Operation Condor

For other uses of Operation Condor, please see Operation Condor (disambiguation)

General Carlos Prats, 30th September, 1974

General Prats and his wife were killed by the DINA on September 30th, 1974, by a car bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they lived in exile. In Chile, the judge investigating this case, Alejandro Solis, definitively relaxed Pinochet on this particular case, after the Supreme court rejected in january 2005 a demand to lift the ex-dictator's immunity. The direction of DINA, including chief Manuel Contreras, ex-chief of operation and retired general Raul Itturiaga Neuman, his brother Roger Itturiaga, and ex-brigadeers Pedro Espinoza and Jose Zara, are accused in Chile of this assassination.

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In Argentina, DINA's civil agent Enrique Arancibia Clavel was condemned a life-sentence in General Prat's case. In 2003, federal judge Maria Servini de Cubria asked Chile for the extradition of Mariana Callejas, who was Michael Townley's wife, and Cristoph Willikie, a retired colonel from the chilean army - all three of them are accused of this crime. But chilean judge Nibaldo Segura from appeal court has refused in july 2005, arguing that they were already been pursuited in Chile 2.

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Orlando Letelier, 21th September, 1976

One target was Orlando Letelier, a former member of the Chilean Allende government who was assassinated by a car bomb explosion in Washington, D.C. on September 21, 1976. His assistant Ronni Moffit, a U.S. citizen, also died in the explosion. Michael Townley, a U.S. expatriate who worked as an agent of the Chilean intelligence agency DINA, General Manuel Contreras, former head of the DINA; and Brigadier Pedro Espinoza Bravo also formerly of DINA were convicted for the murders. In 1978, Chile accepted to hand over Michael Townley to the USA, in order to reduce the tension about Orlando Letelier's murder. Michael Townley was then freed under witness protection programs. USA is still waiting for Manuel Contreras and Pedro Espinoza to be extradited.

Related Topics:
Orlando Letelier - Allende - Washington, D.C. - September 21 - 1976 - Michael Townley - DINA - Pedro Espinoza Bravo

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CIA declassified documents have showed that Michael Townley met in 1975 with Stefano Delle Chiaie, an Italian terrorist who participated in Europe in operation Condor, as well that he was in contact with Albert Spaggiari , a member of the french extreme-right movement Organisation de l'Armée Secrète (OAS).

Related Topics:
Stefano Delle Chiaie - Albert Spaggiari - Organisation de l'Armée Secrète

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In 1991, a year before José Fernandez, a paraguayan judge founds in a police office in Asuncion the "horror files", Eugenio Berrios, a chemist who had worked for Pinochet, was escorted from Chile to Uruguay by Operation Condor agents, in order to escape testimonying before a Chilean court in the Letelier case. This is known as operation Silencio, that started in april 1991 in order to impede investigations by chilean judges, with the spiriting away of Arturo Sanhueza Ross, linked to the murder of MIR leader Jecar Neghme. In september 1991, Carlos Herrera Jimenez, who killed Tucapel Jimenez trade-unionist, went away, before Berrios in october 1991http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20050924/pags/20050924223646.html. Berrios then used four different passports, argentinian, uruguayan, paraguayan and brasilian, lifting concerns about Operation Condor being still in place. In 1995, he was found dead in Montevideo, his murderers having tried to make the identification of his body impossible.

Related Topics:
José Fernandez - Eugenio Berrios - Operation Silencio - Arturo Sanhueza Ross - MIR - Jecar Neghme - Carlos Herrera Jimenez - Tucapel Jimenez

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In january 2005, Michael Townley, the ex-agent of DINA, who still lives in the USA beneath witness protection program, acknowledged to agents of Interpol Chile links between DINA and detention and torture center colonia Dignidad 1, which was founded in 1961 and led by Paul Schäfer, a nazi accused of pedophily and torture, arrested in march 2005 in Buenos Aires. Townley also revealed information about colonia Dignidad and the Army's Laboratory on Bacteriological War. This last laboratory would have replaced the old DINA's laboratoy on Via Naranja de lo Curro street, where Michael Townley worked with the chemical assassin Eugenio Berrios. Townley also gave proofs of biological experiments made upon the political prisonners at Colonia Dignidad, related to the two mentionned laboratories.

Related Topics:
DINA - Colonia Dignidad - Paul Schäfer

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In an op-ed published 17 December, 2004 in the Los Angeles Times, Francisco Letelier, the son of Orlando Letelier, wrote that the assassination of his father was part of Operation Condor, described as "an intelligence-sharing network used by six South American dictators of that era to eliminate dissidents." Noting that Augusto Pinochet, who had just been placed under house arrest in Chile, has been accused of being a participant in Operation Condor, Francisco Letelier declared: "My father's murder was part of Condor."

Related Topics:
17 December - 2004 - Los Angeles Times - Augusto Pinochet - Chile

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