Pinochet's agents poisoned former Chilean president Frei Montalva, concludes justice | Internationale

After nearly two decades of investigation, Chilean courts ruled on Wednesday that former Christian Democrat President Eduardo Frei Montalva had not died at the Clínica Santa Maria of the following months. a hernia, but was the victim of a homicide. poisoning. The death of Frei in 1982, in the midst of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, became one of Chile's most symbolic judicial cases. In his decision, Judge Alejandro Madrid sentenced six people for his participation in the death of Frei: two doctors, two tanatologists and two members of the National Information Center (CNI, the secret police of Pinochet). "A chemical substance has obviously contributed to the final situation of the former president," Judge Madrid said in an interview with the Chilean justice website.

According to the Frei family's lawyer, Nelson Caucoto, "justice has been imposed on impunity." "We must rejoice because, after a very long investigation, a conviction was pronounced for an unprecedented crime committed in Chile in the framework of the most important intelligence operation during the period of the Republic", he said. underlined, shortly after the sentencing.

Former president Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, who headed Chile between 1994 and 2000 – already in a democracy – was the founder of the Chilean Christian Democracy, a party that shaped Chilean politics in the second half of Twentieth century. During his reign, between 1964 and 1970, he made fundamental changes, such as the agrarian reform, and although he was one of the most virulent adversaries of his successor, the Socialist Salvador Allende (1970-1973), he becomes, after the military coup, the main critical voices of Pinochet. In August 1980, for example, he called for free and open elections at an event known as Caupolicanazo the first organized event of an opposition that began to take place. restore after the mbadacre. Frei was a dangerous figure for the regime: unlike left-wing leaders in exile, he remained in the country and played an important role against the dictatorship in Chile.

In the 811-page sentence, the Madrid judge sentenced Dr. Patrício Silva to 10 years in prison as the perpetrator of a simple homicide. As co-perpetrators of the same crime, sentenced to seven years in prison, Luis Becerra, agent and informant of Frei, and Raúl Lillo, civil agent of the secret police of the regime. In his state of complicity, the magistrate sentenced another doctor, Pedro Valdivia, to five years in prison. The tanatologists Helmar Rosenberg and Sergio González, in turn, for concealing the homicide, should be sentenced to three years imprisonment but not imprisoned.

The decision rendered Wednesday is consistent with the fact that Carmen Frei Ruiz-Tagle, the daughter of the former president, had claimed for many years: the death of his father was a suicide. Part of Frei's family never believed that his death on January 22, 1982, was due to complications of a routine operation that apparently did not involve more risk. The presence of chemical agents in various cases related to the acts of Pinochet's intelligence services led them to suspect the acts of third parties 20 years ago.

Clínica Santa María has already been the subject of investigation in other cases of great magnitude; same hospital that the writer Pablo Neruda died in 1973. According to the official version, the poet died of prostate cancer at an advanced stage, but today – in a case that remains open – after the exhumation of the corpse , it is asked if

"Pinochet ordered this magnicide"

The reactions of the family were immediate. Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle said in a well-organized presentation, at Frei's home in east Santiago, surrounded by deputies and current political leaders such as former president Ricardo Lagos: A substantial step forward in this case also brings us a feeling of tremendous sadness when the suspicions we have always had about the death of President Frei are obvious. "

The former president Lagos added that" the battle to establish the truth The murder of Frei does not end here. "" Knowing the political responsibilities will be our next task … in particular, the participation of government officials of the time. "What was done was not just the task of some agents or some There is a lot of preparation that some have described as Machiavellian and criminal. "

At the headquarters of Christian Democracy in downtown Santiago, former Senator Carmen Frei Ruiz-Tagle, the most active the family in the course of the case, said that his father "was murdered by the civil-military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet". "This is the only case of magnicide in the history of Chile," said the former Chilean MP. "Nothing that has happened around my father's death has been accidental or the result of chance."

Lagos said directly the character of the dictator: "Augusto Pinochet is responsible for this murder," he said, adding that at that time Chile was an "unbalanced" country.