MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pinochet's aides long silent loyalty cracks

Chilean former dictator Augusto Pinochet ordered current ruling coalition presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet and her mother, Angela Jeria, arrested in January 1975, admitted former secret service chief Manuel Contreras.

"That was the only time that he asked me directly" to make specific arrests, retired General Contreras told the Santiago's La Tercera in an interview published Sunday.

Last November 18 Contreras met face-to-face with Pinochet on orders of Judge Victor Montiglio who is investigating the extent of Operation Colombo, a 1975 cover up operation for the "disappearance" of 119 alleged opponents of the 1973-1990 dictatorship.

Contreras revealed that another member of the military junta, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh, asked Pinochet to have Bachelet and her mother arrested.

The father of the ruling coalition candidate Alberto Bachelet was a Chilean Air Force general who supported the government of Socialist President Salvador Allende and opposed Pinochet's 1973 coup. He died in prison in early 1974 as direct consequence of tortures suffered by the dreaded Chilean secret service.

"General Leigh asked Pinochet to have Mrs. Jeria and Miss Bachelet arrested. He gave me the order and I carried it out" said Contreras in the Sunday interview.

"That order was given to me directly by General Pinochet because, according to Leigh, the women were plotting against four air force generals, which -incidentally- was false" he added.

The former DINA secret police chief said that Bachelet and her mother were not held, as has been indicated at Villa Grimaldi, DINA's most infamous torture centre, but rather in the Air Force's so-called Yellow House (Casa Amarilla).

He added that he personally informed Pinochet that he had carried out the arrest order handing the prisoners to the Air Force intelligence service instead of one of "our camps". Apparently Pinochet short reply was: "that's fine".

A year ago Contreras had denied that DINA had ever arrested Ms Bachelet or that the organization he commanded had engaged in torture.

At that time, Bachelet - Socialist President Ricardo Lagos' former Health and Defence minister ? called the general a "bald-faced liar" because when arrested it was Contreras who had removed the blindfold from her eyes and interrogated her.

She and her mother were released after 10 days.

Contreras is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for the disappearance of Miguel Angel Sandoval and was further convicted twice more for other crimes. The latter two sentences are currently being appealed.

In the La Tercera interview, Contreras confessed that until now he had acted "out of loyalty", but "that is over and done".

"Loyalty to whom?" the interviewer asked him.

"Out of loyalty and nothing more, that's what I'm telling you. That's why I served the seven year sentence of the Orlanto Letelier case. But now I'm not going to act any more out of loyalty. Loyalty must be a two-way street. When it's not there, I don't like that" insisted Contreras in direct reference to his former leader General Pinochet.