Pinochet blames security chief for dissident operation
Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet told a judge his former security chief was to blame for one of the most notorious cases of human rights abuses during his 1973-90 rule.
Radio Co-operativa of Santiago – which said it had access to excerpts of Pinochet’s testimony about Operation Colombo, in which 119 dissidents were killed or disappeared in 1975 – reported that the 90-year-old former ruler accused General Manuel Contreras, the former head of Pinochet’s secret police, over the abuses.
“I think General Contreras is a liar,” Pinochet told the judge, according to Radio Co-operativa.
“General Contreras changed the roles, his and mine, so he would appear as an innocent little bird,” Pinochet said, according to the report.
The comments were confirmed by prosecutor Eduardo Contreras, who is involved in the case.
Judge Victor Montiglio – who questioned Pinochet for almost two hours at his guarded mansion in an upmarket Santiago neighbourhood – was not immediately available for comment.
Contreras, who is serving a 12-year prison term for the killing of a left-wing leader in the 1970s, was the head of Pinochet’s secret police, which is believed to have carried out the worst abuses during the military dictatorship. Contreras has been convicted in at least two cases, including a 1976 bombing in Washington that killed prominent Pinochet foe Orlando Letelier.
A staunch Pinochet loyalist for years, Contreras has recently distanced himself from his former boss as Pinochet has avoided trial and prison.
Lawyers have successfully argued that Pinochet, who has been diagnosed with mild dementia, diabetes and arthritis and has sustained several minor strokes, is too ill to stand trial.
But the former dictator has been stripped of immunity and the interview with Montiglio was the last step in a process that could lead the judge to indict Pinochet for the disappearance of 37 dissidents.
