Chile's Supreme Court on Friday upheld the convictions of 22 former members of Augusto Pinochet's formidable political police force for the kidnapping and murder of 12 people as part of “Operation Condor.”
In the mid-1970s, South American military dictatorships, with the tacit support of the United States, worked together as part of “Operation Condor” to track down and eliminate their left-wing opponents across national borders.
Its members were Argentina, Chile, Uruguay – considered pivotal points – Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil.
Chile's highest court has upheld an earlier conviction against these 22 former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), the Pinochet regime's shadowy political police force. She is accused of being responsible for the majority of the approximately 3,200 deaths and disappearances during the dictatorship.
Those convicted included retired military officers Cristoph Willike, Raul Iturriaga, Juan Morales and Pedro Espinoza, who were sentenced to 40 years in prison for murder and kidnapping. The others received prison sentences ranging from three to 36 years for involvement in the same crimes. Most of them are already serving prison sentences for other crimes committed during the dictatorship.
The court decision states that it was the Pinochet dictatorship that “officially established a plan for coordination of actions and mutual assistance between the heads of the intelligence services of Argentina and Bolivia on November 25, 1975, at a meeting in Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile, with the aim of destabilizing opponents of regimes administered by the armed forces and law and order forces.”
In Geneva, Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, welcomed the decision of the Chilean Supreme Court.
“The calculated cruelty of these dictatorships continues to have a profound impact on the families of those who suffered from these grave human rights violations, on the societies and on the history of the region,” Türk said in a press release.