Chile Convicts Dictatorship's Ex-Agents for Poisoning Prisoners

[Judi Lynn]

Officers of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship at the National Stadium Detention Center, in
Santiago, Chile, Sept. 1973. | Photo: Twitter/ @EdwinRomm

Published 3 February 2021

They were poisoned with botulinum toxin as part of a secret operation to eliminate opponents of Augusto Pinochet's military regime.

Santiago's Court of Appeals on Tuesday convicted five ex-officials of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship for poisoning seven inmates at the former Chilean Public Prison in December 1981.

Retired Army officers Eduardo Arriagada, Sergio Rosende, Joaquin Larrain, and Jaime Fuenzalida were sentenced to 15 years in prison for Victor Corvalan and Hector Pacheco's murder.

The victims, who were common prisoners, received lethal doses of botulinum toxin, one of the most powerful venoms produced by humans. The officers will also face jail for the attempt of murder of another five captives.

Justice authorities proved that the ex-agents' real intentions were to poison the Revolutionary Leftist Movement (MIR) militant Guillermo Rodriguez and his followers Adalberto Muñoz, Ricardo Antonio, and Elizardo Aguilera.

More:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Chile-Convicts-Dictatorships-Ex-Agents-for-Poisoning-Prisoners-20210203-0001.html

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Explanation of what Pinochet's DINA means:

DINA was the secret police of Chile during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The DINA has been referred to as Pinochet's Gestapo.

Older article:

Google translation:
Chile of impudence: Eduardo Arriagada Rehren, a criminal doctor of the dictatorship.
March 6, 2019



[Court] Supreme confirms expulsion from the Medical College of the former director of the sinister London Clinic of the DINA who had requested his re-entry.
by El Mostrado.

Eduardo Arriagada Rehren , a pediatrician with a specialty in child bronchopulmonary disease, was expelled from the order for crimes against humanity. Minister Alejandro Madrid, the same in the case of the assassination of Eduardo Frei Montalva, convicted him in the first instance for poisoning common prisoners and MIR militants inmates in the former Public Prison in 1981.

In a unanimous ruling, the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence that rejected the protection appeal presented against the Medical Association by doctor Eduardo Arriagada Rehren, who sought to reverse his expulsion from the union order.

Arriagada is a pediatrician, specializing in children's bronchopulmonary disease, and has a sinister medical record during the dictatorship, to the point that he is condemned by Minister Alejandro Madrid - the same of the ruling regarding the assassination of Eduardo Frei Montalva - for the poisoning of common prisoners and militants of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) in the former Public Prison in 1981.

It is a first instance sentence to 20 years in prison that dates from April 3, 2017 as the author of crimes against humanity for two qualified homicides and another five frustrated in the disappeared Public Prison. In that instance, the veterinarian Sergio Rosende Ollarzú was also convicted. The sentence is not enforceable.

In the resolution, where the Medical College justifies the expulsion of Dr. Eduardo Arriagada from the order, it is stated that his “activities carried out at the time of the events that support his sentence to twenty years in prison, according to his own statements and more Beyond participating in the homicides for which he was convicted, they are sufficient proof that he completely departed from the practice of Medicine to engage in activities outside the scope of this profession, seriously violating medical ethics ”.



Nexus with the Frei case
But the trajectory in the Arriagada dictatorship, who has the status of a retired general, goes further, because he was also director of Army Health, director of the Bacteriological Institute of the same institution and was in command of the London Clinic of DINA. This clandestine compound, located at 162 Almirante Barroso street, in the center of Santiago, served as a clandestine clinic and was linked to different acts of torture and disappearances during the time of political repression.

The London Clinic intersects with the Frei case, since the group of doctors who worked at the Santa María Clinic who treated the former president worked there.

In fact, Arriagada gave a statement in the context of the Frei case, after the family of the former president mentioned him, together with the DINA Laboratory, as suspects due to his expertise in the bacteriological field and the evidence on the use of poisons in the assassination. .

In fact, the Madrid minister's ruling on the Frei case mentions Arriagada's statement, noting that the doctor “requested authorization to request an interview with Mr. Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle, to clarify his null participation in the death of his father. That the interview was denied, for which he called Dr. Patricio Silva by phone to make contact with the secretary of Mr. Eduardo Frei Ruiz Tagle, or with the family, to which Dr. Silva replied that he no longer had no contact with said family and he proceeded to give his version of the events, which he made known to the Court. That it was the only time that he made contact with him by telephone and he states that later, the person who received him was the lawyer Álvaro Varela ”.

"Justification and legitimacy" of the expulsion
In the resolution, which keeps the former DINA doctor expelled from the school to which he belonged for more than 40 years, the Supreme Court, made up of the ministers Sergio Muñoz, María Eugenia Sandoval, Ricardo Blanco, Arturo Prado and Ángela Vivanco, ratified the judgment of the Court of Appeals that dismissed the precautionary action filed by the professional's defense.

In his appeal, the doctor argued that his expulsion constitutes an “arbitrary and illegal act that deprives and disturbs his client in the exercise of the constitutional rights established in article 19 no. 3 paragraphs 5 and 6 and, no. 4, respectively, of the Political Constitution of the Republic ”.

However, in the ruling, the Supreme Court ministers consider that "it has been made clear that the expulsion action appears rational and supported by sufficient motivations that are suitable, as well as endowed with justification and legitimacy."

Likewise, the ministers warn about a formal procedure, noting that "the ideal way to challenge the resolution of the respondent, as provided for in the Political Constitution of the Republic, is the appeal, and not this precautionary action."

https://cctt.cl/2019/03/06/chile-de-la-impudicia-eduardo-arriagada-rehren-un-medico-criminal-de-la-dictadura/

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Chile accuses four men of poisoning prisoners during Pinochet regime
Published24 January 2014



Thousands of opponents of the Pinochet government were killed or disappeared during his 17 years in power
The authorities in Chile have arrested four ex-army officers for allegedly poisoning prisoners during the military government of Augusto Pinochet.

The men are accused of murdering two inmates and attempting to murder five more by adding a deadly poison, botulinum toxin, to their prison food.

They were allegedly testing a method of killing opponents of Mr Pinochet.

The four suspects are already being investigated in the death of ex-Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva.

He died in 1982 after going into hospital for what should have been a routine operation.

Recent investigations however suggested he might have been poisoned.

'Nausea and vomiting'



Two of the accused worked for the secret police of Augusto Pinochet

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-25889298



Kissinger, suit, greeting Pinochet, uniform

It MUST be remembered that General and dictator freaking Pinochet was installed after the violent overthrow of socialist President Salvador Allende by US President Richard M Nixon with the assistance of his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger and the CIA. If anyone attempts to claim this isn't true, and you wonder, please waste no time in doing a quick search for Richard Nixon Kissinger Allende CIA Pinochet torture murder and even look up Pinochet's favorite torturer, Osvaldo Romo.



Osvaldo Romo