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JOURNALISM IN THE AMERICAS Blog

Chilean journalist charged with covering up human rights abuses in 1975


Charges were filed against a journalist in Chile for covering up human rights abuses in 1975, reported Emol. The journalist and ex-editor in chief for National Television of Chile, Carlos Araya Silva, was freed on bail after paying approximately $400, reported the radio station Cooperativa.

According to the newspaper El Mostrador, the journalist would have been the key to the media reporting the executions of four militants from the Revolutionary Left Movement and the Communist Party in Chile.

The killings took place on Nov. 19, 1975, during Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship. The four militants were taken to Villa Grimaldi, a torture and detention center, by agents from the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA in Spanish), reported the newspaper La Nación. There, they were tortured and interrogated before being executed in the hills of Rinconada de Maipú.

Araya helped the DINA agents cover up the execution, reporting that the militants were killed in a skirmish around Rinoconada de Maipú, reported Radio Universidad de Chile.

According to the verdict, what was published in the press then was "staged to keep the truth from being discovered, designed to hide the facts, torture and deaths of the victims," reported La Hora.



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