Santiago Court of Appeals seeks the extradition of Adriana Rivas Gonzales, former DINA agent and secretary to Manuel Contreras

The Santiago Court of Appeals has announced its intention to seek the extradition of former DINA agent and secretary to Manuel Contreras, Adriana Rivas Gonzales. Rivas is implicated in the detention and disappearance of former Communist Party militant Victor Diaz Lopez, one of the many victims in DINA's targeting and extermination of militants during the clandestine operation known as Calle Conferencia. Victor Diaz was detained in Cuartel Simon Bolivar, tortured on the parilla, asphyxiated and later administered a cyanide injection by Gladys Calderon.

Rivas, who currently resides in Australia, defended DINA's torture practices as a "necessary tactic" to coerce leftist militants to reveal their plans and association with others in the struggle against the fascist dictatorship The former Brigada Lautaro agent stated that Pinochet was "a good president" and disassociated herself from the fate of Chile's desaparecidos, adding that the years spent working as a DINA agent were the best years of her youth.

At the age of 20, Rivas joined the Ministry of Defence, taking up a secretarial role. in 1974 she joined DINA after taking instruction in military intelligence and was incorporated in the infamous Brigada Lautaro - organised by Manuel Contreras to provide protection for influential officers within DINA. The brigade was later entrusted with clandestine operations relating to the detention, torture and extermination of MIR and Communist Party militants, operating secretly at Cuartel Simon Bolivar, also described as the place where no one got out alive. The existence of the extermination centre was revealed by Jorgelino Vergara Bravo, whose testimony as narrated to Chilean investigative author Javier Rebolledo included torture practices, the administration of cyanide injections prior to the disposal of bodies, the packaging and disappearance of bodies, mock executions, sarin gas experiments by Michael Townley which were witnessed by various DINA officials, looting, organ trafficking in coordination with Colonia Dignidad, and the degradation inflicted upon detainees as they begged to be murdered in order to avoid systematic and incessant torture.

Rivas has been living in Australia since 1978. Her return to Chile in 2006 to celebrate her niece's wedding resulted in her indictment by Chilean courts for her role in Calle Conferencia. Following her release on bail, Rivas was aided by a friend in absconding from Chile and returned to Australia via Argentina.
 

El despertar de los cuervos. Tejas Verdes, el origen del exterminio en Chile

Following the macabre narration ‘La Danza de los Cuervos: el destino final de los detenidos desaparecidos’, which describes the torture and extermination of dictatorship opponents carried out in Cuartel Simon Bolivar, Javier Rebolledo’s latest book, ‘El despertar de los Cuervos. Tejas Verdes, el origen del exterminio en Chile’ (Ceibo Ediciones, 2013) provides a detailed account of DINA’s formation in Tejas Verdes – the location where experimentation with torture was carried out in the early days of the dictatorship.

 

The prologue to the book describes perversity as an inadequate term in relation to dictatorship atrocities committed in Chile. With the full truth of horrors still concealed from the nation, the subject of torture, extermination and disappearance is shrouded within various levels of anonymity – the anonymity enforced by DINA upon the disappeared, torturers whose identity is still undisclosed, and tortured victims who are reluctant to disclose their accounts and add to the Chilean collective memory framework.

Alternating between testimonies from torture survivors, information from official investigation documents and critical commentary, Rebolledo’s account of Tejas Verdes validates his earlier statement dwelling on the difference between conventional reporting about atrocities and survivor testimony. The dehumanisation of detainees through various forms of torture, degradation, manipulation of culture and a refusal to acknowledge individual identity of detainees created harrowing narratives vacillating between the need for recognition and the experiences which DINA attempted to mire within a widespread imposition of oblivion in order to consolidate impunity.

The importance of Tejas Verdes has been overshadowed by other infamous torture centres such as Londres 38 and Villa Grimaldi, as well as by operations carried out by DINA involving the extermination of MIR and Communist Party militants such as the Caravan of Death and Operacion Colombo. However, prior to the formal establishment of DINA, political opponents of Augusto Pinochet were already being tortured and disappeared from Tejas Verdes – the primary torture and extermination centre in Chilean dictatorship history.

