Chile ‘Caravan of Death’ leader dies

A retired Chilean general who led an army death squad that killed 75 opponents of dictator Augusto Pinochet has died, his family said.

A retired Chilean general who led an army death squad that killed 75 opponents of dictator Augusto Pinochet died on Wednesday.

Sergio Arellano Stark, the leader of the so-called “Caravan of Death” that executed opponents of Pinochet's 1973 coup, died at age 94 in a nursing home, his family said.

Under Pinochet's orders, Arellano led an army unit that criss-crossed Chile by helicopter in the weeks after the overthrow of Socialist president Salvador Allende, executing at least 75 people seen as hostile to the new regime.

Arellano was sentenced to six years in prison in 2008, but never served time because he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Pinochet was also placed under house arrest over the death squad's crimes, but the case against him was dismissed in 2001 on grounds of “dementia.”

The former dictator died of a heart attack in 2006 at age 91 without ever being convicted for the crimes of his 17-year regime, which killed about 3 200 opponents.

AFP