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.



 

Pinochet era biological and chemical weapons clandestinely destroyed

A recent declaration by the Institute of Public Health acknowledged Pinochet's possession of chemical weapons and their destruction in 2008. Ingrid Heitmann, former director of the institute, declared that Pinochet had obtained 'enough chemical weapons to eliminate thousands of people in Chile and abroad'.

Human rights lawyer Nelson Caucoto has expounded upon the importance of disclosure, in order for Chileans to comprehend the character of the armed forces, as well as the 'culture of death' operating during Pinochet's dictatorship. The destruction of the weapons, according to Carmen Hertz, may have also served to annihilate proof of the chemicals being used in assassinations. The same concern was echoed by former health minister Alvaro Erazo, who claimed to have no previous knowledge of the weapons' existence. Both Caucoto and Hertz have called for further investigations, with Caucoto stating that Chileans have the right to learn about the 'culture of death' still heavily protected in Chile by the military. As in the case of Victor Jara's murder, Caucoto reiterated the lack of cooperation exhibited by the Chilean Armed Forces, who continue to withhold information which, if declassified, would shed light upon the multitude of atrocities committed by the dictatorship.

Previous reports and research indicate that the manufacture of such weapons, entrusted to Eugenio Berrios and Michael Townley, was a priority for DINA in relation to el Plan Condor. Human experiments involving sarin gas were carried out on detainees held in Cuartel Simon Bolivar, epitomised by the torture inflicted upon two unidentified Peruvians who were forced to inhale the lethal spray and later administered a cyanide injection by Gladys Calderon. Other experiments were conducted upon detainees held at Colonia Dignidad - a detention centre which also hosted a laboratory used for the production of bio-chemical weapons.

In July 1976, Spanish diplomat, former Unidad Popular advisor and member of CEPAL Carmelo Soria was abducted by DINA agents and his corpse discovered in Canal del Carmen in Santiago. Despite dictatorship reports claiming his death had occurred as a result of a car accident, Soria had been detained in Via Naranja - the same location used by Michael Townley and Eugenio Berrios for their clandestine work, and subjected to sarin gas.

Following the assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washingtom, Eugenio Berrios was helped to flee to Uruguay to avoid testifying regarding his role in el Plan Condor, including the murder of Carmelo Soria. In November 1992, having escaped from the house of Uruguayan Colonel Eduardo Radaelli, Berrios declared to the police that he was being held hostage upon orders from Pinochet. His body was discovered three years later on the beach of el Pinar.

Suspicions have also been raised regarding the deaths of former president Eduardo Frei Montalva and Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, both believed to have been administered a toxic substance while at the Santa Maria Clinic.

 

Alleged assassin of Pablo Neruda is former CIA and DINA agent Michael Townley

Pablo Neruda

After taking into consideration additional evidence in the compilation regarding the possible assassination of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, Chilean courts have issued orders to search for the mysterious 'doctor' who allegedly murdered Neruda by injecting a toxic substance in his abdomen. Following two years of investigations, Dr Sergio Draper testified that there had been another doctor with Neruda at the Clinica Santa Maria.

'Dr Price', widely assumed to be an alias for a DINA agent tasked with assassinating the poet, is reported to have been with Neruda on the day he died. A tall, blond and blue eyed man, the description matches that of former CIA and DINA agent Michael Townley, living under the US witness protection programme as part of a plea bargain after confessing to the murder of Carlos Prats and Orlando Letelier.



Michael Townley, ex CIA and DINA agent

Apart from the well known murders of Prats and Letelier, Townley was also a major collaborator at Cuartel Simon Bolivar - the torture and extermination centre which remained DINA's most heavily guarded secret prior to Jorgelino Vergara's testimony regarding the methods of torture and disappearances of prominent MIR and Communist Party militants. Together with biochemist Eduardo Berrios, Townley was responsible for the production of sarin gas and was a frequent visitor to Cuartel Simon Bolivar and Colonia Dignidad, where detainees were used to conduct biological experiments.

The recent developments would seem to render cries of a 'leftist conspiracy' as futile, strengthening Manuel Araya's consistent narrative of an assassination, as opposed to death caused by advanced and metastatic prostate cancer.

For further reading about Michael Townley's role in DINA, see La Danza de los Cuervos: el destino final de los detenidos desaparecidos (Ceibo Ediciones, 2012). Araya's testimony about Neruda's assassination is compiled by authors Francisco Marin and Mario Casasus in El Doble Asesinato de Neruda (Ocho Libros, 2012)