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The ''Caso Degollados'' ( English: "Slit-Throat Case") was a politically motivated series of murders of opposition members that took place in Chile in 1985, during Augusto Pinochet's
On March 30, 1985 three Communist Party members were savagely murdered. The bodies of Santiago Nattino, Manuel Guerrero Ceballos and José Manuel Parada were discovered near Santiago's airport, their throats slashed. Nattino, a painter and supporter of the AGECH teachers' union, had been kidnapped on March 28, while AGECH leader Guerrero, and Parada, a Vicaría de la Solidaridad staff member, were abducted on March 29.
The brutal triple murder, which came to be known as ''Caso Degollados'', evoked widespread indignation and compelled the
military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer.
The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
.
The murders caused a huge political scandal.
Events of the case
On March 30, 1985 three Communist Party members were savagely murdered. The bodies of Santiago Nattino, Manuel Guerrero Ceballos and José Manuel Parada were discovered near Santiago's airport, their throats slashed. Nattino, a painter and supporter of the AGECH teachers' union, had been kidnapped on March 28, while AGECH leader Guerrero, and Parada, a Vicaría de la Solidaridad staff member, were abducted on March 29.
The brutal triple murder, which came to be known as ''Caso Degollados'', evoked widespread indignation and compelled the Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
to appoint Judge José Cánovas Robles as special prosecutor to investigate the crime.
Only four months later, the investigation carried out by Judge Cánovas led to the arrest of two colonels, one major, two captains and two non-commissioned officers of the national police force ''(carabineros)''. The aftermath of this case provoked, on August 2, 1985, the resignation of General César Mendoza
General César Leonidas Mendoza Durán (September 11, 1918 – September 13, 1996) was a member of the Government Junta which ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, representing the country-wide police force, the ''Carabineros de Chile''.
M ...
, Director General of the Carabineros and Member of Government Junta since the military coup of September 11, 1973 as well as the dissolution of DICOMCAR, an agency of the Carabineros that had allegedly carried out the kidnappings and assassinations. In its 1985 special report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des Droits de l'Homme'', ...
stated that it hoped that “the case now under way will lead to the identification and punishment of the persons responsible for the execution of so culpable an act.”
Eventually six members of the police secret service were indicted and sentenced to life for the murders.
See also
* Chilean political scandals * Chile under Pinochet * Human rights violations in Pinochet's ChileReferences