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|| * -- SPECIAL -- * October 22, 1998 * -- EDITION -- * ||
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* SPECIAL EDITION *
* * *
_________________________________________________________________
THE PINOCHET COUP: `EXPORT USA'
_________________________________________________________________
* * *
CONTENTS
------
1. (NSA) NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE: Chile and the United
States - Declassified Documents Relating to the
Military Coup, 1973-1976
2. (GRD) THE GUARDIAN [London]: Secret Files Bury Facts
of CIA Dirty Tricks Against Allende's Regime
3. (IND) THE INDEPENDENT [London]: The Pinochet Affair -
The Origins of a Dictatorship
4. (AP) ASSOCIATED PRESS: Investigative Judge Cites Grim
Cases in Arrest Order Against Pinochet
5. (IPA) INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC ACCURACY: Pinochet Arrest
Raises New Questions in Washington
* * *
AFIB EDITOR'S NOTE: Pinochet's October 16 arrest in London
provides us with an opportunity to expose active US
involvement in the creation of Chile's terror state. It
opens a window onto an historical period hidden from the
American people, one characterized by decades of US
collaboration with nazi war criminals, international narco-
traffickers and right-wing terrorists. Against a backdrop of
corporate greed and ideological fanaticism, Chile's economy
-- and people -- were "made to scream," in Richard Nixon's
words. Below are a selection of documents and articles
outlining US moves against the democratically-elected
Allende government and subsequent maneuvers to conceal the
US role.
* * *
* THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE *
The Gelman Library, George Washington University
2130 H Street, NW, Suite 701
Washington, DC 20037
E-mail: nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Web: http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive/
Tel: 202-994-7000
Fax: 202-994-7005
-----
http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm
_________________________________________________________________
CHILE:
DECALSSIFIED U.S. DOCUMENTS ON PINOCHET AND THE 1973 COUP
_________________________________________________________________
By Peter Kornbluh
* * *
September 11, 1998 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the
military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. The violent
overthrow of the democratically-elected Popular Unity government
of Salvador Allende changed the course of the country that
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda described as "a long petal of sea, wine
and snow"; because of CIA covert intervention in Chile, and the
repressive character of General Pinochet's rule, the coup became
the most notorious military takeover in the annals of Latin
American history.
Revelations that President Richard Nixon had ordered the CIA
to "make the economy scream" in Chile to "prevent Allende from
coming to power or to unseat him," prompted a major scandal in
the mid-1970s, and a major investigation by the U.S. Senate.
Since the coup, however, few U.S. documents relating to Chile
have been actually declassified -- until recently. Through
Freedom of Information Act requests, and other avenues of
declassification, the National Security Archive has been able to
compile a collection of declassified records that shed light on
events in Chile between 1970 and 1976.
These documents include:
* Cables written by U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry after
Allende's election, detailing conversations with President
Eduardo Frei on how to block the president-elect from being
inaugurated. The cables contain detailed descriptions and
opinions on the various political forces in Chile, including
the Chilean military, the Christian Democrat Party, and the
U.S. business community.
* CIA memoranda and reports on "Project FUBELT" -- the
codename for covert operations to promote a military coup
and undermine Allende's government. The documents, including
minutes of meetings between Henry Kissinger and CIA
officials, CIA cables to its Santiago station, and summaries
of covert action in 1970, provide a clear paper trail to the
decisions and operations against Allende's government.
* National Security Council strategy papers which record
efforts to "destabilize" Chile economically, and isolate
Allende's government diplomatically, between 1970 and 1973.
* State Department and NSC memoranda and cables after the
coup, providing evidence of human rights atrocities under
the new military regime led by General Pinochet.
* FBI documents on Operation Condor -- the state-sponsored
terrorism of the Chilean secret police, DINA. The documents,
including summaries of prison letters written by DINA agent
Michael Townley, provide evidence on the carbombing
assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in
Washington D.C., and the murder of Chilean General Carlos
Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires, among other operations.
