Death flights (Chile)
Death flights (Script error: The function "langx" does not exist.) refers to a series of operations during the military dictatorship of Chile in which the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the regime's secret police, and personnel of the Army Aviation Command used Puma helicopters to dispose of the bodies of political prisoners and other people who had been detained and killed by state agents. The bodies were taken to military sites, attached to pieces of railway rail and weighted down, and then dropped into the Pacific Ocean. Investigations based on testimony from Army personnel have established at least 40 such flights, with estimates that between 400 and 500 bodies were disposed of in this manner, principally between 1974 and 1978.[1][2][3]
Background
During the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, which followed the September 1973 coup d'état, the DINA operated a network of clandestine detention and torture centers and was responsible for numerous forced disappearances. In some cases, after prisoners had been killed, their bodies were concealed or destroyed to prevent their identification and recovery. The use of military helicopters to dispose of bodies at sea became one of the methods employed for this purpose.[1][2]
The practice became publicly known through judicial investigations conducted decades after the events. In 2003, Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia, who was investigating cases involving the DINA, obtained testimony from Army mechanics who described their participation in flights in Puma helicopters. According to reporting based on their testimony, the flights were organized through the Army Aviation Command and involved the transportation of bodies from military installations near Santiago to the coast.[3]
Method
The operations generally involved the bodies being transported to the Army's facilities at Peldehue, north of Santiago. According to testimony reported by La Nación, the mechanics were ordered to remove the Puma's passenger seats and auxiliary fuel tank before a flight. The helicopters then traveled to Peldehue, where vehicles associated with the DINA brought bodies to the aircraft. The bodies were placed in sacks and attached by wire to pieces of railway rail, which were intended to make them sink when dropped into the sea.[2]
The flights were generally directed toward the coast of the Valparaíso Region and then out over the Pacific Ocean. According to the same investigation, many of the flights went offshore near Quintero, although other locations along the coast were also used.[2]
The judicial record in the Marta Ugarte case corroborated several elements of this procedure. The court found that Ugarte was taken from Villa Grimaldi to Peldehue in September 1976, where she was killed, placed in a sack and taken aboard a Puma helicopter of the Army Aviation Command. The helicopter's crew consisted of a pilot, copilot, mechanic and DINA operative.[4]
The operation was reportedly known within the DINA by the code name "Puerto Montt", which was used in prisoner records to identify detainees who were to be executed and whose bodies were to be disposed of at sea.[1]
The same investigation reported that flights were recorded and that the mechanics who eventually acknowledged their participation described making one or more flights. The investigators identified at least 40 flights, each carrying approximately eight to 15 bodies or packages. The estimated number of bodies disposed of at sea was between 400 and 500, principally between 1974 and 1978, although investigators also considered the possibility that similar operations occurred in late 1973.[2]
The method was not unique to Chile. Similar "death flight" operations have been documented in other Latin American dictatorships and counterinsurgency campaigns, most notably in Argentina during the Dirty War. In Chile, however, the available evidence indicates that the flights were principally used to dispose of the bodies of people who had already been killed or detained, rather than as a method of killing prisoners by throwing them alive from aircraft.[2][5]
Victims and investigations
Among the victims associated with the death flights were members of the Communist Party of Chile who had been detained by the DINA during the Calle Conferencia operations. Investigations into the disappearance of these prisoners helped establish the connection between DINA detention centers, Peldehue and the Puma helicopters operated by the Army Aviation Command.[1][6]
In addition to testimony from mechanics, judicial investigations examined the activities of Army pilots who held qualifications to fly Puma helicopters. A list published by La Nación Domingo identified 22 Army personnel associated with Puma operations. The list included officers who later held senior positions in the Army Aviation Command, as well as pilots who were subsequently prosecuted in human-rights cases.[7]
Marta Ugarte
The best-documented individual case associated with the death flights is that of Marta Ugarte, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Chile. She was arrested by DINA agents on August 9, 1976, and taken to Villa Grimaldi, where she was held and tortured. According to the judicial findings in her case, she was subsequently taken to Peldehue in September 1976, where she was killed and her body placed aboard a Puma helicopter.[4]
Ugarte's body was found on September 12, 1976, at La Ballena beach near Los Molles. The body had been tied with wire and showed evidence of severe physical abuse. The discovery provided an unusual opportunity to investigate a practice whose purpose was to prevent the recovery and identification of victims' bodies.[4]
According to the account of former DINA agent Emilio Troncoso, eight bodies were taken from Peldehue during the first week of September 1976. The bodies were placed in sacks and attached to pieces of rail. Troncoso stated that Ugarte was found still alive inside one of the sacks and was subsequently killed before the group was taken aboard the helicopter.[8]
The court's findings differed in some details from the earlier press accounts, but established that Ugarte was killed at Peldehue and that her body was transported in a Puma and thrown into the sea.[4]
In 2016, investigating judge Miguel Vázquez of the Santiago Court of Appeals convicted 28 former state agents for Ugarte's kidnapping and murder. Among those convicted were former Army Aviation Command chief Carlos Mardones Díaz, who was convicted as an accomplice to qualified homicide, and pilots Antonio Palomo Contreras and Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo, who were convicted as accessories after the fact. The case thus provided a judicially established link between the murder of Ugarte and the use of an Army Puma helicopter to dispose of her body.[4]