Tejas Verdes served as the initiation into torture and a focal point for other torture and extermination centres in Chile. The majority of torturers received their instruction at Tejas Verdes – names such as Marcelo Moren Brito, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Ricardo Lawrence and Cristian Labbé featuring prominently in dictatorship history. Operating under various brigades, DINA agents were tasked with intelligence operations, specific targeting of MIR and Communist Party militants, security and clandestine operations involving extermination of dictatorship opponents. Of particular mention are Brito’s role in the Caravan of Death and Krassnoff’s torture practices in Londres 38. Brigada Halcón, which operated in Londres 38, was also involved in the kidnapping, torture and murder of Víctor Díaz which occurred at Cuartel Simon Bolivar. The refinement of torture practiced in other torture centres such as Clínica Santa Lucia – an issue discussed by Patricio Bustos Streeter indicates a continuous attempt to obliterate any previous errors and cultivate an elaborate impunity. Rebolledo also discusses the existence of Brigada Mulchén under the command of Cristian Labbé – a relatively unknown brigade involved in clandestine operations but whose complicity has been difficult to prove, apart from the murder of Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria in 1976.

Rebolledo shows how, despite judicial investigations initiated by Judge Alejandro Solis, it has been impossible to determine the number of detainees held in Tejas Verdes. What emerged, however, were the details of an appalling torture network headed by Manuel Contreras Sepulveda – a testimony of sadism in the name of eradicating Marxism from Chile. Torturers indicted by Judge Solis portrayed themselves as patriots unjustly accused, who had allegedly saved Chile from the grips of a communist dictatorship. Through the exhibited vestiges of dictatorial power during the trials of former DINA agents, such as Contreras’ threats to Judge Solis, it is possible to discern the traits of an organisation which operated with impunity.

The testimonies of Anatolio Zarate, Ana Becerra, Olga Letelier and Feliciano Cerda, supplemented by other narrations garnered from official investigation documents, portray the extent of human rights violations which DINA agents indulged in. The torture sessions were designed to create a barrier of immense magnitude between torturer and detainee, between detainee and humanity. Torture survivors describe electric shocks through use of the parilla, sexual violence and coercion, severe beatings, mock executions, the insertion of mice and spiders in the vagina, genital mutilation, use of dogs in sexual torture, mutilation, amputations and crude cauterisation, violation in the presence of family members, degrading language, as well as forced ingestion of urine and faeces. Pleas for death on behalf of detainees were met with additional bouts of torment.

Former soldiers who testified against Contreras claimed that detainees were lured to Tejas Verdes upon the premise of ‘discussing’ points of contention, which was imparted in an official letter. Prospective detainees usually complied and exhibited no resistance, discovering upon arrival the nature of DINA’s alleged discussion. Some were assassinated upon the fabricated pretext of attempting escape, others who voiced their fears of being murdered, such as detainee Lucho Normabuena, were systematically disappeared. Medical professionals who attempted to inscribe the truth about the cause of death were detained in Tejas Verdes. Detainees were forced to listen or witness their friends being tortured, while DINA embarked upon plans in the hope of extracting information from detainees upon other detained militants. Olga Letelier describes how torture sessions were usually attended by a group of DINA officers, alternating between watching and participating in torture.

The book also expounds upon the network of health care professionals recruited to supervise torture and instruct DINA torturers in recognising individual thresholds to reduce the possibility of murder during a torture session. With most medical torturers still benefiting from impunity, Chilean society has to contend with yet another contradiction – that of entrusting their health to doctors whose complicity in torture and murder is still concealed. A list of former medical torturers still practicing their profession has been circulating on the internet, in a bid to expose further DINA atrocities. The literature dealing with medical torturers in the book explicitly portrays how the dictatorship disfigured the profession. Among others, Rebolledo’s book refers to Vittorio Orvieto Tiplisky, who commenced his career with DINA at Tejas Verdes and later participated in the extermination of militants at Cuartel Simon Bolivar; nurse Gladys Calerdon who administered lethal injections to tortured detainees prior to their disappearance and Roberto Lailhacar, who recently admitted to the disposal of six disappeared dictatorship opponents in wells on his property at Curacaví.

Rebolledo has bequeathed another significant treatise to Chile’s recent history. It affirms a previous statement by Chilean author and survivor of Tejas Verdes, Hernan Valdes, who summarised Tejas Verdes thus: “All I knew about evil until then was only caricature, only literature. Now evil has lost all moral reference.” Pinochet’s plea for oblivion decades later served as a reminder of what leftist opposition had struggled against. Oblivion had already been implemented by the dictatorship prior to any public call, as evidenced from the early disappearances from Tejas Verdes, the certainty of impunity which was flaunted time and again at tortured detainees, the illegal adoptions of babies born to detainees in order to eliminate traces of rape in detention centres, the medical practitioners who worked under assumed names, thus separating their roles as torturers from the role assumed within the wider berths of society. The detailed testimony and commentary in this book prove that Tejas Verdes should be at the helm of any detailed research regarding Pinochet’s dictatorship – it is through an understanding of Tejas Verdes as the primary reference to human rights violation that one can comprehend the extended torture network and state complicity during the Chilean dictatorship.