These documents, and many thousands of other CIA, NSC, and
Defense Department records that are still classified secret,
remain relevant to ongoing human rights investigations in Chile,
Spain and other countries, and unresolved acts of international
terrorism conducted by the Chilean secret police. Eventually,
international pressure, and concerted use of the U.S. laws on
declassification will force more of the still-buried record into
the public domain -- providing evidence for future judicial, and
historical accountability.
* * *
_________________________________________________________________
CHILE AND THE UNITED STATES:
DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE MILITARY COUP, 1973-1976
_________________________________________________________________
Department of State, U.S. Embassy Cables on the Election of
Salvador Allende and Efforts to Block his Assumption of the
Presidency, September 5-22, 1970: This series of eight cables,
written by U.S. Ambassador to Chile, Edward Korry, record the
reaction and activities of the U.S. Embassy after the election of
Salvador Allende's Popular Unity coalition. Known as
"Korrygrams," his reports contain some of the most candid, and at
times undiplomatic, opinions and observations ever offered by a
U.S. Ambassador. With titles such as "No Hope for Chile," and
"Some Hope for Chile," Korry provides extensive details about
political efforts to block Allende's ratification by the Chilean
Congress. The cables report on the activities of Chile's
political institutions in response to Allende's election and
provide Korry's explicit assessments of the character of key
Chilean leaders, particularly the outgoing president, Eduardo
Frei.
CIA, Notes on Meeting with the President on Chile, September
15, 1970: These handwritten notes, taken by CIA director Richard
Helms, record the orders of the President of the United States,
Richard Nixon, to foster a coup in Chile. Helms' notes reflect
Nixon's orders: l in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile!; worth
spending; not concerned; no involvement of embassy; $10,000,00
available, more if necessary; full-time job--best men we have;
game plan; make the economy scream; 48 hours for plan of action.
This presidential directive initiates major covert operations to
block Allende's ascension to office, and promote a coup in Chile.
CIA, Genesis of Project FUBELT, September 16, 1970: These
minutes record the first meeting between CIA director Helms and
high agency officials on covert operations -- codenamed "FUBELT"
-- against Allende. A special task force under the supervision of
CIA deputy director of plans, Thomas Karamessines, is
established, headed by veteran agent David Atlee Phillips. The
memorandum notes that the CIA must prepare an action plan for
National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger within 48 hours.
CIA, Memorandum of Conversation of Meeting with Henry
Kissinger, Thomas Karamessines, and Alexander Haig, October 15,
1970: This memcon records a discussion of promoting a coup in
Chile, known as "Track II" of covert operations to block Allende.
The three officials discuss the possibility that the plot of one
Chilean military official, Roberto Viaux, might fail with
"unfortunate repercussions" for U.S. objectives. Kissinger orders
the CIA to "continue keeping the pressure on every Allende weak
spot in sight."
CIA, Operating Guidance Cable on Coup Plotting, October 16,
1970: In a secret cable, CIA deputy director of plans, Thomas
Karamessines, conveys Kissinger's orders to CIA station chief in
Santiago, Henry Hecksher: "It is firm and continuing policy that
Allende be overthrown by a coup." The "operating guidance" makes
it clear that these operations are to be conducted so as to hide
the "American hand," and that the CIA is to ignore any orders to
the contrary from Ambassador Korry who has not been informed of
Track II operations.
CIA, Cable Transmissions on Coup Plotting, October 18, 1970:
These three cables between CIA headquarters in Langley, VA., and
the CIA Station in Santiago address the secret shipment of
weapons and ammunition for use in a plot to kidnap the Chilean
military commander, General Rene Schneider. "Neutralizing"
Schneider was a key prerequisite for a military coup; he opposed
any intervention by the armed forces to block Allende's
constitutional election. The CIA supplied a group of Chilean
officers led by General Camilo Valenzuela with "sterile" weapons
for the operation which was to be blamed on Allende supporters
and prompt a military takeover. Instead, on October 22, General
Schneider was killed by another group of plotters the CIA had
been collaborating with, led by retired General Roberto Viaux.
Instead of a coup, the military and the country rallied behind
Allende's ratification by Chile's Congress on October 24.
