26 Facts About Mariana Callejas

Mariana Ines Callejas Honores was a Chilean writer and member of the Direccion de Inteligencia Nacional who participated in several terrorist attacks, including the murder of General Carlos Prats and his wife, which was perpetrated in 1974 in Buenos Aires.

Mariana Callejas was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison by courts of the first and second instances, though her term was later reduced to five years.

Mariana Callejas chose an American agriculture student, Allan Earnest, an idealist who had emigrated to Israel from Cornell University.

Mariana Callejas Earnest escaped during the day to attend acting classes at different schools.

Mariana Callejas arrived at the doors of a maternity home in 1960 with the children; she would not let anyone tell her to go back to her husband or the United States.

Mariana Callejas continued to write stories and soon became friends with a group of bohemian artists.

Not only the Mariana Callejas were against it; Townley's father, who worked at Ford Chile, had been promoted to Venezuela and had left the country with his wife and two other children.

Mariana Callejas followed shortly afterward with her children, but only after obtaining the promise that they would return to Chile as soon as possible.

When Salvador Allende won the 1970 elections, Mariana Callejas decided to return to Chile, which she did despite the opposition of her husband, who did not want to leave his business for the economic uncertainty in Santiago.

An anti-Allendist, Mariana Callejas made contacts with Fatherland and Liberty, while Michael tried, with little success, to conduct business.

Mariana Callejas arrived in Miami, with empty pockets, on 2 April 1973.

Mariana Callejas took the first flight to Santiago after the coup, while Michael put his affairs in order so that he could leave with the children.

Mariana Callejas decided to travel under a false name, that of his friend Kenneth Enyart, who gave him his birth certificate and social security card, documents with which he obtained a passport.

Michael did so under the name Andres Wilson; Mariana Callejas joined as Ana Luisa Pizarro.

Mariana Callejas would try to justify herself years later by saying that they were going through a bad time and that they needed money to support the family.

Mariana Callejas traveled, under her DINA alias, to Mexico City in early 1975 on a mission to eliminate opponents of Pinochet.

Mariana Callejas accompanied Townley in the operation to assassinate Orlando Letelier and his secretary Roni Moffit on 21 September 1976 in Washington.

Mariana Callejas was handed over in Chile in April 1978 and taken out of the country by FBI agents.

Mariana Callejas, on returning to Chile, began to frequent the literary workshop of Enrique Lafourcade, which was held at the National Library in Santiago and was attended by writers who would later form the New Chilean Narrative.

Mariana Callejas considered that this workshop was not enough, so she decided to organize one in her house to which she invited not only young people who attended the Lafourcade workshop, but recognized writers like the latter.

Mariana Callejas published La noche larga in 1980, a book of stories with a black cover, in whose upper right corner there is a green eye behind bars.

In that story, Mariana Callejas redeems Max, the murderer, and shows him to be sensitive, reading Walt Whitman and being touched when he sees a dead bird next to a statue.

Mariana Callejas was accused of being the co-perpetrator of the murder of General Prats and member of a conspiracy.

Mariana Callejas was detained that same day at the Women's Orientation Center, where she would remain for nine months.

Mariana Callejas died on 10 August 2016, at age 84, in a nursing home in the Santiago commune of Las Condes.

In 2008 the Uruguayan director Esteban Schroeder premiered the film Matar a todos, inspired by the life of Mariana Callejas, who is played by Chilean actress Maria Izquierdo.