Eugenio Berríos
Encyclopedia
Eugenio Berríos Sagredo was a Chile
an biochemist
who worked for the DINA intelligence agency.
Berríos was charged with carrying outProyecto Andrea in which Pinochet ordered the production of sarin gas, a chemical weapon used by the DINA. Sarin gas leaves no trace and victims' deaths closely mimic heart attacks. Other biochemical weapons produced by Berríos included anthrax
and botulism
. Berríos also allegedly produced cocaine
for Pinochet, who then sold it to Europe and the United States
. Wanted by the Chilean authorities for involvement in the Letelier case
, he escaped to Uruguay in 1991, at the beginning of the Chilean transition to democracy
, and what has been identified as his corpse was found in 1995 near Montevideo
.
's car-bombing assassination in Washington, D.C. in 1976. In April 1976, Berríos synthesized sarin
. He was also suspected, along with DINA agent Michael Townley
, of the torture and assassination of the Spanish citizen Carmelo Soria
.
In 1978, Townley, in a sworn but confidential declaration, stated that sarin gas was produced by the DINA under Berríos' direction. He added that it was used to assassinate the real state archives custodian Renato León Zenteno and the Chilean Army
Corporal Manuel Leyton.
Former head of DINA Manuel Contreras
declared to Chilean justice officials in 2005 that the CNI, successor of DINA, handed out monthly payments between 1978 and 1990 to the persons who had worked with Townley in Chile, all members of the far-right group Patria y Libertad: Mariana Callejas (Townley's wife), Francisco Oyarzún, Gustavo Etchepare and Berríos. According to La Nación
, Berríos also worked with drug traffickers and Drug Enforcement Administration
agents.
's death, DINA agent Michael Townley
acknowledged links between Colonia Dignidad
, led by ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer
, and DINA on one hand, and the Laboratorio de Guerra Bacteriológica del Ejército (Bacteriological War Army Laboratory) on the other hand. It is suspected that the toxin that killed Frei Montalva in a Santa Maria clinic in 1982 was created there. This new laboratory in Colonia Dignidad would have been, according to him, the continuation of the laboratory that the DINA had in Via Naranja de lo Curro, where he worked with Eugenio Berríos in the clandestine unit Quetropilla. Townley would also have testified on biological experiments made upon the prisoners in Colonia Dignidad with the help of the two above-mentioned laboratories.
" were found in Paraguay, Eugenio Berríos was escorted from Chile to Uruguay by the Special Unity of the DINE
(Army's Intelligence agency), in order to escape testifying before a Chilean court in the Letelier case
and in the other case concerning the 1976 assassination of the Spanish diplomat and CEPAL civil servant Carmelo Soria
. He had just been indicted by the magistrate Adolfo Bañados in charge of the Letelier case.
This is known as "Operation Silencio", which started in April 1991 in order to impede investigations by Chilean judges concerning crimes committed during Pinochet's dictatorship
, with the spiriting away of Arturo Sanhueza Ross, linked to the murder of MIR leader Jecar Neghme in 1989. According to the Rettig Report
, Jecar Neghme's death was carried out by Chilean intelligence agents. In September 1991, Carlos Herrera Jiménez, who killed trade-unionist Tucapel Jiménez, flew away, before Berríos who followed in October 1991. Berríos then used four different passports, Argentinian, Uruguayan, Paraguayan and Brazilian, lifting concerns about Operation Condor
still being in place. In Uruguay, he was protected by members of the Chilean and Uruguayan military intelligence as part of La cofradia, alleged to be the direct heir of Operation Condor.
In Uruguay, Berrios was hidden in the house of the Uruguayan Colonel Eduardo Radaelli, using the alias of "Tulio Orellana". Berríos, however, escaped from Radaelli's home and presented himself on 15 November 1992 to a local police office in order to claim he had been kidnapped. Uruguayan military officers Tomas Casella and Eduardo Radaelli then went to the police office to request the police to hand over Berríos, which was done. He was then never seen again.