79 DINA agents accused of participation in Calle Conferencia I

Mario Zamorano Donoso

Jorge Muñoz Poutays

Magistrate Miguel Vasquez from the Santiago Court of Appeals has issued an indictment against 79 former DINA agents for their participation in the abduction of seven dictatorship opponents: Mario Zamorano Donoso, Jorge Muñoz Poutays, Uldarico Donaire Cortés, Jaime Donato Avendaño, Elisa Escobar Zepeda, Lenin Díaz Silva and Eliana Espinoza Fernandez, as well as the murder of Víctor Díaz López, all victims of Calle Conferencia I. The clandestine operation targeted MIR and Communist party militants with the intention of destroying the clandestine opposition to Pinochet's  dictatorship between May 1976 and January 1977.


Uldarico Donaire Cortes

Jaime Donato Avendano



Mario Zamorano Donoso, Communist Party member, was detained during an operation which lasted from April 30 to May 6, 1976 from a house in Santiago, which was under DINA observation and its inhabitants forced to cooperate in the clandestine operation in the hope of luring Communist Party members to the dwelling. Zamorano was detained on May 4 and transferred to Villa Grimaldi.
On the same day at 21:00,   Jorge Muñoz Poutays was detained and also transferred to Villa Grimaldi.



Elisa Escobar Cepeda

Eliana Espinoza Fernandez

Uldarico Donaire Cortez and Jaime Patricio Donato Avendaño were detained by DINA on May 5 and transferred to Villa Grimaldi.

Elisa Escobar Cepeda, also a Communist Party member, was detained on May 6 and transferred to Villa Grimaldi.

On May 9 1976, DINA agents detained Lenin Díaz Silva, who was transferred to Villa Grimaldi from where it is assumed that he was disappeared. Eliana Espinoza Fernandez was detained on May 12, 1976 and transferred to Villa Grimaldi.


Victor Diaz

Lenin Diaz Silva

The detention of Víctor Díaz López occurred on May 12 1976. DINA agents detained the Secretary General of the Communist Party and transferred him to Villa Grimaldi for interrogation and brutal torture. He was later taken to DINA's extermination centre Cuartel Simon Bolivar, where he remained for a few months prior to his murder and disappearance. Díaz was asphyxiated, his corpse packed in two big bags and strapped to metal rods ready for transfer to Pedelhue, lifted onto a Puma helicopter to be deposed in the sea, in an undisclosed location. Details regarding the detention of Víctor Díaz at Cuartel Simon Bolivar have been narrated by former DINA agent and aid to Manuel Contreras Jorgelino Vergara Bravo, protagonist of Javier Rebolledo's book 'La danza de los cuervos: el destino final de los detenidos desaparecidos'

