Pinochet Entangled in Web of Inquiries, NYT

[imenja]

This article details the current state of multiple investigations against Pinochet and witnesses that may turn state's evidence and testify against him.

Pinochet Entangled in Web of Inquiries
By LARRY ROHTER New York Times

Published: February 7, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/07/international/americas/07chile.html

"RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 6 - Things have been going so badly for Gen. Augusto Pinochet recently that he had rare grounds for satisfaction when a Chilean court last month ordered him released from house arrest. But his lawyers then had a new complaint: because his assets had been frozen in connection with another inquiry, he could not afford to post the required bond, they said.

Increasingly, General Pinochet finds himself entangled in a spider's web of interlocking investigations. Over the past few days, signs of progress have been registered in three different cases against him, and there is also the threat of a fourth complaint that would further tie up the ailing, 89-year-old former dictator's time and money. . . .


At the moment, General Pinochet seems most vulnerable over having lost his immunity from prosecution in the investigation into the assassination of Gen. Carlos Prats, a predecessor as commander of the Chilean Army. General Prats and his wife were killed in Buenos Aires in 1974, and the prime suspect has always been the secret police force that General Pinochet created shortly after seizing power on Sept. 11, 1973. . . .

In both the Condor and the Prats cases, General Pinochet must worry about what Gen. Manuel Contreras, whom the general picked personally to lead the secret police force, might say. General Contreras, who began serving a 12-year prison sentence late last month in connection with another case, has expressed bitterness at being made the scapegoat for the dictatorship's human rights abuses and has criticized General Pinochet for leaving his subalterns unprotected."

[Judi Lynn]

1. He must feel almost as helpless as one of the thousands of prisoners

he had his military and state police arrest and take to any of the many torture centers located in Chile, or to one of his three torture ships off the coast. Gosh, he may feel as hopeless as they felt knowing they would be tortured and murdered, some being thrown out of airplanes into the ocean.

They even have dug up Michael Townley. This, from the N.Y. Times article posted by Imanja, is amazing:

In Washington late last week, the Chilean investigative judge in charge of the Prats case said he had been able to talk with two crucial witnesses there. Judge Alejandro Solís said he was "very satisfied" with what he had heard and praised the cooperation of the United States Justice Department.

The witnesses were Michael Townley, an American who has admitted planting the car bomb that killed General Prats, and Armando Fernández Larios, both former agents in the secret police force. The two men, convicted of involvement in the 1976 car-bomb killing in Washington of the former foreign minister of Chile, Orlando Letelier, live freely in the United States as part of accords negotiated with the American authorities.

"The information I had was corroborated by each," Judge Solís told reporters. In a telephone interview from Washington, Peter Kornbluh, director of the Chile project at the National Security Archive, said, "I think the judge is really here to establish the chain of command," which could lead to General Pinochet.
(snip/...)

Quite a change in prospects from the time he claimed "not a blade of grass" dared move in Chile without his permission.



(Kissinger with Pinochet on the left)

On edit: I just went looking for a photo of the old CIA assassin, Michael Townley, who will be testifying against Pinochet. Here it is (guy on the left).



Found it at this source:

http://old.clarin.com.ar/diario/2000/03/16/i-03201d.htm

Is there a fluent Spanish speaker who would mind explaining what Sarin gas was doing in connection with the savage "Operation Condor?"
I can see it is mentioned prominently in the article I posted just above, from Argentina.


If you don't mind relating a quick run down, some of us would be all ears, you can be sure! Thank you.

[struggle4progress]

2. kick