The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) arrested former Chilean National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) agent Armando Fernández Larios, convicted of several crimes committed during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
Larios’ name appears on a list of 42 detained Chilean criminals, released by the US Department of Homeland Security on January 27. According to the publication, he was arrested in Fort Myers, about 250 kilometers from Miami, in the State of Florida. Although the arrest was publicized this year, the arrest took place in October last year.
Larios was an officer in the Chilean Army on September 11, 1973, when military forces surrounded the La Moneda Palace, headquarters of the Chilean government, and overthrew President Salvador Allende, of the Popular Unity (UP) coalition. Pinochet took power and began to govern the country under a dictatorial regime that lasted 17 years.
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According to the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), Larios actively participated in the coup d’état and was part of the so-called “Caravan of Death”, an operation conducted by the Chilean military in the north of the country in October 1973, during which agents tortured, abused and killed at least 75 political prisoners, including economist Winston Cabello, who was part of the Allende government.
After the episodes, Larios joined DINA, officially created in 1974. The body was responsible for clandestine actions, such as kidnappings, torture, assaults and murders of opponents of the Chilean regime.
According to Human Rights Watch, Larios fled to the US in 1987 after signing a plea deal in the murder of former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his assistant, American Ronni Moffitt. They died on September 21, 1976, in Washington, after the explosion of a bomb hidden in Letelier’s car by DINA agents, ordered by Pinochet.
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The agreement provided that, after serving five months in prison, Larios could live in the United States under the protection of the American government, without the possibility of extradition.
In 2003, he was ordered by a Florida jury to pay $4 million for torture, crimes against humanity and extrajudicial killings in Cabello’s murder. In 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld the verdict.
Larios is also accused of involvement in other crimes, such as the murders of former Chilean Army commander Carlos Prats, killed in Buenos Aires on September 30, 1974, and of Spanish-Chilean diplomat Carmelo Soria, an employee of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) of the United Nations (UN), which took place in Santiago on July 16, 1976.
Chile’s Justice Minister Jaime Gajardo said the US decision to arrest Larios after so many years did not surprise the Chilean government. “It doesn’t surprise us, because in fact those who commit crimes against humanity, those who violate human rights, are those who have committed the most serious crimes under international law,” he said in an interview with Infinita radio.
The newspaper The Country reported that there are five open extradition requests for Larios in Chile, for human rights violations. According to Gajardo, he is expected to undergo a hearing later this month, which will decide whether he will be extradited.
