The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States supported the creation of the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA), the secret police of the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, confirm documents published today in Santiago, Chile.
According to information declassified in Washington on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the DINA, after the coup d’état of September 11, 1973 against the government of Salvador Allende, CIA directors traveled to Chile to offer support to the military regime.
In a meeting held in mid-February 1974 between the deputy director of the CIA, Vernon Walters, and the dictator, the latter asked him for advice on forming the DINA and for his “key man” Manuel Contreras.
The documents record some of the DINA’s macabre plans, including Operation Colombo, a setup to cover up the murder of 119 opponents and make it believe that they had died in combat in neighboring countries or in internal disputes between leftist organizations.
There are also new revelations about Plan Cóndor, coordinated between the dictatorships of the southern Latin American cone for the repression, annihilation and forced disappearance of many people.
The information points out the numerous detention and torture centers run by the DINA and its interrogation techniques, some of which were “taken directly from the Spanish inquisition.”
Furthermore, they confirm that many arrested by the secret police were executed and their bodies thrown into the sea from DINA helicopters.
Chilean digital sites such as El Clarín and El Periodista echo the documents revealed by the United States National Security Archive, a non-governmental, non-profit institution located at George Washington University.
Peter Kornbluh, director of the Chilean Documentation Project of that archive, is the author of the book Pinochet Declassified, which contains information about the White House’s plans to prevent Allende’s inauguration and support for the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990). ).
