Caravan Of Death: Six Victims Identified In Chile

The infamous “Caravan of Death” in Chile claimed around 75 victims, six of which have finally been identified more than 40-years after General Augusto Pinochet led a coup to overthrow socialist President Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973.

It is believed that Pinochet created the “Caravana de la Muerte” in October of 1973 in order to go after Allende’s sympathizers as he tried to keep the situation under control following the military coup — which all branches joined to topple Allende, whose regime was threatening Chile into becoming a satellite of the USSR, similar to Cuba.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, six of the victims were recently found in an unmarked mass grave in San Pedro de Atacama in the Chilean dessert.

According to a report by a forensic service, each of the victims had been shot to death.

One of the “Caravan of Death” victims was journalist Carlos Berger, the husband of a human rights lawyer who was arrested for refusing to close local radio transmissions the day that the Socialist President was overthrown, as the military took control of all communications means.

The other victims also include a chauffeur, a Socialist leader, and a local government official, who were part of a group of 26 others killed in the city of Calama, some 930 miles from the nation’s capital, Santiago.

The “Caravan of Death” was a squad made up of several Army officers led by Army Brigadier General Sergio Arellano — who was named by Pinochet “Official Delegate of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and President of the Government Junta.”

The Junta was the group of four leaders who overtook power in Chile after the coup of September 11, 1973. The members at the time included Pinochet (Army), General Gustavo Leigh (Air Force), Admiral José Toribio Merino (Navy), and General César Mendoza (Police).

Arellano and his henchmen traveled by Puma helicopter all around the country’s military prisons, carrying out or ordering executions of those opposed to the new regime and killed around 75 prisoners held in Army facilities, later burying the remains in unmarked mass graves.

General Joaquin Lagos explained in graphic detail why he didn’t return the bodies of 14 executed prisoners in the northern city of Antofagasta to their families:

“I was ashamed to see them. They were torn into pieces. So I wanted to put them together, at least leave them in a human form. Yes, their eyes were gouged out with knives, their jaws broken, their legs broken… At the end they gave them the coup de grace. They were merciless (…)The prisoners were killed so that they would die slowly. In other words, sometimes they were shot them by parts. First, the legs, then the sexual organs, then the heart. In that order the machine guns were fired.”

The “Rettig Report” — commissioned in 1991 by then President Patricio Alwyin, Pinochet’s successor — concluded that during Pinochet’s rule 2,279 individuals were killed for political reasons, including 957 who are known as “desparecidos” (missing).

The “Caravan of Death” leader, Sergio Arellano was sentenced to six years, but did not serve the time after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Despite all of this, Chile has become one of the most stable and prosperous nations in South America with a thriving economy.