Below is a list of former DINA agents charged with the crimes.
01. Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda
02. Pedro Espinoza Bravo
03. Carlos López Tapia
04. Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko
05. Ricardo Lawrence Mires
06. Jorge Madariaga Acevedo
07. Eugenio Fieldhouse Chávez
08. José Fuentealba Saldías
09. Hugo Clavería Leiva
10. José Soto Torres
11. Raúl Soto Pérez
12. Juan Carlos Escobar Valenzuela
13. Jerónimo Neira Méndez
14. Héctor Briones Burgos.
15. Pedro Mora Villanueva.
16. Roberto Rodríguez Manquel.
17. Leonidas Méndez Moreno.
18. Jorge Andrade Gómez.
19. Nelson Herrera Lagos.
20. Juan Morales Salgado.
21. Jorge Sagardía Monje.
22. Héctor Valdebenito Araya.
23. Federico Chaigneau Sepúlveda.
24. Bernardo Daza Navarro
25. Sergio Escalona Acuña
26. Guillermo Ferrán Martínez
27. Gladys Calderón Carreño
28. Elisa Magna Astudillo
29. Heriberto del Carmen Acevedo
30. Emilio Troncoso Vivallos
31. Claudio Pacheco Fernández
32. Jorge Díaz Radulovich
33. Orlando Altamirano Sanhueza
34. Eduardo Cabezas Mardones
35. Jorge Escobar Fuentes
36. René Riveros Valderrama
37. Jorge Pichunmán Curiqueo
38. Orfa Saavedra Vásquez
39. Celinda Aspe Rojas
40. Teresa Navarro Navarro
41. Berta Jiménez Escobar
42. Adriana Rivas González
43. Jorge Arriagada Mora
44. Pedro Bitterlich Jaramillo
45. Eduardo Oyarce Riquelme
46. Guillermo Díaz Ramírez
47. Ana Vilches Muñoz
48. Italia Vacarella Gilio
49. Jorge Manríquez Manterola.
50. Orlando Torrejón Gatica
51. José Manuel Sarmiento Sotelo
52. Manuel Obreque Henríquez
53. Gustavo Guerrero Aguilera
54. Eduardo Garea Guzmán
55. Juvenal Piña Garrido
56. Rufino Jaime Astorga
57. Luis Lagos Yáñez
58. María Angélica Guerrero Soto
59. Sergio Castro Andrade
60. Manuel Montre Méndez
61. Pedro Gutiérrez Valdés
62. Claudio Orellana de la Pinta
63. Joyce Ahumada Despouy
64. Hiro Álvarez Vega
65. José Miguel Meza Serrano
66. José Ojeda Obando
67. Carlos Bermúdez Méndez
68. Víctor Manuel Álvarez Droguett
69. Eduardo Reyes Lagos
70. Marilin Silva Vergara
71. Hernán Sovino Maturana
72. José Friz Esparza
73. Carlos Miranda Mesa
74. Camilo Negrier
75. Orlando Inostroza Lagos
76. Carlos López Inostroza
77. José Seco Alarcón
78. Lionel Medrano Rivas
79. Juan Suazo Saldaña

Former head of DINA Manuel Contreras denies torture and disappearances in dictatorship era

Interviewed by CNN Chile at the Penal Cordillera, former head of DINA Manuel Contreras denied the routine practice of torture and disappearance of socialists during the dictatorship era, adding that he vouched for the organisation as he had never ordered torture.

As Chile commemorated the 40th anniversary of the ruthless dictatorship which fragmented the country into divergent memory frameworks, Contreras sought to contradict the evidence of committed atrocities either by vehemently denying the confirmed facts by seeking to demean the credibility of torture survivors and evidence relating to the desaparecidos, or else projecting blame upon other forces of the dictatorship, such as the air force. The Valech and Rettig reports were also disregarded with Contreras simply claiming he was not ordered to impose torture practices upon detainees and that no one died while in custody.

It is estimated that over 1200 sites were turned into detention, torture and extermination centres during the dictatorship.

According to Contreras, the desaparecidos can be located at the Cemeterio General in Santiago, adding that all bodies were taken to the Servicio Medico Legal prior to burial in mass graves. The practice of disappearing the bodies of murdered socialist militants into the sea was also denied, with Contreras claiming that 'DINA had no ships or aircraft or helicopters', thus striving to impart the assumption that there was no collaboration with other powerful structures within the dictatorship. The desaparecidos, according to Contreras, 'died in combat'.

The Chilean Ministry of Interior dismissed Contreras' interview as 'having no significance or relevance', adding that the imprisoned general imposed destruction upon Chile, reminding people that his rhetoric has been dispelled by the Chilean courts.

The remarks uttered by Contreras elicited outrage in social media, compounded by the fact that right wing supporters clamoured online for the freedom of former military offices, who they described as political prisoners.

DINA's covert operations manual, known as 'Secreto 28', instructs agents to take advantage of instances when people believe the law is not being violated, as it allows further freedom to infringe. The 108 page document instructs DINA to violate the law and ensure that all traces of such violations should be appropriately concealed in order to avoid the possibility of implicating the state and authorities.

President Sebastian Piñera condemned the human rights violations which occurred during Pinochet's era; however he expressed the opinion that both sides of the political spectrum should assume responsibility, adding that Salvador Allende's government 'broke the legality and rule of law'.

Meanwhile in Santiago, activists are determined to continue the struggle for the memory of the desaparecidos. It has been reported that Santiago will be 'bombarded' with thousands of photos bearing the faces of Chile's desaparecidos in various places, including the notorious detention and extermination centre, Cuartel Simon Bolivar.



 

Five former DINA agents sentenced for the detention of MIR militant Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce

Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Marcelo Moren Brito, Ricardo Lawrence Mires were yesterday sentenced to ten years imprisonment for the detention and disappearance of MIR militant Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce. Basclay Zapata Reyes was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for complicity in detention and torture while another indicted agent, Gerardo Urich Gonzales, was absolved.