In February 1993, Pinochet travelled to Uruguay, and the Uruguayan Tomas Casella was appointed as his aide-de-camp
. Casella, Radaelli and Washington Sarli (another Uruguayan military officer) then travelled, the same year, to Chile, to attend intelligence courses, although the courses were then cancelled (according to Casella, because some countries' intelligence officers could not attend) and they were invited to pass some days, with costs paid, in the Termas de Puyehue. In a 2007 interview, Casella stated that he had first entered into contact with Berríos in March 1992 under the requests of a Chilean intelligence officer, and that he had immediately informed General Mario Aguerrondo, then head of the SID
Uruguayan military intelligence agency (now retired), who allegedly ordered him to remain in contact with the Chileans.
In June 1993, an anonymous letter sent to various Uruguayan deputies denounced Berríos' presence in the country, leading them to request of President Luis Alberto Lacalle
's government immediate investigations. Lacalle immediately, on June 6, 1993, dismissed the police chief of Canelones
, Ramón Rivas, on charges of not having informed him of what had occurred. Three days later official investigations were initiated concerning the Berríos case. On June 9, 1993, 14 Army Generals met with the Minister of Defence Mariano Brito, and two days later, General Mario Aguerrondo was dismissed.
Finally, a corpse, identified by the Uruguayan justice as that of Berrios, was found in April 1995 in a beach of El Pinar, near Montevideo
, with two gunshots in the back of the neck, his murderers having tried to make the identification of his body impossible. However, forensic dentistry
immediately led to his identification as Berríos. Furthermore, DNA fingerprinting
was also done several years later.
According to the daughter of Carmelo Soria
, the Spanish diplomat assassinated in 1976, Chilean Eduardo Aldunate Hermann, second-in-command of the MINUSTAH United Nations force in Haiti, was also involved in the assassination of Eugenio Berríos.
Three Uruguayan military officers (Tomas Casella, Washington Sarli and Eduardo Radaelli ) have been extradited in April 2006 to Chile and were detained there, before being released on bail
in September 2006. In October 2006, the Court of Appeal of Santiago stripped Pinochet's parliamentary immunity
(who was, in 1992, head of the Chilean military), opening up the way for his judgment concerning the homicide of Berríos. Furthermore, the former directors of the DINE, Hernán Ramírez Rurange and Eugenio Covarrubias, have been charged of obstruction to justice in this case. Ramírez Rurange, several other Chilean militaries and one civilian, and the three Uruguayan officers have also been charged of sequestration
, while Eugenio Covarrubias was charged with sequestration and homicide. Emilio Rojas Gómez, the former Chilean cultural attaché in Montevideo, was also charged with obstruction of justice.
's involvement in the cocaine trade, former DINA director Manuel Contreras
asserted in a judicial document handed to judge Claudio Pavez, presiding over the investigation concerning the 1992 assassination of Colonel Gerardo Huber
, that Berríos was in fact alive and now worked for the DEA
. Contreras' lawyer, Fidel Reyes, alleged that the corpse discovered in El Pinar belonged in reality to a foreigner, and that Berríos allegedly had in 2004 attended the funeral, in Chile, of one of his close relative. According to Contreras' deposition, the cocaine (which was "black cocaine
" especially made to be undetectable) was produced by Berríos in a military installation in Talagante
, and both Pinochet's son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, and the businessman Edgardo Batich were involved in the drug trade. The money from the trade was allegedly directly put in Pinochet's bank accounts abroad.
Manuel Contreras' allegations concerning Berríos' alleged survival have been flatly denied by the Uruguayan judge in charge of investigating his assassination, who claims that she is "99% sure" of the identification of the corpse found in 1995, and added that DNA
analysis had been made a few years later.
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an biochemist
Biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. The prefix of "bio" in "biochemist" can be understood as a fusion of "biological chemist."-Role:...
who worked for the DINA intelligence agency.
Berríos was charged with carrying outProyecto Andrea in which Pinochet ordered the production of sarin gas, a chemical weapon used by the DINA. Sarin gas leaves no trace and victims' deaths closely mimic heart attacks. Other biochemical weapons produced by Berríos included anthrax
Anthrax
Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...
and botulism
Botulism
Botulism also known as botulinus intoxication is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by botulinum toxin which is metabolic waste produced under anaerobic conditions by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and affecting a wide range of mammals, birds and fish...
