Chilean Accused of Murder and Torture Taught at Pentagon for 13 Years

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/29063-chilean-accused-of-murder-and-torture-taught-at-pentagon-for-13-years

member of the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s brutal secret police who’s been accused of murder taught for more than a decade at the Pentagon’s premier university, despite repeated complaints by his colleagues about his past.

Jaime Garcia Covarrubias is charged in criminal court in Santiago with being the mastermind in the execution-style slayings of seven people in 1973, according to court documents. McClatchy also interviewed an accuser who identified Garcia Covarrubias as the person who sexually tortured him.

Despite knowing of the allegations, State and Defense department officials allowed Garcia Covarrubias to retain his visa and continue working at a school affiliated with the National Defense University until last year.

Human rights groups also question the school’s selection of a second professor, Colombia’s former top military commander.

Some Latin America experts said the hirings by the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies reflected a continuing inclination by the U.S government to overlook human rights violations in Latin America, especially in countries where it funded efforts to quash leftists.

But those experts were especially troubled by Garcia Covarrubias’ long tenure at one of the nation’s most renowned defense institutions.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Not an article to be missed. Wow.

The pathetic pretense among those interviewed that the US has been "above" this kind of behavior is astonishing. How can they keep straight faces?

From the article:

Despite very graphic torture accusations against Garcia Covarrubias, U.S. officials are rallying behind him.

The last face they saw before the lights went out:

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[Judi Lynn]

2. DU's late poster, rabs, a true expert, knew about this guy 4 years ago:

Former DINA torturer working at Pentagon-linked center

Well, let's see what Robert Gates has to say about this former general under Pinochet.

Garcia Covarrubias is under investigation in Chile for crimes against humanity during the dictatorship.

He is accused in the execution of six leftists in Nov.1973, of forcing prisoners to perform sexual aberrations, of cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners and other evil deeds. In September he was summoned to Chile to face accusers in the city of Temuco.

Story in Spanish

Un militar chileno que trabaja en el Pentágono, acusado de torturar prisioneros

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=405&topic_id=45885&mesg_id=45885

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Chilean military who works at the Pentagon, accused of torturing prisoners
EFE News
Jorge Escalante

Santiago de Chile, Dec 13 (EFE) .- A retired Chilean army brigadier, who joined the secret police of dictator Augusto Pinochet and since 2001 he worked in Washington, assigned to the Pentagon, has been charged in Chile have been a torturer who forced his victims to commit sexual aberrations. This was stated today to Efe trial involving former brigadier Jaime García Covarrubias, who works as a professor of National Security Affairs at the Center for Hemispheric Defense for the United States.

In the process, ex-prisoners and ex-soldiers who were his subordinates accused García Covarrubias had acted with "cruel and inhuman treatment" of detainees and soldiers of the regiment's own "Tucapel" in the southern city of Temuco.

García Covarrubias, who in late 1974 became instructor of agents in interrogation techniques and repression in recent years of military rule joined the narrow circle of Pinochet on charges of two ministries, is listed as "defendant" in the process which is instructed in Temuco for crimes against humanity.

~snip~
Last September, Garcia had to travel to Chile in order of Justice for questioning and subjected to face to face with former prisoners and military. During the proceeding, Herman Carrasco former detainee accused him of torturing him with other prisoners. "The officer Jaime García Covarrubias started to beat us naked and forced to perform acts sodomitical, without success," said Carrasco. Garcia denied the accusation.

(Google translation of the newspaper article published in Spain.)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4658081

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They've knowingly allowed this man to stay there for years and years. Nice work, Pentagon. Who needs enemies?