DOCUMENTED Complicity.

• Author: KOMISAR, LUCY
• Position: U.S. State Department releases documents about U.S. involvement with Chile during the 1970's

Newly released files set the record straight on U.S. support for Pinochet

On June 30, the State Department declassified and made public 5,000 documents relating to U.S. policy toward Chilean General Augusto Pinochet, who overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973. The release of the State Department documents--along with about 800 CIA, Defense Department, and FBI papers--came in response to demands by members of Congress and by the Spanish prosecutors of Pinochet.

For the Spaniards, the documents provide detailed proof that Pinochet controlled DINA, the Chilean Directorate of Intelligence, which was responsible for the most egregious human rights violations in the three years following the coup.

For U.S. citizens, they are a fascinating and sometimes surreal window onto a U.S. policy fraught with arrogance and, for the most part, unconcerned about the wholesale human rights abuses Pinochet was carrying out. His regime detained 40,000 people, tortured large numbers of them, exiled 9,000, and murdered 4,000.

The papers, redacted and incomplete, cover 1973-1978. They show that Washington had knowledge of Pinochet's coup plans, his barbarism upon seizing power, and the establishment of his international terrorist network. They also show that the U.S. government, at the highest levels, covered up for Pinochet, lied to the American public, and did everything in its power to support the junta. These documents are crucial in setting the historical record straight.

That the United States knew in advance about the coup can no longer be in doubt.

One CIA document, dated September 8, 1973, reports that the Chilean navy was planning an action in Valparaiso at 8:30 A.M. on September 10 to overthrow the Allende government, that the Chilean armed forces would support this, and that air force commander Gustavo Leigh had gotten in contact with Pinochet, who assured him the army wouldn't oppose the navy's action. The CIA informant said the army would join the coup after the air force supported the navy. "The coup could occur on 10 September or at least during the week of 10 September," the document notes.

Another CIA document, dated September 10, is even more blunt: "The coup attempt will begin September 11. All three branches of the armed forces and the Carabineros are involved in this action. A declaration will be read on Radio Agricultura at 7 A.M. on 11 September."

These documents make a mockery of the assertion by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jack Kubisch, who testified before the House Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs on September 20, 1973: "Gentlemen, I wish to state as flatly and as categorically as I possibly can that we did not have advance knowledge of the coup that took place on September 11."

From the start, the U.S. was eager to help. A State Department document dated September 28, 1973, reveals that Chile's new defense minister asked Washington for an expert adviser on detention centers, saying Chile expected to hold 3,000 people for at least a year. U.S. Ambassador Nathaniel Davis, aware of "obvious political problems," still tried to find a way to meet the request: "Dept. may wish to consider feasibility of material assistance in form of tents, blankets, etc., which need not be publicly and specifically earmarked for prisoners."

Nor was the State Department in the dark about the brutalities Pinochet's forces were committing.

A CIA cable dated September 21, 1973, says, "Severe repression is planned." Messages from the CIA and the State Department would follow for months and years detailing killings, torture, and secret detentions.

On September 24, the CIA says that the figures of civilian dead during the coup and "cleanup" operations are not trustworthy because they reflect only the deaths of people processed by hospitals and other such institutions that provided death certifications. It says the great majority of deaths are not registered. "There will never be an accurate tally of the total deaths," the document states. "Only the junta members will have a really clear idea of the correct death figures, which they will probably keep secret." It notes a source's report of several thousand deaths, even though the junta was publicly admitting only 244.

Two days later, a CIA document notes that "between 20 and 24 September, twenty-seven cadavers were recovered from the Mapocho River in Santiago, some of which showed signs of torture and mutilation. The victims were low-ranking and working-class members of UP [Popular Unity] parties."

Another CIA document reports that "to eliminate completely all remaining resistance, beginning the week of 15 October the military will make no more arrests. An order has been given to shoot to kill all those caught or suspected of resistance, especially in rural areas."

Dozens of cables and policy papers every year reported matter of factly that detention and torture continued, that the government had failed to reform. One document offers an American official's chilling eyewitness account of abuse. U.S. Defense Attache Captain J.R. Switzer informed the Pentagon on February 2, 1976: "Responding to call from source, DATT [defense attache] and AIRA [air attache] proceeded to hangar/warehouse building about 100 yards south of interrogation building. Source stated that two Chilean air force buses had...