Alfonso Chanfreau, a philosophy student and MIR militant, was detained on July 30, 1974. At approximately 11:30pm, a  number of agents surrounded Chanfreau's dwelling - orders came directly from Contreras. His wife; Erika Hennings, and their daughter were transferred to her parents' home. Chanfreau was taken to Londres 38 and tortured, in an attempt to garner information about other militants. Enraged by Chanfreau's silence, DINA agents detained Erika, taping her eyes shut as the vehicle passed the Mapocho river in order to render oblivious of her surroundings. She was transferred her to Londres 38 and tortured in the presence of her husband in order to force him to collaborate with the dictatorship.

Marcia Alejandra Merino, a former MIR militant turned collaborator, was instrumental in the detention and subsequent torture of Chanfreau. It is reported that while at Londres 38, Merino sought out Chanfreau, pleading forgiveness for his plight and stating that she had collaborated with DINA to avoid further torture. Luz Arce Sandoval, another militant turned collaborator whose testimony proved vital for the Rettig Commission, declared that she was forced to witness Chanfreau being tortured.

On December 17, 1974 ,the Interior Ministry gave orders regarding Erika Henning's exile, while denying that Chanfreau had ever been detained. Chanfreau's name later appeared on the list of the 119, also known as Operacion Colombo - one of the dictatorship's fabrication of memory in which it was claimed that certain MIR and Communist Party militants had died as a result of infighting while abroad.

Testimony from witnesses indicate that Chanfreau was intensely tortured, as DINA believed he had access to fundamental information which would aid them in the destruction of MIR.

As in other cases, justice continues to be seriously hampered owing to impunity laws. The former agents will serve their sentences in Penal Cordillera, described by many as a luxurious five start dwelling, while dictatorship survivors and relatives of the desaparecidos remain entrenched within a fragment of mangled memory which is temporarily alleviated by judicial sentences long due. Former agents still retain their oath of silence about the the systematic disappearance of detainees, which makes a further recovery of memory an improbable accomplishment.

Four DINA agents sentenced for the disappearance of María Cecilia Labrín Saso

On April 30, 2013 Judge Leopoldo Lanos sentenced former DINA agents Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Marcelo Moren Brito and Basclay Zapata Reyes to ten years imprisonment for the detention and disappearace of MIR militant María Cecilia Labrín Saso.

Labrín, aged 25, was detained on August 12, 1974 in the presence of her family by DINA agents, while resting due to a difficult pregnancy. The supposedly brief interrogation evolved into disappearance as the family sought information about Labrin's whereabouts in vain. Testimony by former MIR militant and torture survivor Erika Hennings place Labrin at Londres 38 and tortured by Contreras, Krassnoff, Brito and Reyes. Other detainees, such as Oscar Armando Alfaro Cordova (detained in July 1974) and Raul Alberto Iturra Munoz (detained in January1974) testify to her presence in Londres 38 and Cuatro Alamos respectively. According to evidence provided in court, it is documented that Labrin was transferred and held in Cuatro Alamos on August 17, 1974, accused of participation in MIR related activities.

Labrin's presence at Londres 38 was also witnessed by former MIR militant turned DINA collaborator Luz Arce Sandoval. Arce's testimony before the Rettig Commission provided a wealth of information about the intricacies of DINA and 'justification' for the betrayal of MIR militants and comrades, which she insists only damaged the 'peripheral' structure of the leftist organisation(Lazzara, 2011).

Questioned about DINA's operations in Londres 38, Contreras stated that he 'knew of its existence' but was not knowledgeable about the objectives. despite the lack of collaboration in behalf of Contreras, the court was able to provide evidence of collaboration in the detention, torture and disappearance of Labrin through testimony by other DINA agents including co-accused Reyes, as well as information and evidence garnered from the Truth and Reconciliation Report, which identified Contreras as in command of all operations pertaining to structure, organisation and detention centres.

Krassnoff sought to reinvent his role as torturer into that of an analyst undertaking intelligence studies with regard to 'terrorist groups like MIR' - a statement contradicted by numerous witnesses, including Erika Hennings as well as co-accused Reyes who gave evidence about the structure of Brigada Halcon and Krassnoff's role in persecuting MIR militants.

Denials by the accused reeked of the impunity and secrecy which DINA availed itself of. To this day, there is no information as to how the disappearance of Labrin was carried out.
 