National Security Council, Options Paper on Chile (NSSM 97),
November 3, 1970: A comprehensive secret/sensitive options paper,
prepared for Henry Kissinger and the National Security Council on
the day of Allende's inauguration, laid out U.S. objectives,
interests and potential policy toward Chile. U.S. interests were
defined as preventing Chile from falling under Communist control
and preventing the rest of Latin America from following Chile "as
a model." Option C -- maintaining an "outwardly cool posture"
while working behind the scenes to undermine the Allende
government through economic pressures and diplomatic isolation --
was chosen by Nixon. CIA operations and options are not included
in this document.
CIA, Briefing by Richard Helms for the National Security
Council, Chile, November 6, 1970: This paper provides the talking
points for CIA director Richard Helms to brief the NSC on the
situation in Chile. The briefing contains details on the failed
coup attempt on October 22 -- but does not acknowledge a CIA role
in the assassination of General Rene Schneider. Helms also
assesses Allende's "tenacious" character and Soviet policy toward
Chile. Intelligence suggests that Chile's socialists, he informs
council members, "will exercise restraint in promoting closer
ties with Russia."
National Security Council, National Security Decision
Memorandum 93, Policy Towards Chile, November 9, 1970: This
memorandum summarizes the presidential decisions regarding
changes in U.S. policy toward Chile following Allende's election.
Written by Henry Kissinger and sent to the Secretaries of State,
Defense, the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness and
the Director of Central Intelligence, this memo directs U.S.
agencies to adopt a "cool" posture toward Allende's government,
in order to prevent his consolidation of power and "limit [his]
ability to implement policies contrary to U.S. and hemisphere
interests." The memo states that existing U.S. assistance and
investments in Chile should be reduced, and no new commitments
undertaken. Furthermore, according to Kissinger's memo, "close
relations" should be established and maintained with military
leaders throughout Latin America to facilitate coordination of
pressure and other opposition efforts.
CIA, Report of CIA Chilean Task Force Activities, 15
September to 3 November 1970, November 18, 1970: The CIA prepared
a summary of its efforts to prevent Allende's ratification as
president and to foment a coup in Chile -- track I and track II
covert operations. The summary details the composition of the
Task Force, headed by David Atlee Phillips, the team of covert
operatives "inserted individually into Chile," and their contacts
with Col. Paul Winert, the U.S. Army Attache detailed to the CIA
for this operation. It reviews the propaganda operations designed
to push Chilean president Eduardo Frei to support "a military
coup which would prevent Allende from taking office on 3
November."
Department of State, Memorandum for Henry Kissinger on
Chile, December 4, 1970: In response to a November 27 directive
from Kissinger, an inter-agency Ad Hoc Working Group on Chile
prepared this set of strategy papers covering a range of possible
sanctions and pressures against the new Allende government. These
included a possible diplomatic effort to force Chile to withdraw
-- or be expelled -- from the Organization of American States as
well as consultations with other Latin American countries "to
promote their sharing of our concern over Chile." The documents
show that the Nixon administration did engage in an invisible
economic blockade against Allende, intervening at the World Bank,
IDB, and Export-Import bank to curtail or terminate credits and
loans to Chile before Allende had been in office for a month.
Defense Intelligence Agency, Biographic Data on General
Augusto Pinochet, August/September 1973: This DIA biographic
summary covers the military career of the leader of Chile's
military coup, General Augusto Pinochet. The DIA, an intelligence
branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, routinely collects "Biographic
Data" on all high military officials around the world. The heavy
deletions are likely to conceal Chilean sources providing
information on Pinochet, his own contacts with U.S. officials,
and commentary on his character, reputation, political
orientation and actions during his career.
Department of Defense, U.S. Milgroup, Situation Report #2,
October 1, 1973: In a situation report, U.S. Naval attache
Patrick Ryan, reports positively on events in Chile during the
coup. He characterizes September 11 as "our D-Day," and states
that "Chile's coup de etat [sic] was close to perfect." His
report provides details on Chilean military operations during and
after the coup, as well as glowing commentary on the character of
the new regime.
