What is DINA (Pinochet Police)

In the context of a dictatorship, the bodies of safety of the state normally become repressive tools in the hands of power. This is what happened in Chile during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

Between 1973 and 1977 the Directorate of Intelligence National (DINA) and in 1977 this organization changed its name, National Intelligence Center (CNI). Both institutions they became the secret police of the Pinochet regime and provided a legal framework for the repression.

The top officials of the DINA learned torture techniques at the School of the Americas in the United States

The secret network you put in functioning This police force carried out all kinds of activities: kidnappings, sophisticated torture techniques, assassinations, disappearances and a long list of atrocities. In 2007, one of the precincts dedicated to the extermination of people was discovered, the Lautaro barracks located on the street Simón Bolívar of the Chilean capital (in command of the barracks was General Manuel Contreras, head of the DYNE).

While this institution It was controlled by military forces, with the passage of time it was shown that some members of the Chilean extreme right were behind the repressive operations of the DINA. Likewise, Chilean anti-Marxist circles had connections with the movement anti-Castro, with Italian neo-fascism and with the CIA.

In the School of the Americas, training courses were given to combat revolutionary phenomena, especially those inspired by the ideology Marxist. In this academy of the United States Army, Latin American soldiers received specialized training to deactivate any political movement that would oppose the interests of the United States in America Latin.

The figure of General Manuel Contreras

By the early 1960s he was already an officer of the General Staff and friend Augusto Pinochet's staff. They both shared an obsession: their concern for the rise of revolutionary ideas.

To broaden his knowledge, in 1967 he took a training course at the School of the Americas. In the following years he maintained contacts with the CIA in order to neutralize the popular movements of the Chilean left. He was one of the founders of Operation Condor, a repressive operation promoted by Latin American dictatorships and the CIA.

After the end of the Chilean dictatorship, Manuel Contreras faced several judicial processes and ended in prison for being considered the main responsible for several murders, kidnappings and disappearances. He died in 2015 and she never regretted his crimes.