Torture in Tejas Verdes (1)

According to the Rettig Commission report, the concentration camp 'Tejas Verdes' corresponds to Campamento N2 de prisioneros de la Escuela de Ingenieros Militares 'Tejas Verdes', used as a detention and torture centre from September 11, 1973 until mid 1974. Various socialist adherents detained in Tejas Verdes form part of the detenidos desaparecidos, including Miguel Rivas and Rebeca Espinoza.

Under the command of later DINA chief Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, Tejas Verdes was described by torture survivor Hernan Valdes as a centre of macabre violations. "... all I knew about evil until then was only caricature, only literature. Now evil has lost all moral reference.' (Valdes, 1974).

Former political prisoners and torture survivors cite extreme torture tactics as having been consistently applied to detainees, who were subjected to electric shocks, beatings, mock executions, burning of skin with wax and cigarettes, the pulling of nails, exposure to extreme temperatures, immobilisation, nakedness, sexual violence, deprivation of food and water, forced to eat their excrement and to listen to other detainees being tortured. Medical attention was restricted to checking each detainee's resilience, in order to avoid premature death and allow for other bouts of torture. 

A brief look at some of the DINA agents operating at Tejas Verdes reveals the extent of networking amongst other detention and torture centres.

Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko - later transferred to Londres 38 and Villa Grimaldi, also collaborated with Cuartel Simon Bolivar in the detention and torture of MIR militants.

Marcelo Moren Brito - head of Brigada Caupolican and in charge of Villa Grimaldi, also a participant in the murder of MIR secretary general Miguel Enriquez and accused of participating in the detention and disappearance of MIR militant Alfonso Rene Chanfreau Oyarce.

Ingrid Olderock - notoriously renowned for training dogs to violate women and associated with other torture centres, including Villa Grimaldi and Venda Sexy.

Cristian Labbe - personal friend of Krassnoff and later member of Brigada Halcon, instructor in torture methods and former mayor of Providencia.

Vittorio Orvieto Tiplizky: torture consultant. Referred to as 'el medico torturador'. Associated with Tejas Verdes and Villa Grimaldi.

Pedro Espinoza Bravo: associated with the 'Caravan of Death', torture at Villa Grimaldi, as well as the assassination of Orlando Letelier.

Gerardo Urrich Gonzales: tortured detainees at 'La Torre' in Villa Grimaldi and responsible for the disappearance of Rodolfo Valentin Gonzales Perez. 






 

La danza de los cuervos: el destino final de los detenidos desaparecidos

La Danza de los Cuervos: el destino final de los detenidos desaparecidos
Javier Rebolledo
Ceibo Ediciones, 2012

The history of Cuartel Simón Bolívar remained a heavily shrouded secret of Direccion de Intelligencia Nacional (DINA), until the pact of silence was broken by Jorgelino Vergara Bravo, known as ‘el Mocito’. A struggle for survival grotesquely transformed into a life of treason – a man of campesino origins working as a servant in the household of Manuel Contreras Sepulveda – Head of DINA, later progressing to inclusion in DINA and transferred to Cuartel Simón Bolívar. ‘La Danza de los Cuervos: el destino final de los detenidos desaparecidos’ (Dance of Crows: the fate of the disappeared detainees) delves into the atrocities committed by Brigada Lautaro and Grupo Delfín through Vergara’s testimony who, in 2007, declared the Cuartel as ‘the only place where no one got out alive’.  Residents living close to the extermination centre were reluctant to make friends, out of mistrust and the uncomfortable proximity to the terror inflicted upon detainees.

Vergara’s initiation into Manuel Contreras’ realm started with his employment as an errand boy. During the months spent at the household, Vergara equated respect with authority, particularly manifested in his obsession with weapon handling and ownership and learning to work in relation to crime, albeit unconsciously at first. Contreras’ power was gradually revealed – occasional phone calls from dictator Augusto Pinochet, the arrival of Uruguayan President Juan María Bordaberry and the ensuing collaboration in staging Operación Condór and Operación Colombo, the expensive automobiles, the presence of bodyguards and the visits of other DINA agents, such as Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Michael Townley and Juan Morales Salgado, were a fragment of the reality incarcerated within Cuartel Simón Bolívar.

Javier Rebolledo portrays Vergara’s testimony as a narration of memories, prompted by the author at times for clarification or further information; supplemented by the author’s research through official documents and court statements. However, it is essentially Vergara’s history intertwined with that of the torturers and the desaparecidos of Cuartel Simón Bolívar. Apart from his insistence that he was never involved in killing or torturing any of the desaparecidos, the sensation of blame is effortlessly enhanced. Indeed, Judge Victor Montiglio only acquitted Vergara on the grounds that he was not yet an adult according to the law, during his tenure working for DINA’s Brigada Lautaro and Grupo Delfín.

