1. At the time of his death, Contreras was serving 59 unappealable sentences totaling 529 years in prison for kidnapping, forced disappearance, and assassination.
24 Facts About Manuel Contreras
1. 2.
Manuel Contreras's parents died when he was six or seven years old.
3.
Manuel Contreras completed his primary studies at the English Institute of Macul in Santiago.
4.
Manuel Contreras enrolled in the Military School in 1944 and graduated with top honors on 23 December 1947.
5.
In 1952, after achieving the rank of lieutenant, Manuel Contreras returned to the Military School, this time joining the Company of Engineers as a sapper instructor.
6.
In 1960, Manuel Contreras enrolled in the War Academy to undertake the General Staff Officer course.
7.
Manuel Contreras successfully completed the General Staff Officer course at the War Academy in 1962, ranking first in his class.
8.
Manuel Contreras was appointed as a professor at the academy, teaching intelligence and logistics.
9.
In 1967, Manuel Contreras completed a Postgraduate Course as a General Staff Officer at the School of the Americas in Fort Gulick, located in the Panama Canal Zone.
10.
Manuel Contreras established a network of informants in Chile, which included individuals affiliated with right-wing parties and groups like the Nationalist Front Fatherland and Liberty.
11.
From 1973 to 1977, Manuel Contreras led the agency in an international pursuit to locate and eliminate political opponents of the Junta, specifically targeting members of the Communist and Socialist Parties, as well as the former guerrilla group and political party MIR.
12.
The CIA became troubled by Manuel Contreras's alleged role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a former Allende cabinet member and ambassador to Washington, as well as his American assistant, Ronni Karpen Moffit, in Washington, DC, on September 21,1976.
13.
Manuel Contreras was freed on bail following the conviction, but the Supreme Court of Chile confirmed the sentence on 30 March 1995.
14.
Manuel Contreras rebelled against the sentence by fleeing to Southern Chile, and then to a military regiment and later a military hospital.
15.
In May 2002, Manuel Contreras was convicted as the mastermind of the 1974 abduction and forced disappearance of the Socialist Party leader Victor Olea Alegria.
16.
Manuel Contreras received 15 years in prison on 15 April 2003 for the disappearance of the tailor and MIR member Miguel Angel Sandoval in 1975, but the sentence was reduced on appeal to 12 years.
17.
Manuel Contreras was amnestied in 2005, but the Supreme Court overturned that decision and confirmed the judgment against Contreras on 30 May 2006.
18.
Manuel Contreras received another 15-year prison sentence on 18 April 2008 for the disappearance of the political dissident Marcelo Salinas Eytel.
19.
Manuel Contreras was convicted by an Argentine court in connection with the assassination of the former Chilean army chief Carlos Prats and his wife, Sofia Cuthbert in Buenos Aires, in 1974.
20.
Manuel Contreras was sentenced on 23 September 2008 to seven years of prison in connection with the disappearance of the Spanish priest Antonio Llido Mengual.
21.
Manuel Contreras was ordered to pay 50 million pesos to compensate for the 1974 abduction of Felix Vargas Fernandez and received another 15 years of prison at a March 2009 sentencing.
22.
In September 2013, under the orders of President Sebastian Pinera, the luxurious Penal Cordillera, in eastern Santiago, was closed, and Manuel Contreras was transferred back to Punta Peuco in Tiltil, north of the capital.
23.
On 13 May 2005, Manuel Contreras submitted to Chile's Supreme Court a 32-page document that claimed to list the whereabouts of about 580 people who disappeared during Pinochet's rule.
24.
Manuel Contreras accused Pinochet of having given the order to assassinate Orlando Letelier and Carlos Prats.