. Berríos also allegedly produced cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
for Pinochet, who then sold it to Europe and the United States
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
. Wanted by the Chilean authorities for involvement in the Letelier case
Letelier case
The Letelier case refers to the killing in Washington, D.C. of Orlando Letelier, a Chilean political figure and later United States-based activist, along with his American assistant, Ronni Moffitt...
, he escaped to Uruguay in 1991, at the beginning of the Chilean transition to democracy
Chilean transition to democracy
The Chilean transition to democracy began when a Constitution establishing a transition itinerary was approved in a plebiscite. From March 11, 1981 to March 11, 1990, several organic constitutional laws were approved leading to the final restoration of democracy...
, and what has been identified as his corpse was found in 1995 near Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
.
DINA agent
Known in the DINA under his alias "Hermes", for which he began to work in 1974, Berríos was connected to the creation of the explosive used for Orlando LetelierOrlando Letelier
Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar was a Chilean economist, Socialist politician and diplomat during the presidency of Socialist President Salvador Allende...
's car-bombing assassination in Washington, D.C. in 1976. In April 1976, Berríos synthesized sarin
Sarin
Sarin, or GB, is an organophosphorus compound with the formula [2CHO]CH3PF. It is a colorless, odorless liquid, which is used as a chemical weapon. It has been classified as a weapon of mass destruction in UN Resolution 687...
. He was also suspected, along with DINA agent Michael Townley
Michael Townley
Michael Vernon Townley is a US citizen currently living in the United States under terms of the federal witness protection program. A Central Intelligence Agency agent and operative of the Chilean secret police, DINA, Townley confessed, was convicted, and served 62 months in prison in the United...
, of the torture and assassination of the Spanish citizen Carmelo Soria
Carmelo Soria
Carmelo Soria was a Spanish-Chilean United Nations diplomat. A member of the CEPAL in the 1970s, he was assassinated by Chile's DINA agents as a part of Operation Condor...
.
In 1978, Townley, in a sworn but confidential declaration, stated that sarin gas was produced by the DINA under Berríos' direction. He added that it was used to assassinate the real state archives custodian Renato León Zenteno and the Chilean Army
Chilean Army
The Chilean Army is the land arm of the Military of Chile. This 45,000-person army is organized into seven divisions, a special operations brigade and an air brigade....
Corporal Manuel Leyton.
Former head of DINA Manuel Contreras
Manuel Contreras
Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda is a Chilean military officer and the former head of DINA, Chile's secret police during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. As head of DINA he was the most powerful and feared man in the country, after Pinochet...
declared to Chilean justice officials in 2005 that the CNI, successor of DINA, handed out monthly payments between 1978 and 1990 to the persons who had worked with Townley in Chile, all members of the far-right group Patria y Libertad: Mariana Callejas (Townley's wife), Francisco Oyarzún, Gustavo Etchepare and Berríos. According to La Nación
La Nación (Chile)
La Nación is a Chilean newspaper created in 1917 by Eliodoro Yáñez and presided until 1927 by Carlos Dávila. It was a private company until 1927, when it was expropriated by president Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, and since then has remained a state property...
, Berríos also worked with drug traffickers and Drug Enforcement Administration
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
agents.
Frei Montalva
Questioned in March 2005 by Judge Alejandro Madrid about ex-Chilean Christian Democrat President Eduardo Frei MontalvaEduardo Frei Montalva
Eduardo Frei Montalva was a Chilean political leader of world stature. In his long political career, he was Minister of Public Works, president of his Christian Democratic Party, senator, President of the Senate, and president of Chile from 1964 to 1970...
's death, DINA agent Michael Townley
Michael Townley
Michael Vernon Townley is a US citizen currently living in the United States under terms of the federal witness protection program. A Central Intelligence Agency agent and operative of the Chilean secret police, DINA, Townley confessed, was convicted, and served 62 months in prison in the United...
acknowledged links between Colonia Dignidad
Colonia Dignidad
Villa Baviera , formerly known as Colonia Dignidad is a hamlet in Parral Commune, Linares Province, Maule Region, Chile. Located in an isolated area of central Chile, it lies 35 km southeast of the city of Parral, on the north bank of the Perquilauquén River. It was founded by a group of German...