The initial realisation of betrayal is only intensified as the book progresses. Vergara’s betrayal of his campesino origins, his betrayal of DINA and, more importantly, the betrayal of Chile’s struggle against oblivion merge and distance themselves incessantly. The contrasts of relieving one’s conscience versus the convenience of acquittal, coupled with Vergara’s trepidation of a possible assassination for revealing DINA’s profoundly fortified secret, all point to complicity in the fate of MIR and Partido Comunista disappeared militants.

On January 20, 2007 Jorgelino Vergara Bravo broke the pact of silence after being falsely identified as the murderer of Víctor Manuel Díaz López, head of the clandestine organisation of Chile’s Communist Party. Insisting that he never killed or tortured any of the desaparecidos, Vergara’s testimony shed light on Cuartel Simón Bolívar as Chile’s torture and extermination centre. There had been numerous speculations about the existence of a site specifically used for the persecution, torture and annihilation of MIR and Communist Party Militants, but DINA refused to reveal any vital information. While Vergara was detained in a high security prison, 74 DINA agents were immediately arrested, leaving no chance for a possible corroboration between officials to avail themselves of impunity. Betrayals and denials ensued. Contreras denied ever having set eyes upon Vergara. On the contrary, Juan Morales Salgado, Head of Brigada Lautaro, was the first to affirm that Vergara ‘was neither an apparition nor paranoid’, confirming Vergara’s employment at Cuartel Simón Bolívar and his previous job as errand boy in Contreras’ household.

Montiglio’s perseverance in bringing the DINA agents to justice was abruptly terminated upon his demise from cancer in 2011. By that time, evidence about Cuartel Simón Bolívar, the Calle Conferencia cases, as well as the process of disappearing MIR and Communist Party militants and Operacion Retiro de Televisores was swiftly unravelling, revealing the ruthless mechanisms of Brigada Lautaro and Grupo Delfín.

Vergara’s previous fragmented knowledge, garnered from conversations between Contreras and other DINA agents, including Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Juan Morales Salgado, Burgos de Beer and Moren Brito, gradually manifested itself into revelations of actual torture and extermination ritual. Serving coffee and sandwiches to agents in the midst of torture sessions, Vergara recalls the indifference with which instructions on how to serve coffee jarred with the sight of a detainee writhing from excruciating torture. However, these scenes portrayed a fragment of the torture process. Vergara’s recollections of Dr Osvaldo Pincetti (also known as Dr Tormento) and detainees were impregnated with detail, yet the fate of the tortured dissidents remained obscured. Dr Pincetti specialised in hypnosis; on one occasion Vergara witnessed a victim being forced to watch himself bleed to death – a form of torture designed to coerce the dissident into signing false confessions or supplying information about Chilean dissidents.

The severity of torture ensured that detainees were exterminated and disappeared within seven days of arriving at Cuartel Simón Bolívar. Detainees were forced to listen to their compañeros’ anguish during torture sessions involving the parilla, which administered electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body, including the genitals. Sometimes detainees were beaten to death or asphyxiated. Nurse Gladys Calderon, another DINA recruit whose work experience included assisting Dr Vittorio Orvietto Tiplizky in Villa Grimaldi and DINA agent Ingrid Olderock, notoriously renowned for training dogs to violate women, administered cyanide injections to all detainees. Questioned about her role, Calderon deemed it ‘an act of humanity’ which ended the suffering of those destined to become the desaparecidos of Cuartel Simón Bolívar.

Vergara also narrates how detainees were used to test the manufacture of chemical weapons. Developed and manufactured by Eugenio Berriós and Michael Townley; a US citizen recruited by DINA and now living under the witness protection programme in the US, sarin gas featured prominently in Cuartel Simón Bolívar. Two Peruvian men were detained and brought to the Cuartel, where they were forced to inhale sarin gas in the presence of Contreras, Salgado, Barriga, Lawrence and Calderon. The Peruvians were administered electric shocks using a new device displayed by Townley and later beaten to death. Their bodies were probably disposed of in Cuesta Barriga – the site in question during the illegal exhumation of the desaparecidos’ bodies during Operación Retiro de Televisores in 1979.

