Former Pinochet-era general, Raúl Iturriaga, whose flight from a conviction for atrocities committed during the dictatorship I wrote about here, has been caught:
Former Gen. Raul Iturriaga Neumann, 69, was arrested without incident in an apartment in the resort town of Viña del Mar, on Chile's Pacific coast, officials said.
Once a high-ranking figure in the military's feared intelligence service, Iturriaga is one of the best-known convicted human rights abusers from the dictatorship of the late Augusto Pinochet, who ruled from 1973 to 1990. His case drew attention to right-wing discontent with human rights prosecutions.
This may be the best news for Chile's future:
But officers serving in the country's modernized armed forces refused to side with Iturriaga, proclaiming their loyalty to the elected government and calling his trial and sentence fair. The military and defense leadership uniformly condemned Iturriaga's flight and urged the fugitive to turn himself in.
Maybe he can become Manuel Contreras' cellmate!
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