Chilean Judge Orders Arrest of Pinochet-Era Soldiers and Secret Police
May 27th, 2008See:
The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability by Peter Kornbluh
Via: Guardian:
A Chilean judge has ordered the detention of almost 100 former soldiers and secret police officers from General Augusto Pinochet’s regime as part of investigations into human rights abuses, according to reports.
Among the 98 held are former employees of Pinochet’s notorious Dina intelligence service, which ran a series of secret prisons where leftwingers and other opponents were tortured and killed, Reuters said, citing unnamed judicial sources.
Judge Victor Montiglio ordered the arrests for alleged abuses during Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship. Montiglio is examining the kidnapping and murder of 42 people during Operation Colombo, a campaign against opponents of the regime in its early days.
“This is excellent news, because Operation Colombo was also a case in which General Pinochet’s immunity from prosecution was stripped, and given the number of victims, is an emblematic case,” Sergio Laurenti, the head of Amnesty International in Chile, told Reuters.
It was now important that Chile’s security forces cooperate with the investigation as there had been a “lack of cooperation” from the police and military before, he added.
Around 3,000 people died or vanished during Pinochet’s rule while almost 30,000 were tortured and about 200,000 fled.
