Chilean radio-show caller admits role in post-coup executions, disappearances.
| Autor | Witte-Lebhar, Benjamin |
A former Army conscript's chilling and shockingly public confession has provided a rare peek beneath the shroud of secrecy that even now, decades after Chile's return to democracy, surrounds the rampant human rights abuses committed by the military regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
Guillermo Reyes Rammsy, as he was later identified by police, delivered the troubling testimony Dec. 9 in an unlikely forum, a popular call-in radio program called El Chacotero Sentimental. The show is hosted by Roberto Artiagoitia, better known as "El Rumpy," and features guests who share personal anecdotes, often regarding amorous adventures or infidelities.
Reyes, 62, began his more than 20-minute conversation with El Rumpy talking about an old flame--"La Italiana," he called her--from his days as a teenage "hippie." His tale soon took a dark turn, however, as he recalled being drafted for military service and, in the months after the 1973 coup that ousted leftist President Salvador Allende (1970-1973), participating in multiple executions of political prisoners, including, he claimed, La Italiana's husband.
"The first time I cried. But the lieutenant was saying: 'Good soldier, good soldier, brave soldier.' Then pow-pow, again. The second time, I liked it. I enjoyed it," Reyes explained. "It was evil, but you ended up liking it, and that drove you crazy. You fought against that feeling."
The former conscript described how he and his colleagues took several prisoners out into "la pampa" (the countryside) and not only shot them, but used dynamite to do away with their remains. "Poof. There was nothing left, not even their shadow," he said. "Have you heard where the disappeared are? Nobody has told you where the disappeared are... Well, it's because they aren't. They are totally disintegrated. Nothing remained.
News of the shocking radio confession spread quickly and prompted a police investigation that resulted in Reyes' arrest, two days later, at his home in the region of Valparaiso, west of Santiago. A judge charged Reyes in the murders of two specific prisoners--Freddy Taberna Gallegos and German Palominos Lamas--but is allowing him to remain under house arrest pending further investigation.
Taberna and Palominos, active members of Allende's Partido Socialista (PS), were among an estimated 2,500 people swept up during and after the military overthrow, on Sept. 11, 1973, and sent to a desert prison camp near Pisagua, in the northern Tarapaca region...
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