Media coverage and concealment
The discovery of Ugarte's body was initially reported by Chilean newspapers as an unidentified criminal case. El Mercurio, Las Últimas Noticias and La Tercera published accounts that gave an incorrect age and did not identify her as a political prisoner. Later investigations and the 2016 judicial proceedings established her identity and the circumstances of her detention and death.[9]
According to later reporting, journalist Beatriz Undurraga of El Mercurio described the unidentified body as that of a 23-year-old woman and characterized the death as a possible strangulation. Ugarte was in fact 42 years old. The newspaper reports did not disclose her political affiliation or the circumstances of her detention.[9][4]
The case later became an important piece of evidence in establishing the existence of the death flights. The appearance of photographs of the body helped relatives identify Ugarte, after which her family pressed authorities to investigate her disappearance.[9]
Wladimir Jaccard
Wladimir Jaccard was a Chilean Communist Party member who disappeared in 1977. He was arrested in Buenos Aires and transferred to the Navy School of Mechanics (ESMA), an Argentine clandestine detention center, before being transferred to Chile. According to journalist Javier Rebolledo's account, based on testimony by former DINA agent Jorgelino Vergara, Jaccard was subsequently held at the DINA facility on Simón Bolívar Avenue in La Reina, Santiago.[10]
Rebolledo reported that Vergara believed Jaccard was killed with sarin and that his body was placed in a sack, attached to a piece of rail and subsequently taken to the coast for disposal at sea.[11]
The precise circumstances of Jaccard's death and the final disposition of his remains have not been established with the same degree of judicial certainty as in the Marta Ugarte case. The account concerning sarin and the death flight is based principally on the testimony reported by Rebolledo rather than on the recovery of Jaccard's remains.[11]
Judicial proceedings
The investigation of the death flights became intertwined with several human-rights cases involving the DINA and the Army Aviation Command. In 2003, judicial investigations based on testimony from Army mechanics led to the identification of pilots and commanders associated with Puma operations.[3][12]
In the Marta Ugarte case, the Santiago Court of Appeals' investigating judge Miguel Vázquez convicted 28 former state agents in 2016. The judgment established that Ugarte had been detained by the DINA, killed at Peldehue and transported in a Puma helicopter before her body was thrown into the sea.[4]
Among those convicted were Carlos Mardones Díaz, former head of the Army Aviation Command, and pilots Antonio Palomo Contreras and Luis Felipe Polanco Gallardo. Mardones received an eight-year sentence as an accomplice to qualified homicide, while Palomo and Polanco each received five-year sentences as accessories after the fact.[4]
Palomo had also served as a pilot for Augusto Pinochet and had participated in other military operations during the dictatorship. He flew a Puma used by the Caravan of Death and was involved in the transfer of former Army commander-in-chief Carlos Prats toward the Argentine border in September 1973, shortly before Prats went into exile.[1]
Scale
The available investigations do not provide a definitive count of the people whose bodies were disposed of in the death flights. The investigation reported by La Nación identified at least 40 flights, with approximately eight to 15 bodies or other human remains carried on each flight. Twelve Army mechanics eventually acknowledged participating in at least one of the operations, while investigators reported that other personnel continued to deny involvement.[2]
On this basis, investigators estimated that between 400 and 500 bodies were thrown into the sea, principally between 1974 and 1978. The figure is an estimate derived from testimony and investigations rather than a complete list of identified victims.[2][3]
See also
- Death flights
- Caravan of Death
- Forced disappearance
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "La brigada más cruel de la DINA". La Nación (in español). Archived from the original on July 17, 2015.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 "Ángeles de la muerte". La Nación (in español). Archived from the original on November 19, 2016.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "La policía secreta de Pinochet lanzó al mar a 400 detenidos". La Nación (in español). EFE. November 23, 2003. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "EFE2003" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 "Ministro en visita condenó a 28 ex agentes por el crimen de Marta Ugarte Román". Cooperativa (in español). June 30, 2016. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "Ugarte2016" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Pérez, David Marcial (May 9, 2021). "Los vuelos de la muerte en México: 50 años de impunidad y olvido". El País México (in español).
- ↑ "DDHH: aparecen pistas sobre vuelos de la muerte en Chile". El Mostrador (in español). June 30, 2003.
- ↑ "La lista Puma: Rueda de interrogatorios a ex pilotos por crímenes de Paine". La Nación Domingo (in español). March 8, 2008. Archived from the original on November 19, 2016.
- ↑ "Memoria Histórica. Detenidos desaparecidos. IV. Lanzados al mar". PiensaChile (in español).
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Sentencia en asesinato de Marta Ugarte: Cómplices activos siguen impunes". Cambio 21 (in español). July 9, 2016. Archived from the original on November 19, 2016.
- ↑ Rebolledo, Javier (2013). La danza de los cuervos: El destino final de los detenidos desaparecidos (in español) (3rd ed.). Santiago, Chile: Ceibo. p. 290. ISBN 978-956-9071-15-7. Search this book on
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 López M., Mario (August 21, 2015). "Los civiles que financiaron represión: Las platas negras de la DINA". Cambio 21 (in español). Archived from the original on November 18, 2016.
- ↑ "DDHH: aparecen pistas sobre vuelos de la muerte en Chile". El Mostrador (in español). June 30, 2003.
External links
- "Yo lancé prisioneros al mar" — Julio Oliva García, El Siglo
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