Department of State, Chilean Executions, November 16, 1973:
This memo, sent to the Secretary of State by Jack Kubisch, states
that summary executions in the nineteen days following the coup
totaled 320 -- more than three times the publicly acknowledged
figure. At the same time, Kubisch reports on new economic
assistance just authorized by the Nixon administration. The memo
provides information about the Chilean military's justification
for the continued executions. It also includes a situation report
and human rights fact sheet on Chile.
Department of State, Kubisch-Huerta Meeting: Request for
Specific Replies to Previous Questions on Horman and Teruggi
Cases, February 11, 1974: This telegram, written by Ambassador
Popper and directed to the U.S. Secretary of State, reports on a
meeting between Assistant Secretary of State Jack Kubisch, and
Chile's foreign minister General Huerta on the controversy over
two U.S. citizens -- Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi -- executed
by the military after the coup. Kubisch notes that he is raising
this issue "in the context of the need to be careful to keep
relatively small issues in our relationship from making our
cooperation more difficult."
Department of Defense, Directorate of National Intelligence
(DINA) Expands Operations and Facilities, April 15, 1975: This
heavily excised Intelligence Report from the Defense Attache in
Santiago Chile, describes the growth of DINA, the national
intelligence arm of the Chilean government and "the sole
responsible agency for internal subversive matters." Many of the
excised portions provide details about the strained relations
between DINA and the Chilean Armed Forces because of DINA's
exclusive power. The report states that the head of DINA, Colonel
Manuel Contreras, "has reported exclusively to, and received
orders only from, President Pinochet."
National Security Council, Disarray in Chile Policy, July 1,
1975: This memorandum, from Stephen Low to President Ford's
National Security Advisor, General Brent Scowcroft, conveys
concern about wavering U.S. policy toward Chile in light of
reports of human rights violations. The memo reveals a division
within the U.S. embassy over dealing with Chile, with a number of
officials now believing that all U.S. military and economic
assistance should be terminated until the regime's human rights
record improves. According to Low, by reducing aid and sending
"mixed signals" to the Chileans, the United States risks
precipitating a crisis situation in Chile. Low concludes his memo
by recommending that Scowcroft schedule a special meeting in
which U.S. agencies can "clarify guidelines for future policy."
National Security Council, Chilean President's visit to
U.S., August 8, 1975: This memorandum, written by Stephen Low of
the National Security Council, calls Scowcroft's attention to
Pinochet's plans to visit the United States, and his requested
meeting with U.S. President Ford. The memo states that the NSC
asked the U.S. Ambassador to Chile, David Popper, to discourage
the meeting by telling the Chileans that President Ford's
schedule is full. Fearing that such a visit would "stimulate
criticism" and foster embarrassment, Low suggests an "informal
talk" with Chile's Ambassador Trucco.
FBI, Operation Condor Cable, September 28, 1976: This cable,
written by the FBI's attache in Buenos Aires, Robert Scherrer,
summarizes intelligence information provided by a "confidential
source abroad" about Operation Condor, a South American joint
intelligence operation designed to "eliminate Marxist terrorist
activities in the area." The cable reports that Chile is the
center of Operation Condor, and provides information about
"special teams" which travel "anywhere in the world... to carry
out sanctions up to assassination against terrorists or
supporters of terrorist organizations." Several sections relating
to these special teams have been excised. The cable suggests that
the assassination of the Chilean Ambassador to the United States,
Orlando Letelier, may have been carried out as an action of
Operation Condor.
FBI, Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA), January
21, 1982: This report provides a summary of information taken
from prison letters written by Michael Townley, the DINA agent
responsible for the assassination of Orlando Letelier. This
report includes information not directly provided to the FBI by
Townley, but drawn from analysis of his correspondence with his
DINA handler: details about meetings between Chilean President
Pinochet and Italian terrorists and spies, codenames and
activities of DINA personnel, collaboration between DINA and
anti-Castro Cubans; the creation of a fake terrorist organization
to take the blame for a DINA kidnapping in Argentina; DINA
involvement in relations between Great Britain and Northern
Ireland; and Townley's fear that information about kidnappings
and assassinations of prominent critics of Pinochet would somehow
be traced back to him.
