thumb|300px|Generals [[Sergio Arellano Stark (left) and Augusto Pinochet embracing a few hours before the departure of the Caravan of Death (September 1973)]]

The Caravan of Death () was a Chilean Army death squad that, following the Chilean coup of 1973, flew by helicopters from south to north of Chile between September 30 and October 22, 1973. During this foray, members of the squad ordered or personally carried out the execution of at least 75 individuals held in Army custody in certain garrisons.

Augusto Pinochet was indicted in December 2002 in this case, but he died four years later before a verdict could be rendered. Trials of others accused of involvement continued after his death.

Death squad

The squad was made up of several Army officers. They were led by Army Brigadier General Sergio Arellano Stark, appointed by Augusto Pinochet "Official Delegate of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and President of the Government Assembly." Other members included Arellano's second-in-command, Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Arredondo González, later director of the Infantry School of the Army; General Manuel Contreras, head of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA); Major Pedro Espinoza Bravo, Contreas' second-in-command, an Army Intelligence officer and later operations chief of the DINA; Captain Marcelo Moren Brito, later commander of Villa Grimaldi, the torture camp; Lieutenant Armando Fernández Larios, later a DINA operative and involved in the assassination of Orlando Letelier (Salvador Allende's former Minister) and others.

Though the Rettig Commission puts the count of murdered individuals at approximately 3,000 during the 17-year Pinochet regime, the deaths of these 75 individuals and the Caravan of Death episode itself are highly traumatic, especially as many of the victims had voluntarily turned themselves in to the military authorities, were all in secured military custody and posed no immediate threat because they had no history of violence, nor were threatening to commit any such violence.

According to Oleguer Benaventes Bustos, the second in command at the Talca Regiment when Arellano landed there on September 30, 1973, the squad's aims were to instill "terror" in potential opponents as well as to ensure the loyalty to the new assembly of military staff outside the capital:

Beside the summary executions of scores of opponents, Arellano punished several military officers for not being "harsh enough" on prisoners, including the constitutionalist officer Lieutenant Colonel Efrain Jaña Giron in Talca and Army Major Fernando Reveco Valenzuela in Calama. Contreas received a seven-year sentence and Espinoza received a six-year sentence. Pinochet himself had been indicted by the Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón in 1998 after complaints presented by Victoria Saavedra and the Mujeres de Calama (Calama's Women), which included the Caravan of Death case investigated by Guzmán Tapia.

On 23 May 2000, the Court of Appeal of Santiago lifted his parliamentary immunity concerning this case and he was indicted by Guzmán Tapia, on 1 December 2000, as co-author of the crimes of aggravated abduction and first-degree murder committed by the Caravan of Death against 75 persons. However, as soon as 11 December 2000, the procedure was suspended by the Court of Appeal of Santiago for medical reasons. In January 2001, the physicians stated that Pinochet had a "light dementia". On 8 March 2000, the Court of Appeal confirmed Pinochet's indictment in the Caravan of Death case, but only as an "accomplice" and not as its main instigator. However, the judiciary procedures were again suspended on 9 July 2001 because of alleged health reasons, and finally the Supreme Court invoked in 2002 a "moderate dementia" of Pinochet which enabled him not to be judged in this case.

In July 2006, the Supreme Court upheld a January 2006 judgment by the Court of Appeal of Santiago, which argued that the 2002 Supreme Court's ruling stating that Pinochet could not be prosecuted in the Caravan of Death case because it did not apply to two of its victims, former bodyguards of Allende. On 28 November 2006, Víctor Montiglio, charged of this case, ordered Pinochet's house arrest. Pinochet died on December 10, 2006, without having been judged in this case or any other.

In August 2007, a Catholic priest, Luis Jorquera, then chaplain at a military detention center set up in Chile's north after September 11, 1973, was charged with involvement in the Caravan of Death. Witnesses alleged that he had been involved in the exhuming of the victims two years later, the corpses being then thrown into the sea from a plane. The verdict was a victory for Winston Capello's sister, Zita Capello-Barrueto, who spent many years seeking truth and justice in her brother's case. Her book, In Search of Spring, documented her crusade for justice.

Armando Fernández Larios, and his other two key players in the Letellier-Moffitt murders and other cases linked to atrocities in Chile — Virgilio Paz Romero and Michael Townley — are wanted in Chile for the detention, torture, and killing of Spanish-Chilean citizen Carmelo Soria on July 14, 1976. However, the convictions which were given to six former DINA members and two former prominent army officers in August 2023 would be described as the "final conviction" the Supreme Court of Chile would hand down for the Soria assassination. Among those convicted included Pedro Espinoza Bravo and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann.

See also

  • Operation Colombo
  • Operation Condor
  • Death flights

References

Further reading

  • Jorge Escalante Hidalgo, "La Misión era Matar: El Juicio a la Caravana Pinochet-Arellano, LOM Ediciones, 2000.
  • Memoriaviva (Complete list of Victims, Torture Centres and Criminals - in Spanish)
  • Memory and Justice
  • Judicial analysis from a Socialist point of view
  • BBC news
  • Former Chilean army chief charged over 1973 killing of activists. The Guardian. 8 July 2016.