Source: elmostrador.cl, January 30, 2020

San Miguel Court confirms conviction of DINA agents for qualified kidnapping in 1977

The San Miguel Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence that convicted agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of Vicente Israel García Ramírez.

An illicit act committed starting on April 30, 1977. The San Miguel Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence that convicted agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of Vicente Israel García Ramírez.

An illicit act committed starting on April 30, 1977. In a unanimous ruling (case file 304-2023), the Second Chamber of the appellate court –composed of Minister Liliana Mera Muñoz, Minister Patricio Martínez Benavides, and lawyer (i) Jonatan Valenzuela Saldías– ratified the challenged sentence, issued by the minister in extraordinary visitation Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, in the part that sentenced Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann to 12 and 10 years of imprisonment, respectively, as perpetrators of the crime.

In the case, the appellate court revoked the acquittal regarding Manuel Jorge Provis Carrasco and sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment as a co-perpetrator. “It must be kept in mind that the sentence being challenged was based on profuse evidence according to which it was corroborated that the victim Vicente Israel García Ramírez was detained by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA); his confinement in the facility of said organization, called ‘Cuartel Borgoño,’ located on General Borgoño Street in the commune of Santiago, and the mistreatment he received in that place, were proven with the statements of Viola Olma Carrasco Rodríguez, Kathia Milova Reimer Carrasco, Nancy Teresa Veloso Briones, Karin Olma Reimer Carrasco, Luis Segundo León Guevara, Mireya García Ramírez, Marlin del Carmen García Ramírez, Jaime Francisco Troncoso Valdés, Guillermo Hernán Bello Doren, Gonzalo Ehijo Gutiérrez, and Juan Carlos Villar Ehijo,” the ruling maintains. The resolution adds that: “The assessment of the indicated means of proof allowed the court a quo to consider established and reach the conviction that on April 29, 1977, at 09:40 hours, Vicente Israel García Ramírez, political name ‘Óscar,’ a militant of the Socialist Party, using the name of a third party –Jorge Luis Aldana Contreras–, married Karin Olma Reimer Carrasco, after which he shared a lunch with family and close friends at his wife's home, located at 8681 Covadonga Street, Villa Serrano, in the commune of La Granja, to then travel with her to the city of San Fernando. Likewise, that on April 30, 1977, in the early morning, eight agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) detained, without legal right, Viola Carrasco Rodríguez and her daughter Kathia Reimer Carrasco, at their home, located at 8681 Covadonga Street, Villa Serrano, in the commune of La Granja, and, immediately thereafter, transferred them to the Cuartel Borgoño, located on Borgoño Street in the commune of Santiago. Furthermore, that on that same day, around 08:30 hours, four agents of the same organization detained, without legal right, Vicente Israel García Ramírez and his wife Karin Olma Reimer Carrasco, in an apartment in the Rucahue housing development in the commune of San Fernando and, then, transferred them in a car to the aforementioned Cuartel Borgoño. Additionally, that on the aforementioned day, at around 21:00 hours, DINA agents, among them Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, went to the home of Vicente García Ramírez, located at 2887 Santa Alicia Street in the commune of Conchalí, at which time they interrogated his family and searched the place. Subsequently, that Vicente Israel García Ramírez, Viola Olma Carrasco Rodríguez, Kathia Milova Reimer Carrasco, and Karin Olma Reimer Carrasco were locked up, without legal right, in the Cuartel Borgoño and subjected to various interrogations and physical and psychological mistreatment by their captors; that Kathia and Karin, both Reimer Carrasco, were released on May 3, 1977, and their mother, Viola Carrasco Rodríguez, on the 6th of the same month, with the final destination of Vicente Israel García Ramírez remaining unknown.” “The proven facts are consistent with the patterns of repression exercised by the National Intelligence Directorate against its political opponents, especially regarding militants of the MIR, the Communist Party, and the Socialist Party,” it adds. For the appellate court, in this instance: “It was clearly established that the accused Manuel Provis Carrasco took charge of the Cuartel Borgoño at the end of 1977 or the beginning of 1978, with which it is, in the judgment of this court, clear that it is reasonably established that Mr. Provis exercised functions in charge of the Cuartel Borgoño at the time of the occurrence of the facts, the fact of there being records of the use of legal holidays not being able to defeat the conviction of contribution as a perpetrator to the fact that is the object of this process.” “It is particularly clear that in the context in which the serious events being judged occurred, the state officials in charge of barracks where crimes were executed acted outside the law, so it is not possible to attribute to a purely formal act of using a holiday the capacity to defeat the evidence that places the accused Provis in charge of precisely the barracks where the victim Vicente García Ramírez disappeared,” it concludes. In the civil aspect, the ruling confirmed the appealed sentence with the declaration that it orders the state to pay compensation of $30,000,000 for moral damages to the plaintiffs.

