Reviled former Chilean spy agency chief Manuel Contreras dies aged 86
According to an official report, 40,018 people were imprisoned, tortured or slain during the 1973-90 dictatorship.
Gen. Manuel Contreras, who headed the feared spy agency that kidnapped, tortured and killed thousands during Chile’s military dictatorship, died late Friday at a military hospital while serving a combined sentence of more than 500 years for crimes against humanity. He was 86.
Contreras had been hospitalised since September because of kidney problems and was later moved to the intensive care unit when his condition degenerated.
Soon after the death was confirmed by the national prison service, a crowd of several dozen people gathered outside the Santiago hospital waving Chilean flags. They broke into changes of “Murderer!” and toasted with champagne in paper cups to celebrate his death.
After the 1973 military coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet that ousted the socialist government of President Salvador Allende, Contreras formed and commanded the DINA spy agency and went on to become the second most powerful and feared figure of the regime after Pinochet himself.
Born on May 4, 1929, in Santiago, Contreras was a career military man who also helped organize Operation Condor, a coordinated effort formed in the mid-1970s by South America’s dictatorships to eliminate dissidents who sought refuge in neighboring countries.
Contreras was among Pinochet’s closest confidants early on, but the pair exchanged accusations in their final years. While Contreras alleged his former boss amassed a fortune trafficking drugs to Europe, Pinochet accused the spy chief of acting without his consent and committing the era’s worst abuses.