Operation Colombo was an operation undertaken by the DINA (the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...

) in 1975 to make political dissidents disappear. At least 119 people are alleged to have been abducted and later killed. The magazines published a list of 119 dead political opponents. One of these fake magazines, titled ''LEA'', was published by Codex Editorial, a dependent of the Argentine Ministry of Welfare, directed by

José López Rega José López Rega (17 November 1916 – 9 June 1989) was an Argentine politician who served as Minister of Social Welfare from 1973 to 1975, first under Juan Perón and continuing under Isabel Perón, Juan Perón's third wife and presidential ...

, counselor of

Isabel Perón Isabel Martínez de Perón (, born María Estela Martínez Cartas, 4 February 1931), also known as Isabelita, is an Argentine politician who served as President of Argentina from 1974 to 1976. She was one of the first female republican heads ...

and founder of the Triple A

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are ...

.La Gran Mentira - El caso de las "Listas de los 119" (capitulo 7)
published by

Equipo Nizkor :''See Nizkor for other organizations with a similar name.'' ---- Equipo Nizkor (from the Hebrew נִזְכּוֹר, "we will remember") is a human rights NGO concerned mostly about events in Latin America, but also Europe. It is affiliated with Der ...

Augusto Pinochet

Chile's former military ruler,

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

, was placed under

house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...

in connection with the kidnapping of at least three dissidents by his security services. Judge

Juan Guzmán Tapia Juan Salvador Guzmán Tapia (; 22 April 1939 – 22 January 2021) was a Chilean judge. He was the first Chilean judge to lead investigations and prosecute Augusto Pinochet for violations of human rights during his dictatorship between 1973 an ...

asked the Chilean justice to lift Pinochet's

immunity Immunity may refer to: Medicine * Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease * ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press Biology * Immune system Engineering * Radiofrequence immunity desc ...

after having accumulated proof that he had ordered the DINA to undertake this operation. In September 2005, the Chilean Supreme Court decided to lift Pinochet's immunity on this case, charging judge Victor Montiglio of the investigations. In November 2005, prosecutors said that specialists appointed by the court in the Operation Colombo case had concluded that while he suffered from mild dementia, he was fit enough to stand trial. On this occasion, Pinochet met DINA head

Manuel Contreras Juan Manuel "Mamo" Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda (4 May 1929 – 7 August 2015) was a Chilean Army officer and the former head of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), Chile's secret police during the ...

, who held him as responsible of the DINA and, therefore, of operation Colombo, for which both men may be jailed.

Raúl Iturriaga Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann (born 23 January 1938) is a Chilean Army general and a former deputy director of the DINA, the Chilean secret police under the Augusto Pinochet military dictatorship. He was in charge of a secret detention cen ...

, the vice-director of the DINA, has also been indicted in this case. In December 2005 it was found that Pinochet was found fit to stand trial. However Pinochet died December 10, 2006, without being judged.

References

External links

Pinochet and ex-police-chief meet

Pinochet found fit
1975 in Chile Cold War Dirty wars Political and cultural purges Operation Condor Massacres in Chile Anti-communist terrorism Political violence in Chile Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional {{ColdWar-stub

Augusto Pinochet

See also

References

External links