Pinochet blames security chief for dissident operation

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet told a judge his former security chief was to blame for one of the most notorious cases of human rights abuses during his 1973-90 rule.

Radio Co-operativa of Santiago – which said it had access to excerpts of Pinochet’s testimony about Operation Colombo, in which 119 dissidents were killed or disappeared in 1975 – reported that the 90-year-old former ruler accused General Manuel Contreras, the former head of Pinochet’s secret police, over the abuses.