, led by ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer
Paul Schäfer
Paul Schäfer Schneider was the founder and former leader of a sect and agricultural commune of German immigrants called Colonia Dignidad —later renamed Villa Baviera—located in the south of Chile, about 340 km south of Santiago...
, and DINA on one hand, and the Laboratorio de Guerra Bacteriológica del Ejército (Bacteriological War Army Laboratory) on the other hand. It is suspected that the toxin that killed Frei Montalva in a Santa Maria clinic in 1982 was created there. This new laboratory in Colonia Dignidad would have been, according to him, the continuation of the laboratory that the DINA had in Via Naranja de lo Curro, where he worked with Eugenio Berríos in the clandestine unit Quetropilla. Townley would also have testified on biological experiments made upon the prisoners in Colonia Dignidad with the help of the two above-mentioned laboratories.
Escape, death and trial
On 26 October 1991, a year before the "terror archivesTerror archives
The "Archives of Terror" were found on December 22, 1992, by a lawyer, Dr. Martín Almada, and a human-rights activist and judge, José Agustín Fernández, in a police station in a suburb of Asunción , capital of Paraguay. Fernández was looking for files on a former prisoner...
" were found in Paraguay, Eugenio Berríos was escorted from Chile to Uruguay by the Special Unity of the DINE
Dine
-People named Dine:* Jim Dine , an American pop artist* S. S. Van Dine, an art critic and author* Tom Dine, an American government worker-Other meanings:* Beit ed-Dine, a town in Lebanon* Diné, name for the Navajo Nation in the Navajo language...
(Army's Intelligence agency), in order to escape testifying before a Chilean court in the Letelier case
Letelier case
The Letelier case refers to the killing in Washington, D.C. of Orlando Letelier, a Chilean political figure and later United States-based activist, along with his American assistant, Ronni Moffitt...
and in the other case concerning the 1976 assassination of the Spanish diplomat and CEPAL civil servant Carmelo Soria
Carmelo Soria
Carmelo Soria was a Spanish-Chilean United Nations diplomat. A member of the CEPAL in the 1970s, he was assassinated by Chile's DINA agents as a part of Operation Condor...
. He had just been indicted by the magistrate Adolfo Bañados in charge of the Letelier case.
This is known as "Operation Silencio", which started in April 1991 in order to impede investigations by Chilean judges concerning crimes committed during Pinochet's dictatorship
Chile under Pinochet
Chile was ruled by a military dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet from 1973 when Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup d'etat until 1990 when the Chilean transition to democracy began. The authoritarian military government was characterized by systematic suppression of political parties and...
, with the spiriting away of Arturo Sanhueza Ross, linked to the murder of MIR leader Jecar Neghme in 1989. According to the Rettig Report
Rettig Report
The Rettig Report, officially The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report, is a 1991 report by a commission designated by then President Patricio Aylwin encompassing human rights abuses resulting in death or disappearance that occurred in Chile during the years of military rule...
, Jecar Neghme's death was carried out by Chilean intelligence agents. In September 1991, Carlos Herrera Jiménez, who killed trade-unionist Tucapel Jiménez, flew away, before Berríos who followed in October 1991. Berríos then used four different passports, Argentinian, Uruguayan, Paraguayan and Brazilian, lifting concerns about Operation Condor
Operation Condor
Operation Condor , was a campaign of political repression involving assassination and intelligence operations officially implemented in 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America...
still being in place. In Uruguay, he was protected by members of the Chilean and Uruguayan military intelligence as part of La cofradia, alleged to be the direct heir of Operation Condor.
In Uruguay, Berrios was hidden in the house of the Uruguayan Colonel Eduardo Radaelli, using the alias of "Tulio Orellana". Berríos, however, escaped from Radaelli's home and presented himself on 15 November 1992 to a local police office in order to claim he had been kidnapped. Uruguayan military officers Tomas Casella and Eduardo Radaelli then went to the police office to request the police to hand over Berríos, which was done. He was then never seen again.
