On the afternoon of 14 July 1976, the Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria He left his office in Providencia, one of the most charming neighborhoods in a militarized Santiago. agents Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA)), the dreaded secret police led by Colonel Manuel Contreras with the support of the dictator Augusto PinochetThey caught him in his car on the way home. Soria, then a member Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and moreover, as a communist militant he was taken to ‘Quetropillán’, a center of conspiracy of the military regime. sarin gas and explosives. There he was assassinated two days after his capture. They then threw their car into a mountain pass north of the capital to simulate an accident as a result of the driver’s drunken state. When there are a few days left to commemorate Half a century has passed since the coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende The Chilean Supreme Court has declared that the horror has opened its doors. The final decision It includes six former DINA members and two former military personnel against those who committed this crime.
It took 47 years for the Soria case to be closed. Plaintiffs had to overcome different walls of impunity and other judicial labyrinths. On the feverish eve of the 50th anniversary of that tragic September 11, former Brigadier General Pedro EspinozaBravoDINA’s number two and Raul Iturriaga Neumann Those responsible for terrorist acts abroad were sentenced to 15 years in prison. Espinoza Bravo is in Punta Peuco prison, where uniformed men were deprived of their liberty to commit crimes against humanity during the democratic transition. Almost three decades ago, he was accused, along with Contreras, of plotting to assassinate Allende’s former secretary of state in Washington. Orlando Letelier.
Former secret agent Juan Morales Salgado was sentenced to 10 years and 1 day in prison as the perpetrator of the murder. The three oppressors were sent to a prison unit for another heinous act committed by Pinochetism: the double murder of the ex-commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1974. Carlos Prats and his wife Sofia Cuthbert. The other side of the oppression received a new sentence, the old general Eugenio Covarrubias ValenzuelaHe is the director of Army Intelligence and one of the representatives of the CNI, the body that later replaced DINA. Covarrubias Valenzuela was sentenced to four years in prison for making false statements under oath.
weight of sentence
The decision did nothing but give a new public and legal status to what had always been known: Soria was deprived of his liberty “by “armed DINA agents” who transported him to a “secret place” where he “was”.blindfolded and boundInterrogation “under physical pressure” led to his death.
The steep and sometimes dangerous road that led to the final closure of the Soria case was embarked on behalf of the victim’s family by lawyer Alfonso Insunza, who decades later became known around the world for his involvement in the scandal. the secret accounts of the former dictator abroad. For many years, even as the dictatorship fell and Pinochet retained control of the Army, those who were complicit took advantage of the validity of the Amnesty Law, which the military had protected itself long before handing over power.
singular context
At a time when the far right led by the Constituent Council downplayed or openly defended Pinochet after September 11, 1973, the actions of the Supreme Court only rekindled memories of that past.
President Gabriel Boric has become a constant instigator of memories of facts translated into official figures: 1,092 people went missing, 377 people were executed, Thousands were tortured, imprisoned, and exiled.