The National Security Archive is an independent non-
governmental research institute and library located at The
George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive
collects and publishes declassified documents acquired
through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
*****
_________________________________________________________________
SECRET FILES BURY FACTS OF CIA DIRTY TRICKS
AGAINST ALLENDE'S REGIME
_________________________________________________________________
THE GUARDIAN
Wednesday, 21 October 1998
http://reports.guardian.co.uk/articles/1998/10/21/28379.html
By Michael Ellison in New York
The CIA has a quotation from the Gospel of St John displayed
proudly in the foyer of its Washington headquarters: You shall
know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
But the truth of the agency's involvement in the coup which
brought Augusto Pinochet's regime to power 25 years ago is still
not fully known. One fact, though, is certain - when classified
papers on America's involvement are finally published, the
freedom of the people of Chile will not figure strongly.
Henry Kissinger, President Nixon's national security
adviser, was unequivocal about the general principle guiding
United States policy. "I don't see why we need to stand by and
watch a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of
its own people," he said.
Salvador Allende, the first democratically elected Marxist
in Latin America when he was elected president in November 1970,
presented an ideological and economic affront to the Nixon
regime. The answer was to pump $8 million and 400 'special
advisers' into destabilising the unruly brat in America's
backyard over the next three years.
Nixon tried to prevent Allende's victory by ordering the CIA
to 'make the economy scream'. Later, Kissinger told the CIA that
"it is firm and continuing policy that Allende should be
overthrown by a coup". Three years later he had his way and
Allende was dead. CIA director Richard Helms told a Senate
investigating committee in 1975 that his agents tried to bribe
the Chilean Congress and its military, and paid extreme right-
wing groups to assassinate General Rene Schneider, Chile's chief
of staff. After Allende's inauguration, it set about undermining
his government by backing strikes, promoting violence and
initiating media smear campaigns.
The coup came in September 1973, stimulated by the agency's
success in creating social unrest. US Navy ships appeared off the
coast of Chile and intelligence officers kept in touch with the
leaders of the military takeover. Congress, the press and the
trade unions were destroyed, 'subversive' books were burned, and
up to 3,000 Chileans died in the subsequent seven-year reign of
terror.
Allende supporters were not safe even when they fled abroad.
A year after the coup, General Carlos Prats, the former chief of
staff, and his wife were blown nine storeys high in Buenos Aires.
The CIA was well informed about the operation and even supplied
Pinochet's secret police with a computer.
Two years later the former diplomat Orlando Letelier was
assassinated with a car bomb in Washington - an operation thought
to be beyond Pinochet's henchmen working independently.
In the United States, these matters are considered as
history. In Argentina, as Allende's neice, Isabel, said recently,
talk of the events of 25 years ago is taken to be in very bad
taste.
Copyright Guardian Media Group plc. 1998
*****
_________________________________________________________________
THE PINOCHET AFFAIR: THE ORIGINS OF A DICTATORSHIP
_________________________________________________________________
THE INDEPENDENT
Wednesday, 21 October 1998
http://www.independent.co.uk/stories/B2110807.html
By Phil Davison
EXACTLY how Chile's Marxist president Salvador Allende died
during General Augusto Pinochet's 1973 coup was never clear. Most
people believe that he killed himself rather than surrender. But
would Pinochet have let him live?
A recently published book, Secret Interference, by a
journalist, Patricia Verdugo, suggests that Pinochet may have
wanted Allende killed.
The book is based on transcripts of radio conversations
between the general and his senior officers on the day of the
coup. One recording was made while military jets were attacking
the presidential palace. Allende remained inside, and was last
seen in a photograph, wearing a combat helmet and carrying a
rifle.
On the tape, issued as a CD along with Ms Verdugo's book,
Pinochet can be heard speaking to Vice-Admiral Patricio Carvajal,
who tells the general that Allende wants to negotiate.
On the tape, Pinochet replies: "Unconditional surrender! No
negotiation! Unconditional surrender!"
Carvajal: "Good. Understood. Unconditional surrender and
he's taken prisoner. The offer is nothing more than to respect
his life, shall we say?"
