Chile ex-mayor arrested for Pinochet-era human rights crimes

[Judi Lynn]

Chile ex-mayor arrested for Pinochet-era human rights crimes
Mon Oct 20, 2014 3:07pm EDT

By Anthony Esposito

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - The ex-mayor of an upscale Santiago neighborhood was arrested on Monday in connection with an investigation into human rights crimes committed during General Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship of Chile.

Cristian Labbe, a retired colonel who later served as mayor of the capital's Providencia district, is a subject of the probe into human rights violations, government spokesman Alvaro Elizalde said to reporters on Monday.

"We hope this can be cleared up and it's the courts that have to determine any responsibilities (in the case)," he said.

Elizalde did not give details but a source close to the matter, who was not authorized to speak to the media, said Judge Marianela Cifuentes is prosecuting 10 former military members, adding that Labbe is being prosecuted for unlawful association as a member of Pinochet's notorious DINA secret police.

"Cifuentes determined that the DINA had become an unlawful organization for committing crimes against humanity, and as such has prosecuted Labbe as a member of that unlawful organization," the source said.

More:
http://ca.reuters.com/article/idCAKCN0I923S20141020?rpc=401

[Judi Lynn]

1. Chile arrests ex-Pinochet aide Col Labbe over killings

20 October 2014 Last updated at 14:12 ET
Chile arrests ex-Pinochet aide Col Labbe over killings

A former aide to Chile's ex-military leader General Augusto Pinochet has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the killings of 13 political prisoners in the 1970s.

Col Cristian Labbe was detained with nine others on orders of a judge examining the 1973-1974 deaths.

The victims died at a concentration camp in San Antonio on Chile's coast.

Col Labbe, who later became mayor of Providencia district in Chile's capital of Santiago, has denied any wrongdoing.

A minister under Gen Pinochet, he visited the exiled dictator several times while he was under house arrest in the UK between 1998 and 2000.

Rabble rouser

During Chile's military dictatorship from 1973-1990, the retired colonel served as Gen Pinochet's bodyguard before being appointed to his cabinet in 1990.

When democracy returned to Chile, he served as mayor of Providencia for 16 years but was ousted in a bitter election two years ago.

More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29695635