Source: pjud.cl, March 21, 2024

New conviction issued against three former DINA leaders for the crime against a young man in San Fernando in 1977

The Supreme Court convicted three former leaders of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the consummated crime of qualified kidnapping of the 19-year-old student, Vicente Israel García Ramírez, perpetrated starting on April 30, 1977, in the commune of San Fernando.

In a unanimous ruling (case file 13.949-2024), the Second Chamber of the highest court -composed of Minister Leopoldo Llanos, Ministers María Teresa Letelier, María Cristina Gajardo, and lawyers (i) Juan Carlos Ferrada and Eduardo Gandulfo- rejected the appeal for cassation on the merits filed against the sentence issued by the San Miguel Court of Appeals, which in criminal matters sentenced the appellant Manuel Jorge Provis Carrasco to 10 years of imprisonment, as a perpetrator of the crime.

In the case, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, whose defenses did not appeal, must serve 12 and 10 years of imprisonment, respectively, as perpetrators of the crime. The implicated individuals Manuel Contreras and Carlos López Tapia died during the course of the judicial process.

Forcibly disappeared In the judicial investigation and first-instance ruling, issued by the minister in extraordinary visitation for human rights violation cases of the San Miguel Court of Appeals, Marianela Cifuentes Alarcón, it was established that on April 29, 1977, at 09:40 hours, Vicente Israel García Ramírez, political name 'Óscar', a militant of the Socialist Party, using the name of a third party -Jorge Luis Aldana Contreras-, married Karin Olma Reimer Carrasco, after which he shared a lunch with family and close friends at his wife's home, located on Covadonga Street in Villa Serrano, in the commune of La Granja, to then travel with her to the city of San Fernando. On April 30, in the early morning hours, eight agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) detained Viola Carrasco Rodríguez and her daughter Kathia Reimer Carrasco, at their home, on Covadonga Street and, immediately thereafter, transferred them to the Cuartel Borgoño, located on Borgoño Street in the commune of Santiago. On the same day, April 30, around 08:30 hours, four agents of the same repressive organization detained Vicente Israel García Ramírez and his wife Karin Olma Reimer Carrasco in an apartment in the Rucahue housing development, in the commune of San Fernando and, then, transferred them in a car to the aforementioned Cuartel Borgoño. On the aforementioned day, at around 21:00 hours, DINA agents, among them the officer Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, went to the home of Vicente García Ramírez, located on Santa Alicia Street in the commune of Conchalí, at which time they interrogated his family and searched the place. The young Vicente Israel García Ramírez, Viola Olma Carrasco Rodríguez, Kathia Milova Reimer Carrasco, and Karin Olma Reimer Carrasco were locked up in the Cuartel Borgoño, subjected to various interrogations and physical and psychological mistreatment by the repressive agents. After the detention of Vicente García Ramírez, on May 2, Jaime Francisco Troncoso Valdés -a militant of the Socialist Party and direct boss of the victim- and Juan Carlos Villar Ehijo were apprehended, who were also transferred to the Cuartel Borgoño, a place where they were kept prisoner for a few days. The detainees Kathia and Karin Reimer Carrasco were released on May 3, 1977, and their mother, Viola Carrasco Rodríguez, on the 6th of the same month. Meanwhile, all traces of Vicente Israel García Ramírez have been lost to this date. At the time of the events, the repressive organization DINA was in charge of the then Army Colonel Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, who served as national director; Army Colonel Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, as director of operations; Army Lieutenant Colonel Carlos José Leonardo López Tapia, commander of the Metropolitan Intelligence Division; and Army Lieutenant Colonel Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann, deputy director of Economic Intelligence; and the then Major Manuel Jorge Provis Carrasco, who served as head of the Caupolicán Brigade. by Darío Núñez

Source: resumen.cl, August 6, 2025