The Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional or DINA was the secret police of Chile during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The DINA has been referred to as "Pinochet's Gestapo". Established in November 1973 as a Chilean Army intelligence unit headed by Colonel Manuel Contreras and vice-director Raúl Iturriaga, the DINA was then separated from the army and made an independent administrative unit in June 1974 under the auspices of Decree 521. The DINA existed until 1977, after which it was renamed the Central Nacional de Informaciones or CNI.
The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a military overthrow of the democratic socialist president of Chile Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity coalition government. Allende, who has been described as the first Marxist to be democratically elected president in a Latin American liberal democracy, faced significant social unrest, political tension with the opposition-controlled National Congress of Chile, and economic warfare ordered by United States president Richard Nixon. On 11 September 1973, a group of military officers, led by General Augusto Pinochet, seized power in a coup, ending civilian rule.
An authoritarian military dictatorship ruled Chile for seventeen years, between 11 September 1973 and 11 March 1990. The dictatorship was established after the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup d'état backed by the United States on 11 September 1973. During this time, the country was ruled by a military junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet. The military used the breakdown of democracy and the economic crisis that took place during Allende's presidency to justify its seizure of power. The dictatorship presented its mission as a "national reconstruction". The coup was the result of multiple forces, including pressure from conservative groups, certain political parties, union strikes and other domestic unrest, as well as international factors.
The Valech Report, officially known as The National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture Report, documents instances of abuses committed in Chile between 1973 and 1990 by agents of Augusto Pinochet's military regime. Published on November 29, 2004, the report presents the findings of a six-month investigation. A revised version was subsequently released on June 1, 2005. In February 2010, the commission was reopened for a period of eighteen months, during which additional cases were examined.
Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann is a Chilean Army general and a former deputy director of the DINA, the Chilean secret police under the Augusto Pinochet military dictatorship. He was in charge of a secret detention center known as La Venda Sexy and La Discothèque—because of the sexual abuse inflicted on blindfolded prisoners as loud music masked their screams. An aide to General Manuel Contreras, head of the DINA, he was in charge of several assassinations carried out as part of Operation Condor. He has been condemned in absentia in Italy for the failed murder of Christian-Democrat Bernardo Leighton, and is wanted both in Spain and in Argentina. In the latter country, he is accused of the assassination of General Carlos Prats. He was later found to have played a prominent role in the assassination of Spanish-Chilean United Nations diplomat Carmelo Soria as well.
Osvaldo Romo Carlos Mena was an agent of the Chilean Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) from 1973 to 1990, during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Romo was involved in the forced disappearance of over one hundred people, including Christians for Socialism and MIR members Diana Arón Svigilsky, Manuel Cortez Joo and Ofelio Lazo. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but several of the sentences were suspended by the Chilean Supreme Court.
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean army officer and military dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990. He was the leader of the military junta from 1973 to 1981, and was declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and thus became the dictator of Chile, and from 1981 to 1990 as de jure president after a new constitution which confirmed him in the office was approved by a referendum in 1980. His time in office remains the longest of any Chilean ruler.
Human rights abuses in Chile under Augusto Pinochet were the crimes against humanity, persecution of opponents, political repression, and state terrorism committed by the Chilean Armed Forces, members of Carabineros de Chile and civil repressive agents members of a secret police, during the military dictatorship of Chile under General Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990.
Following the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, an armed leftist resistance movement against Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship developed until 1990 when democracy was restored. This conflict was part of the South American theater in the Cold War, with the United States backing the Chilean military and the Soviet Union backing the guerrillas. The main armed resistance groups of the period were the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) and Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR), the armed wing of the Communist Party of Chile. These groups had a long-standing rivalry, including over Marxist orthodoxy and its implementation.
Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko is a Chilean military official involved in human rights violations during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. He held several high-ranking positions in the Pinochet regime, including in the Chilean intelligence agency, DINA. As such, he was responsible for the interrogation, torture, and disappearance of political prisoners at the detention center, Villa Grimaldi. After Pinochet's demise, Krassnoff was convicted by Chilean courts of "crimes against humanity".
Londres 38 is a building that was used by the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) as a detention and torture center for opponents of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. The facility is located in downtown Santiago, Chile, and was known in DINA's jargon by the code name Yucatán.
Jorge Hernán Müller Silva, a Chilean cinematographer, and his girlfriend, Carmen Cecilia Bueno Cifuentes, a Chilean actress and filmmaker, were left activists from the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) who were detained on 29 November 1974 by security police during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. While held in Villa Grimaldi, it is believed that they both were subjected to torture. Their fate remains unknown.
Tres Alamos was a political prison camp that operated during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. This enclosure was operational between 1974 and 1976. Being the last camp of political prisoners. Its main importance was that the prisoners were identified, unlike other detention centers and could even receive visitors. From this place many detainees were expelled from the country.
"A Rapist in Your Path", also known as "The Rapist Is You", is a Chilean feminist performance piece that originated in 2019 to protest violence against women. The performance has garnered international attention and has been staged in various locations including Latin America, the United States, and Europe. Developed by the Valparaíso feminist collective LasTesis, the piece draws inspiration from the work of Rita Segato.
Bernardo Arturo de la Maza Bañados is a Chilean journalist who was elected as a member of the Chilean Constitutional Convention.
Íngrid Felicitas Olderöck Benhard, better known as "Woman of The Dogs", was a Carabineros de Chile major who was converted into an agent of the DINA in 1973. She was responsible for human rights violations during the first years of the military dictatorship in Chile.
Cuartel Simón Bolívar was a facility used by the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), Chile's secret police during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. It functioned as a detention and torture center aimed at eliminating opponents through disappearance and extermination tactics. Located in the La Reina commune of Santiago, this facility was operated by a subgroup within DINA known as Brigade Lautaro.
The José Domingo Cañas Memory House was a detention and torture center operated by the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), located at 1367 José Domingo Cañas Street, in the Ñuñoa district of Santiago, Chile.