Pinochet: "His life and . . . his physical integrity, and
he'll be immediately dispatched to another place."
Carvajal: "Understood. Now . . . in other words, the offer
to take him out of the country is still maintained?"
Pinochet: "The offer to take him out of the country is still
maintained. If the plane falls, old boy, when it's in flight ..."
Carvajal: (laughter)
Some opponents of Pinochet were later reportedly thrown from
aircraft into the ocean.
A few hours after the bombardment, Carvajal reports to
Pinochet that Allende has been found dead in his palace office.
Pinochet at first talks of "sticking [the body] in a coffin and
putting it on a plane with the family and sending it to Cuba".
Later, he talks of "burying [it] secretly," which military
officers eventually did.
Once he has decided what to do with the body, Pinochet tells
Carvajal: "Boy, even dying, this guy caused problems!"
Copyright 1998 Independent Newspapers [UK] Ltd.
*****
_________________________________________________________________
INVESTIGATIVE JUDGE CITES GRIM CASES IN ARREST ORDER
AGAINST PINOCHET
_________________________________________________________________
DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer
AP.international (10-21) 22:14:47
MADRID, Spain (AP) -- In the Spanish judge's arrest order
against Augusto Pinochet, the accounts are chilling.
Men vanish from city streets in front of their wives and
children. People are dragged from their beds. A pregnant woman is
hauled off to a police station and never heard from again.
With these abuses, Judge Baltasar Garzon makes a case for
extraditing the former Chilean dictator from London, where he was
arrested Friday, to face trial in Spain on charges of genocide,
torture and terrorism.
In an initial arrest warrant, Garzon cited only one specific
victim. But in an addendum released Tuesday and sent to Britain,
he outlined how 94 people died or disappeared at the hands of
Chile's military junta leaders and Argentine cohorts from
1976-83.
They were allegedly victims of Operation Condor, a campaign
by South American military juntas, including Pinochet's, to crush
dissent. Victims came from a variety of countries, including
Argentina, the United States, Britain and others, Garzon's order
says.
Garzon's arrest order states that under Operation Condor,
Pinochet, as head of state and the military in Chile, ``carried
out criminal activities in coordination with Argentine military
authorities ... issuing orders for the physical elimination of
people, and the torture, kidnapping and disappearance of
others.''
His case puts forward that Pinochet and the Argentine
generals made a systematic, organized attempt to wipe out
political opponents because of their ideological beliefs and that
this amounts to genocide, according to lawyers working with
Garzon.
All but a few of the 94 victims cited in Garzon's document
were Chileans living in Argentina, like Jose Luis Appel de la
Cruz. He was kidnapped by armed civilians on Jan. 10, 1977, as he
walked down a street in the Argentine town of Cipolletti with his
wife, Carmen Delard, and their daughter.
``Carmen Delard disappeared at the police station in that
town when she went to report her husband's disappearance,'' the
arrest order says.
A week later in Buenos Aires, Delard's sister, Gloria
Delard, was arrested at her home along with her husband Roberto
Cristi and their two children.
``Gloria Delard was pregnant with her third child. Federal
Police agents took them to the Navy School of Mechanics, where
they disappeared,'' the order says. That school was one of the
most notorious torture centers run by Argentina's military
juntas.
The evidence in Garzon's order was based on the report
produced by the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
appointed by former Chilean President Patricio Aylwin.
The report was published in 1991 and identified 3,197
victims of state-sanctioned killings committed under the Pinochet
regime -- including 1,102 who are still unaccounted for and
presumed dead.
That includes some 125 who killed abroad, mostly in
Argentina but also former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando
Letelier in Washington in 1976.
The majority of the cases contained in the report detail
killings and disappearances within Chile, but also among the
victims were several Spanish citizens whose cases triggered the
initial Spanish investigation.
``Thousands of people were killed under Pinochet's mandate
and many of them were Spanish so why shouldn't the Spanish courts
get involved?'' Isabel Allende was quoted as saying to the
Barcelona-based daily La Vanguadia. She is the daughter of
President Salvador Allende, who died the night Pinochet's forces
staged the bloody takeover, and has the same name as her well-
known cousin, writer Isabel Allende.
