Manuel Contreras

General Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda (born May 4, 1929) was the head of Augusto Pinochet's National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and one of the most powerful and feared men in Chile during Pinochet's rule.

Related Topics:
May 4 - 1929 - Augusto Pinochet - DINA - Chile

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From 1973 to 1977, he led the agency on an international hunt to track down and murder the political opponents of the dictatorship, particularly members of the Communist and Socialist Parties and the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). After Orlando Letelier's assassination in Washington DC, 1976, tensions between Contreras and Pinochet grew over the course of his tenure, and the DINA was closed down in 1977 and replaced with a new apparatus, the National Intelligence Center (CNI). By 1979, Contreras was out of the army after a short time at the rank of General.

Related Topics:
1973 - 1977 - Communist - Socialist - Movement of the Revolutionary Left - Orlando Letelier - Pinochet - DINA - CNI - 1979

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In 1993, a Chilean court sentenced him to seven years in prison for the 1976 assassination of former Chilean government member Orlando Letelier. He completed his sentence in January 2001, after which he was placed under house arrest and then released.

Related Topics:
1993 - 1976 - Orlando Letelier - 2001

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In May 2002, he was convicted as the mastermind of the 1974 abduction and disappearance of Socialist Party leader Victor Olea Alegria. Contreras was also convicted by an Argentinean court in connection with the assassination of former Chilean army chief Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires in 1974. However, an extradition request by Argentina was denied by Chile.

Related Topics:
2002 - 1974 - Disappearance - Victor Olea Alegria - Argentinean - Assassination - Carlos Prats - Buenos Aires

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On January 28, 2005 he was put in prison for the disappearance of tailor and MIR member Miguel Ángel Sandoval in 1975. The sentence time is 12 years.

Related Topics:
January 28 - 2005 - Disappearance - 1975

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On May 13 2005, Contreras submitted to Chile's Supreme Court a 32-page document that claimed to list the whereabouts of about 580 people who disappeared during Pinochet's rule. Human rights groups immediately questioned the information and its source, citing Contreras's years of deception and denials of responsibility for human rights abuses. Many of the details he provided were previously known, and some contradicted the findings of commissions that have investigated the disappearances. In the document he wrote that Pinochet personally ordered human rights violations.

Related Topics:
May 13 - 2005

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Judge Victor Montiglio, who succeeded to judge Juan Guzman, applied amnisty to Manuel Contreras in 2005, after his conviction in operation Colombo.

Related Topics:
Juan Guzman - Operation Colombo

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