Manuel Contreras
Manuel Contreras (spook) | |
---|---|
Born | Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda 1929-05-04 Santiago, Chile |
Died | 2015-08-07 (Age 86) Santiago, Chile |
Nationality | Chilean |
Alma mater | School of the Americas |
Criminal status | Deceased |
Criminal convictions | • Kidnapping • forced disappearance • assassination • illegal association with criminal intent |
Perpetrator of | Orlando Letelier/Assassination |
Chilean spymaster. |
Manuel Contreras was a Chilean spymaster.
In 1995 he was sentenced to seven years in prison for the assassination in Washington, D.C. of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier, which he served until 2001.
Operation Condor
- Full article: Operation Condor
- Full article: Operation Condor
From 1973 to 1977, Contreras led the agency on an international hunt to track down and kill the political opponents of the Junta, particularly members of the Communist and Socialist parties and the former guerrilla group and political party Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR).
On 25 November 1975, General Augusto Pinochet's 60th birthday, leaders of the military intelligence services of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay met with Contreras, in Santiago de Chile, officially creating the Plan Condor.[1] [2][3] The CIA became concerned with Contreras's role in the assassination of former Salvador Allende cabinet member and ambassador to Washington Orlando Letelier and his American assistant, Ronni Karpen Moffit in Washington, D.C., on 21 September 1976. The CIA was said to have gathered specific, detailed intelligence reporting alleging Contrera's involvement in ordering the Letelier assassination, but the purported material remains classified and has been withheld at the request of the US Department of Justice (CIA, 2000) CIA contacts with Contreras continued until 1977.[3]
It cost me four years to pacify this country, and once again I will put it all together...
Me costó cuatro años pacificar este país y otra vez voy a armarlo...
After Orlando Letelier's assassination, 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 Informations Center (CNI).
Manuel Contreras, Gerhard Mertins, Sergio Arredondo and an unidentified Brazilian general traveled to Tehran in 1976 to offer a collaboration to the Shah regime to kill Carlos the Jackal. It's not known what actually happened in the meetings.[4]
By 1979, Contreras was retired from the army at the rank of General, a rank he held until his death.
An event carried out
Event | Location |
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Orlando Letelier/Assassination | Washington DC |
References
- ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3720724.stm
- ↑ "CIA Activities in Chile," CIA declassified documents, Retrieved from National Security Archive on 24 May 2007
- ↑ a b Marquis, Christopher. "C.I.A. Says Chilean General in '76 Bombing Was Informer," New York Times, 19 September 2000
- ↑ http://ciperchile.cl/2009/08/06/el-dia-en-que-manuel-contreras-le-ofrecio-al-sha-de-iran-matar-a-%E2%80%9Cel-chacal%E2%80%9D/