In February 1993, Pinochet travelled to Uruguay, and the Uruguayan Tomas Casella was appointed as his aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
. Casella, Radaelli and Washington Sarli (another Uruguayan military officer) then travelled, the same year, to Chile, to attend intelligence courses, although the courses were then cancelled (according to Casella, because some countries' intelligence officers could not attend) and they were invited to pass some days, with costs paid, in the Termas de Puyehue. In a 2007 interview, Casella stated that he had first entered into contact with Berríos in March 1992 under the requests of a Chilean intelligence officer, and that he had immediately informed General Mario Aguerrondo, then head of the SID
SID
SID may refer to:* Amilcar Cabral International Airport, Sal Island, Cape Verde.* Saab Information Display in most Saab automobiles built since 1994* The Scientific Investigation Division of the Los Angeles Police Department...
Uruguayan military intelligence agency (now retired), who allegedly ordered him to remain in contact with the Chileans.
In June 1993, an anonymous letter sent to various Uruguayan deputies denounced Berríos' presence in the country, leading them to request of President Luis Alberto Lacalle
Luis Alberto Lacalle
Luis Alberto Lacalle de Herrera is a Uruguayan lawyer and politician who served as President of Uruguay from 1990 to 1995.-Background:His mother, María Hortensia de Herrera de Lacalle, was the daughter of the Blanco political leader Luis Alberto de Herrera, after whom Lacalle was named. Luis...
's government immediate investigations. Lacalle immediately, on June 6, 1993, dismissed the police chief of Canelones
Canelones
Canelones is the capital of the department of Canelones in Uruguay.-Population:In 2004, it had a population of 19,631. While Canelones is the capital of the department of the same name, it has a considerably smaller population compared with two other cities in the department, Ciudad de la Costa and...
, Ramón Rivas, on charges of not having informed him of what had occurred. Three days later official investigations were initiated concerning the Berríos case. On June 9, 1993, 14 Army Generals met with the Minister of Defence Mariano Brito, and two days later, General Mario Aguerrondo was dismissed.
Finally, a corpse, identified by the Uruguayan justice as that of Berrios, was found in April 1995 in a beach of El Pinar, near Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, with two gunshots in the back of the neck, his murderers having tried to make the identification of his body impossible. However, forensic dentistry
Forensic Dentistry
Forensic dentistry or forensic odontology is the proper handling, examination and evaluation of dental evidence, which will be then presented in the interest of justice. The evidence that may be derived from teeth, is the age and identification of the person to whom the teeth belong...
immediately led to his identification as Berríos. Furthermore, DNA fingerprinting
Genetic fingerprinting
DNA profiling is a technique employed by forensic scientists to assist in the identification of individuals by their respective DNA profiles. DNA profiles are encrypted sets of numbers that reflect a person's DNA makeup, which can also be used as the person's identifier...
was also done several years later.
According to the daughter of Carmelo Soria
Carmelo Soria
Carmelo Soria was a Spanish-Chilean United Nations diplomat. A member of the CEPAL in the 1970s, he was assassinated by Chile's DINA agents as a part of Operation Condor...
, the Spanish diplomat assassinated in 1976, Chilean Eduardo Aldunate Hermann, second-in-command of the MINUSTAH United Nations force in Haiti, was also involved in the assassination of Eugenio Berríos.
Three Uruguayan military officers (Tomas Casella, Washington Sarli and Eduardo Radaelli ) have been extradited in April 2006 to Chile and were detained there, before being released on bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
in September 2006. In October 2006, the Court of Appeal of Santiago stripped Pinochet's parliamentary immunity
Augusto Pinochet's arrest and trial
General Augusto Pinochet was indicted for human rights violations committed in his native Chile by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón on 10 October 1998. He was arrested in London six days later and finally released by the British government in March 2000...
