MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pinochet and former aide exchange blames

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the jailed ex-head of the secret police General Manuel Contreras had a face to face exchange Friday on orders of a judge who is investigating the disappearance of dissidents thirty years ago.

General Pinochet and General Contreras had given different accounts of the events and more significant, was the question whether the former dictator had direct control over the notorious and feared secret police, DINA during the 1973/1990 iron rule period.

The meeting was ordered by Judge Victor Montiglio, in charge of the investigation into Pinochet's alleged role in Operation Colombo, which involved the disappearance of 120 leftist dissidents in 1975.

Pinochet had denied any involvement in the operation and put all the blame on General Contreras, insisting he had no direct command over the former secret police DINA. . But Contreras' lawyers requested the face to face meeting demanding the judge should question who was really in command of DINA and responsible for the disappearance of the 120 people.

When asked about DINA Pinochet said he did not remember anything about it and accused General Contreras of having been plotting to take over the country.

"That's why I sacked him; he was creating too many problems".

Contreras' lawyer said the claims were unfounded, blaming them on Pinochet's old age or his wish to "put the blame on someone who is already down and cannot respond".

Judge Montiglio who oversaw the meeting between the two men at the Lo Curro military club, close to the former dictator's mansion in Santiago, said it had been "a very positive day", and that the atmosphere had been "calm and normal".

Friday's meeting was the first encounter between Pinochet and Contreras since they came across at a military ceremony in 1995. On that occasion, the former dictator refused to acknowledge his former subordinate.

Later that same year, when Contreras was discovered at a farm in southern Chile and was resisting attempts by authorities to arrest him to serve a seven-year prison term for the car-bomb assassination of ex-Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, Pinochet urged him by phone to surrender.

Contreras who has since claimed that Pinochet abandoned all those who did the "dirty work" repressing the regime's opponents, in 1997 presented documents showing that the former dictator was the real DINA chief.

Contreras arrived at Friday's meeting in a prison vehicle, since he currently is serving a 12-year sentence for the 1975 disappearance of leftist activist Miguel Angel Sandoval. Pinochet was escorted with his usual convoy of armored vehicles after his lawyer, Pablo Rodriguez, tried unsuccessfully to impede the meeting.

Pablo Rodriguez has bitterly protested that Pinochet is the only 90 year old Chilean facing a criminal court with several hearings in the same week. "This is shameful and poses a serious risk to my client's life".