Assassination of former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva confirmed

Former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva

Decades of suspicion regarding the circumstances under which former Chilean president Eduardo Frei Montalva met his end have seemingly terminated into an expected outcome. During a court sitting on March 7, Andres Antonio Valenzuela, known as 'el Papudo', from the Comando Conjunto declared that Frei was assassinated during his stay at the Clinic Santa Lucia following a hiatal hernia operation.

According to Valenzuela's testimony, the news was related to him by a colleague, Alex Carrasco, while visiting the Chilean Embassy in Peru. Working as a nurse at the Clinica Santa Lucia, Carrasco's wife  revealed that a medical practitioner had murdered Frei by applying infected compresses to the post-operative wound.

It is stated that the infected compresses were prepared by Eugenio Berrios, who was later murdered in Uruguay. Berrios, a DINA agent and biochemist, was tasked with producing biological and chemical weapons for the dictatorship together with CIA and DINA agent, Michael Townley.

Valenzuela has lived in exile in France after deserting Chile in 1984, following his defection from the Air Force and the Joint Command, as well as divulging of information regarding kidnappings, torture and disappearances of Pinochet's opponents. He deemed his return to Chile as an effort "to cooperate with regard to all cases pertaining to human rights violations".

Frei's relatives deemed the report as "confirming what Chileans already know, proving that there was organisation within the dictatorship to commit crimes against humanity."

The nature of the crime and recently revealed proof is also reminiscent of the sinister circumstances surrounding Pablo Neruda's death. While preliminary analysis confirmed the presence of cancer in Neruda's body, testimony by Manuel Araya with regard to Neruda's death at the hands of the dictatorship through lethal injection warrants further attention and investigation.