(who was, in 1992, head of the Chilean military), opening up the way for his judgment concerning the homicide of Berríos. Furthermore, the former directors of the DINE, Hernán Ramírez Rurange and Eugenio Covarrubias, have been charged of obstruction to justice in this case. Ramírez Rurange, several other Chilean militaries and one civilian, and the three Uruguayan officers have also been charged of sequestration
Sequestration (law)
Sequestration is the act of removing, separating, or seizing anything from the possession of its owner under process of law for the benefit of creditors or the state.-Etymology:...
, while Eugenio Covarrubias was charged with sequestration and homicide. Emilio Rojas Gómez, the former Chilean cultural attaché in Montevideo, was also charged with obstruction of justice.
Allegations concerning Berríos' disappearance
In July 2006, after having denounced Augusto PinochetAugusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
's involvement in the cocaine trade, former DINA director Manuel Contreras
Manuel Contreras
Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda is a Chilean military officer and the former head of DINA, Chile's secret police during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. As head of DINA he was the most powerful and feared man in the country, after Pinochet...
asserted in a judicial document handed to judge Claudio Pavez, presiding over the investigation concerning the 1992 assassination of Colonel Gerardo Huber
Gerardo Huber
Gerardo Huber Olivares was a Chilean Army Colonel and agent of the DINA, Chile's intelligence agency. He was in charge of purchasing weapons abroad for the army...
, that Berríos was in fact alive and now worked for the DEA
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
. Contreras' lawyer, Fidel Reyes, alleged that the corpse discovered in El Pinar belonged in reality to a foreigner, and that Berríos allegedly had in 2004 attended the funeral, in Chile, of one of his close relative. According to Contreras' deposition, the cocaine (which was "black cocaine
Black cocaine
Black cocaine, also known as Coca Negra, is a mixture of regular cocaine base or cocaine hydrochloride with various other substances. These other substances are added* to camouflage the typical appearance Black cocaine, also known as Coca Negra, is a mixture of regular cocaine base or cocaine...
" especially made to be undetectable) was produced by Berríos in a military installation in Talagante
Talagante
Talagante is a commune and the capital city of the province of the same name in the Santiago Metropolitan Region of central Chile. The word Talagante in Quechua comes from talacanta, meaning "Lazo de Hechicero", which was the proper name of the curaca, or ruler, who dominated this central valley on...
, and both Pinochet's son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, and the businessman Edgardo Batich were involved in the drug trade. The money from the trade was allegedly directly put in Pinochet's bank accounts abroad.
Manuel Contreras' allegations concerning Berríos' alleged survival have been flatly denied by the Uruguayan judge in charge of investigating his assassination, who claims that she is "99% sure" of the identification of the corpse found in 1995, and added that DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
analysis had been made a few years later.
Film
The Uruguayan film director Esteban Schroeder produced a movie, Matar a todos, loosely based on Berríos' murder. The movie was adapted from the book 99 por ciento asesinado written by the Uruguayan writer Pablo Vierci, and was presented in the San Sebastián International Film Festival.See also
- Augusto Pinochet's arrest and trialAugusto Pinochet's arrest and trialGeneral Augusto Pinochet was indicted for human rights violations committed in his native Chile by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón on 10 October 1998. He was arrested in London six days later and finally released by the British government in March 2000...
- Chile under PinochetChile under PinochetChile was ruled by a military dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet from 1973 when Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup d'etat until 1990 when the Chilean transition to democracy began. The authoritarian military government was characterized by systematic suppression of political parties and...
- Chilean transition to democracyChilean transition to democracyThe Chilean transition to democracy began when a Constitution establishing a transition itinerary was approved in a plebiscite. From March 11, 1981 to March 11, 1990, several organic constitutional laws were approved leading to the final restoration of democracy...
- Enrique Arancibia ClavelEnrique Arancibia ClavelEnrique Arancibia was a Chilean DINA agent, who resided in unofficial exile in Buenos Aires after the assassination of Chilean Army Chief of Staff René Schneider on 25 October 1970. He was arrested by Argentine intelligence officers shortly after the extradition of Michael Townley to the US, and...
External links
- New Docs Show Kissinger Rescinded Warning on Assassinations Days Before Letelier Bombing - video report by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...