By Greg Vega 
The subsequent extradition to Chile from Australia may explain many of the stories that began with the 1973 coup and overthrew Salvador Allende. The case of Adriana Rivas, Tina’s former oppressor during the Pinochet era, is the tip of the iceberg of a conspiracy punishable by almost 48 years. A story of secret agents, torture and their victims taking place between two countries separated by a distance of 13 thousand kilometers. The woman has been detained in Sydney since February 2019, and her surrender to the Chilean government next April 6 is the final verdict. But she was not the only one who escaped to Oceania. There were about 400 former members in the repressive apparatus of the Trans-Andean dictatorship, Although detected by name and surname, do not reach ten. There was an enthusiastic presence in Santiago when the bombing of La Moneta, which ended the life of the former president, took place. ASIS, an Australian foreign intelligence service, collaborated to overthrow the Chilean socialist government. Former Prime Minister Kof Whitlam was assassinated in 1975 with the help of agents from the CIA and the British MS16.
Lorena Pizarro is president of the Association of Relatives of Detainees and Missing Persons in Chile (AFDD). He said in 2015 that the process against Rivas was the “tip of the iceberg”. Citing a Spanish agency, he visited Australia and said: “Some people are pointing out that there is a deal. We don’t know about that, but we have full confidence that they are here. “They are former agents of dictator Augusto Pinochet.
The extradition demand against a former member of Tina – led by General Manuel Contreras – who has been sentenced to 529 years in prison for crimes against humanity – is triggered by the disappearance of a group of members of the Communist Party of Chile. The conference is called the case. One of them, Fernando Ortiz Lettlier, was abducted on December 15, 1976, on a public highway. One of his daughters, Maria Louisa, or Licha, PageI12 Regarding Rivas’ situation: “He is still in Australia, where he provided all the resources to expand the process. The most recent news to us is that his deadline for the final appeal has expired on February 22 and that the lawyer must respond by March 15. The final hearing is April 6, but you may be allowed to stay if you are charged with health concerns. In any case, the verdict of the Australian court on extradition is very important because these crimes should be tried. ”
Florence Melkher Hurgate is a Uruguayan journalist living in Australia. He investigated the case and interviewed Rivas ’73 Dictatorship and the Australian Intelligence Service’s Assumption of Cooperation in Both Countries. He received an important award in 2014 for his work for public radio SBS on such collaboration. The relationship between the Chilean regime and the Australian Intelligence Agency (ASIO) reached the point where Sydney filmed refugees against Pinochet. By then, oppressors had begun to arrive in Australia in the late 1970s. The former Tina agent arrived in 1978. In addition to maintaining an active community life, she represented the people as a nanny and domestic service worker.
When Melker Hurgate discovered her in 2013, the former secretary of the Contreras, as it was known, “Sani” – got off the rails. To justify Tina’s torture, he said in an interview: “It is necessary, as the Nazis did. This is the only way to break people down. “That desire for image, which may have been normalized without his punishment, led to a extradition request approved by the Chilean Supreme Court in 2014. Although this process stumbled he could not hide when he fled Chile in 2011. He flew to Santiago to attend a daughter-in-law’s birthday, where he was briefly detained and detained. He was wanted by Interpol, but was only arrested in Australia in February 2019.
Rivas has been detained for two years, although there are a large number of other agents like him. The Chilean-based Chronicle Digital published the story he handed over on October 30, 2020, “In the last six years of the last century, more than 400 former agents of Tina and the National Information Center entered the Australian border with permanent visas (CNI).” Journalist Melkar Hurgate says he has heard about 200, although only ten cases, including Sani, have been formally documented.
Licha Artis points to her as one of the perpetrators of her father’s disappearance: “We know Rivas was involved in her murder and the murder of a young girl, Reynolda Pereira, who was pregnant. He worked at the Simon Bolivar Abolition Center. Tina agents were very brave enough to be tortured and killed, but when cowards had to go through the courts ”.
Artis Letilier’s daughter heard about the existence of dictators in Australia. And others who have disappeared in the United States, such as Pablo Barrientos Nice. Syndicated as the subject matter and intellectual writer for the murder of veteran singer-songwriter Vector Zara, a symbol of Latin American music, he has lived in the state of Florida since 1989. To date he has not been handed over to Chile, favorably the candle of the American legal system in these types of cases. This is too quick for other criminals to make Washington embarrassing. The officer was one of nine soldiers involved in the execution of Zara, but was not convicted at trial despite being charged with shooting him.
Most of the oppressors who have been tried and punished in democracy are imprisoned in Punta Fuego, Built in 1995 during the government of former President Eduardo Free and controlled by Gendermary. Rivas boss Contreras, who died in August 2015 at the age of 86, was staying there. Another prison is waiting for Sony because it is only for men. If he is handed over, he could meet with another former Tina civil agent, Emma Ceballos Nice, who was convicted in March 2017. She was the first woman to be convicted of human rights violations in Chile.
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