 



Reinalda Pereira

Víctor Díaz

Memories of the torture inflicted upon Daniel Palma, Víctor Díaz, Reinalda Pereira and Fernando Ortiz Letelier are narrated in detail by Vergara, who describes Palma’s cries as being the loudest ever heard, prompting DINA agents to increase the sound level of their stereos to obliterate his cries. Díaz was tortured on the parilla, asphyxiated and later administered a cyanide injection by Calderon, upon direct orders from Morales. After manifesting her terror at the inability to protect her unborn child, Pereira was subjected to mock executions and severe beatings, incited by her pleas to DINA agents to kill her. Ortiz was beaten to death. The bodies were later subjected to further degradation – agents pulled out the teeth in a search for gold fillings. Later, the faces, fingers and any other particular features were torched to prevent any possible identification. As with other Calle Conferencia victims, the bodies of the detainees were ‘packaged’ during the night and ushered out of Cuartel Simón Bolívar, destined for burial in Cuesta Barriga or transferred to Pedelhue, loaded upon helicopters and dumped into the sea. According to Vergara, the desaparecidos were deemed ‘fodder for the fish’ by DINA agents. In 1976, 80 MIR militants suffered the fate of the detenidos desaparecidos – most of them through Cuartel Simón Bolívar.

Daniel Palma

Fernando Ortiz Letelier

Rebolledo’s intricate research constructs the alliance between agents of Cuartel Simón Bolívar and other detention and torture centres. A number of agents forming part of Brigada Lautaro and Grupo Delfín were part of the contingent from Tejas Verdes. As the persecution of MIR and Partido Comunista militants widened to encompass all of Chile, torture centres were set up around the country under the command of Manuel Contreras. At the time of Vergara’s inclusion in DINA, torture centres such as Villa Grimaldi, Londres 38, Tres y Cuatro Álamos and José Domingo Cañas were already operating under special brigades such as Brigada Halcón, headed by Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko and responsible for the torture of detainees at Londres 38.

 

Vergara recalls a visit to Colonia Dignidad, run by Paul Schäfer and notorious for its abuse against incarcerated minors. Rumours originating from Contreras’ bodyguards indicated that DINA agents profited from the desaparecidos by setting up an organ trafficking trade to Europe, with the recipient countries being Switzerland and Belgium.

 

Betrayals ensured within DINA following its disintegration after the assassination of Orlando Letelier. With the creation of the CNI, Vergara was transferred to Cuartel Loyola where he found himself lacking the imaginary protection offered by Contreras. Pressed by Rebolledo as to whether he participated in any assassinations after his stint at DINA, Vergara replies in a rhetorical manner, implying self-defence against aggression as implication of participation. Rebolledo remarks upon the vagueness of Vergara’s recollections in this period, noting once again that Montiglio had exonerated him solely because he had been a minor during his time at Cuartel Simón Bolívar. The vague recollections coincide with Operacion Retiro de Televisores – an encrypted message issued by Pinochet ordering agents to illegally exhume the remains of the bodies buried clandestinely in Cuesta Barriga. The remains were either dumped into the sea or burned, to avoid any official investigation. Bone fragments later discovered on site led to the identification of Fernando Ortiz Letelier, Ángel Gabriel Guerrero, Horacio Cepeda and Lincoyán Berríos – all victims of Calle Conferencia.
 

The book is punctuated with the contrast between the lives of the desaparecidos and the agents in charge of their extermination, laying bare the crudeness with which various sections of the Cuartel served for disparate purposes – desaparecidos left to bleed to death in the gym, which would later be cleaned and used by the agents for their physical training. Sporting events were also held between different brigades of various torture centres.
 

Undoubtedly, Rebolledo’s research is striving to shift the dynamics of impunity. Recently the author was subjected to acts of intimidation when his research detailing further DINA atrocities was stolen. Chile’s dictatorship disguised under a semblance of democracy is still resisting the masses’ struggle in favour of memory.  As stated in the first chapters, various agents still have not been processed for their roles in dictatorship crimes, whilst others continue to wield influence in Chile’s legal and political hierarchy.

‘La danza de los cuervos’ is both an indispensable read and a significant contribution to Chile’s struggle against oblivion and impunity. The exploitation of humanity decreed by Pinochet and Contreras is vividly depicted without committing error of shifting the focus from the detenidos desaparecidos. Rebolledo weaves his discourse out of a sequence of betrayals within diverse factions in Chile, compellingly bequeathing the memory of the desaparecidos to a country split between loyalty to the dictator’s manipulation and the masses clamouring for an integral part of their narrative which wallowed in oblivion for decades.