Calle Conferencia Case

The Calle Conferencia Case I and II ("Conferencia Street Case") refer to two covert operations conducted by the DINA, General Pinochet's political police force, aimed at dismantling the leadership of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh) between May and November-December 1976. Both of these operations were orchestrated by the secretive Lautaro Brigade, whose existence remained concealed until 2007, despite the disputes between Manuel Contreras, the head of the DINA, and former dictator General Augusto Pinochet.

Conference I
On May 12, 1976, the DINA abducted several leaders of the Communist Party from a safehouse located at 1587 Conferencia Street in the Santiago commune. This event went unreported until its revelation in 2007. Subsequently, as part of the same operation, Víctor Díaz López, the second-in-command of the clandestine PCCh leadership and father of Viviana Díaz, a leader of the Association of Relatives of the Disappeared Detainees (AFDD), was apprehended at 979 Bello Horizonte Street in Las Condes commune.

These detainees were transferred to a covert facility known as the Simón Bolívar Barracks in La Reina. The exact number of communist prisoners transferred there remains unknown, but it is believed that all of them were taken there. This group included Jorge Muñoz, the spouse of Gladys Marín; Fernando Ortiz, father of Estela Ortiz, the widower of a victim of the 1985 Caso Degollados; and Waldo Pizarro, the husband of AFDD leader Sola Sierra and father of its current president, Lorena Pizarro.

This secret barracks served as the headquarters of the Lautaro Brigade, one of the largest units within the DINA, a fact that remained concealed until 2007. In addition to other activities, it was the site of human experimentation, including the use of sarin gas, conducted by chemist Eugenio Berríos, in collaboration with Michael Townley.

Independently of the Lautaro Brigade, the Delfin Group also operated from this headquarters under the leadership of Germán Barriga Muñoz, who was a captain at the time and a prominent figure within the DINA. He committed suicide on January 17, 2005. Víctor Díaz López, before being transferred to the Simón Bolívar Barracks for execution, had a plastic bag placed over his head and was injected with cyanide. According to agent Ricardo Lawrence, Pinochet personally visited the Casa de Piedra detention center in the Cajón del Maipo to see Díaz before his transfer to the Simón Bolívar Barracks for execution.

The command structure included members from all branches of the Chilean Armed Forces (Navy, Air Force, Army, and Carabineros), as well as civilians, army officers, and numerous non-commissioned officers from all branches. They all operated under the direction of Juan Morales Salgado, who held significant importance and was responsible for the personal security of Manuel Contreras, the head of the DINA. Orders for the killings were directly issued by Contreras and conveyed by Salgado.

Conference II
In the Calle Conferencia Case II, also known as "The Case of the Thirteen," 11 members of the new clandestine leadership of the PCCh were abducted, along with two members of the MIR, between November 29 and December 20, 1976. Fernando Ortiz, a member of the Central Committee of the PCCh, and Waldo Pizarro were abducted on December 15, 1976, along with five others.

Most of the victims' bodies were disposed of in the sea.

2007-2010 trial
In May 2007, Chilean judge Víctor Montiglio indicted 74 former DINA agents, most of whom were previously unknown to the public, as part of the largest investigation into the operations of this secret police force. Additionally, eight agents who had already faced charges between 2000 and 2005 (including Manuel Contreras, who evaded prosecution due to double jeopardy principles, Miguel Krassnoff, and Ricardo Lawrence, indicted by Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia) were included. The former Interior Ministers César Benavides and Colonel Carlos Mardones Díaz, the former commander of the Army Aviation Command, were also indicted. The latter faced charges because detainees were thrown into the sea from Puma helicopters departing from Peldehue, north of Santiago.

Brigadier Antonio Palomo Contreras, who was involved in testing the "death flights" and had long been Pinochet's personal pilot, was also indicted. He had been ordered by Pinochet to test the helicopter of General Carlos Prats on September 15, 1973, after the latter's decision to go into exile in Argentina. Moreover, along with Luis Felipe Polanco, who was also charged, he piloted the Puma helicopter during the Caravan of Death (September-October 1973).

The main witness in the case, whose identity remains confidential, was also indicted but kept apart from other suspects who were held in military or Carabineros custody. Civilian agent Carlos Segundo Marco Muñoz from the Lautaro Brigade, who was among the accused and had just testified in the assassination of diplomat Carmelo Soria, committed suicide in May 2007.

The investigation exposed the existence of the Simón Bolívar Barracks and the Lautaro Brigade of the DINA, originally tasked with providing personal security to Manuel Contreras, the head of the DINA. They were involved in operations, including Operation Colombo and the assassinations of PCCh leaders under the Calle Conferencia operations. More than 60 people are facing prosecution for the murder of Víctor Díaz.

In late 2009, Judge Montiglio once again indicted 120 former members of the DINA, of whom 60 had not been previously charged. The charges pertain to Operation Condor, Operation Colombo, and the Calle Conferencia Case I and II. According to the indictment, the second Calle Conferencia operation (late November or early December 1976) was led by the DINA's Lautaro Brigade, commanded by Army Captain Juan Morales Salgado, and by operational groups led by Ricardo Lawrence and Germán Barriga, who were captains in the Carabineros and the Army, respectively.