Fresh Proof of "Operation Condor" Surfaces

by Gustavo Gonzalez

The mayor of one of the poshest municipalities of Santiago, retired colonel Cristian Labbe, admitted having belonged to the notorious secret police of the de facto regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-90), following the publication of official documents lending further credence to the existence of Operation Condor.

Labbe, the right-wing mayor of the Santiago municipality of Providencia, told the Chilean daily La Hora from his vacation spot in California on June 15 that he had "indeed" been a member of the Direccion de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) as the head of Pinochet's escort.

The mayor's ties to the de facto regime's secret police were revealed by classified official documents dating back to the time of the military government, unearthed in the foreign ministry and published in the daily La Nacion, which belongs to the state and follows the line of the government of the moment.

The documents demonstrate that the head of DINA, now-retired Gen. Manuel Contreras, created Operation Condor to coordinate operations against the respective opponents -- real or suspected -- of the military regimes ruling several South American nations in the 1970s and 1980s.

"The documents survived the destruction of files carried out by the foreign ministry shortly after President Patricio Aylwin took office" in March 1990, stated La Nacion.

Participation in Operation Condor by the security forces of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay had long been denounced by opponents of the military regimes, and substantiated by the discovery of literally tons of documents and files in Asuncion in 1992, when Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner was toppled.

Legal proceedings are underway in Spain for crimes against humanity committed by the dictatorships of Argentina (1976-83) and Chile in the framework of Operation Condor. The ex-dictator is facing a trial -- set to begin Sep. 27 -- to decide on his possible extradition to Spain.

Since October 1996, Contreras has been serving a seven-year sentence for planning the 1976 assassination of former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier in Washington, committed by DINA agents and anti-Castro Cuban exiles.

The minutes of the 1976 meeting are frequently mentioned in the documents revealed June 15 by La Nacion, which basically consist of classified DINA letters to the foreign ministry seeking to facilitate the movements of repressive agents from other countries.

Among the documents is a Dec. 2, 1974 missive in which Contreras requested a diplomatic passport for Labbe and other members of the military as "DINA personnel," for the purposes of "an urgent mission in Peru."

In his declarations to La Hora, Labbe maintained that the documents published by La Nacion did not "demonstrate the existence of Plan Condor," but were part of a "campaign" conducted by the governing center-left coalition inspired by "a revanchist aim to polarize the country."

The right-wing mayor added that the report by the state- owned daily "could even hurt national security," due to the publication of "secret documents" referring to Peru, a country bordering Chile.

Labbe, who served as deputy minister of the General Secretariat of the Government toward the end of the dictatorship, was voted mayor of Providencia, one of the richest municipalities of Santiago, with the backing of the rightist Independent Democratic Union party.

Labbe is a close friend of Pinochet, and has visited the former de facto ruler twice in the rented mansion where he is under house arrest in London. The retired colonel is also one of the most active promoters of campaigns in favor of the ex-dictator.

After Pinochet's arrest, Labbe took reprisals in Providencia against the consular seats of Great Britain and Spain and other bodies with links to those two countries by withholding garbage collection and meting out fines for supposed infringements of municipal ordinances.