Possibly the best-known case was that of Carmelo Soria, a
54-year-old Spaniard working for the U.N. Economic Commission for
Latin America. His body was found inside his car after it plunged
into a canal in a Santiago suburb in 1976.
Soria is believed to have been arrested on July 15, 1976, by
members of DINA, Pinochet's secret police. He was taken to a
house in the Andean foothills near Santiago where he died of
torture.
Investigators determined that Pincohet's agents tried to
make the killing look like a car accident. In evidence submitted
to the Spanish investigations, Spanish prosecutors said Soria was
targeted because he was believed to have helped several people
leave Chile to escape persecution by the regime.
In 1996, a Chilean court ruled that the secret police were
protected by the country's amnesty and could not be tried for
Soria's killing.
Pinochet, who relinquished power in 1990 to a civilian
regime after 17 years of authoritarian rule, cannot be prosecuted
at home because he has immunity as a senator-for-life.
Garzon says, though, that Spanish law allows him to
prosecute genocide no matter where it occurred or the nationality
of the victims.
Spain's attorney general's office, however, insists he is
wrong and has lodged an objection to his arrest order and the
entire investigation. The National Court that Garzon works under
is expected to rule shortly on the objection and, consequently,
the future of the entire case.
``If in Spain the law permits (his) trial, hopefully that
will happen. It's a pity it couldn't happen in Chile,'' Allende's
daughter told la Vanguardia.
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
*****
* INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC ACCURACY *
915 National Press Building
Washington, D.C. 20045
Tel: (202) 347-0020
Web: http://www.accuracy.org
- Monday, 19 October 1998 -
-----
_________________________________________________________________
PINOCHET ARREST RAISES NEW QUESTIONS IN WASHINGTON
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release
WASHINGTON -- The arrest of former Chilean dictator Gen.
Augusto Pinochet has focused new attention on the record of his
regime, which remained in power for 17 years after the 1973 coup
that toppled Chile's democratically elected government. Some
pointed questions are being raised about the Washington-based
Cato Institute's current embrace of Jose Pinera, who was Chile's
Minister of Labor and Social Security from 1978 to 1980 and is
now co-chair of the prominent think tank's Project on Social
Security Privatization.
"Pinera was the Pinochet dictatorship's labor minister at a
time when the country's trade union movement was suffering one of
its worst periods of repression," said Larry Birns, a former
senior public affairs officer for the U.N. Economic Commission
for Latin America in Santiago, Chile. Birns recalled that
"workers were seeing the dismantling of their rights."
Birns added: "Pinera was a vital cog in the Pinochet
dictatorship's ability to implement a draconian labor code. It is
simply outrageous for the Cato Institute to have him as co-chair
of its Social Security privatization effort. This is an example
of crime without punishment and reflects the conservative
organization's contempt for the suffering imposed on Chile's
population during the Pinochet era."
The London Sunday Times yesterday cited documentation that
3,197 people "were murdered for political reasons" by Pinochet's
regime "and more than 1,000 are still unaccounted for. Tens of
thousands were imprisoned or exiled, but often Pinochet's
assassins would follow them."
For further background on Pinera and his role in the
Pinochet dictatorship, please contact:
* LARRY BIRNS, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs
based in Washington, D.C.; coha@coha.org,
http://www.coha.org
* JOSE PINERA, Co-Chair of the Project on Social Security
Privatization, the Cato Institute, Washington, D.C.
For perspectives on Pinochet's regime and human rights in
Chile, please contact:
* KATHLEEN VICKERY, a longtime researcher on politics and
human rights in Chile, where she lived from 1989 to 1995;
kvickery@igc.org
* CLAUDIO DURAN, a former political prisoner in Chile during
the Pinochet regime and currently a Ph.D candidate at
Stanford University; ceduran@leland.stanford.edu
* GLORIA LOYOLA BLACK, a Chilean living in the U.S. who worked
for the Organization of American States for 18 years;
davidb4799@aol.com
For more information, contact the Institute for Public
Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541)
484-9167
* * *
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