Chile’s arrest of Pinochet and the ”Condor” killers in the US

By Bill Van Auken
18 December 2004

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The indictment and arrest of Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet Monday for the killings and disappearances of political opponents carried out under his rule has provoked no comment from the US government and relatively little attention in the American mass media.

Yet the trail of evidence against the retired general, whose 17-year rule saw the murder, torture and imprisonment of tens of thousands of Chileans, leads directly to Washington’s doorstep.

It was reported this week that a Chilean judge following this trail has managed to secure an evidentiary hearing in the US capital in which two of the participants in the infamous Operation Condor assassination program will be questioned. Both have been living in the US for decades under the protection of the American government.

It is not just these assassins who are implicated, however. Top US officials—both current and former—share Pinochet’s criminal responsibility for the mass murder carried out in Chile and elsewhere during the period of Operation Condor.