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For a summary of the most notorious grads from Chile click here

Augusto Pinochet is not a graduate of the School of the Americas; yet his influence is held in high esteem. in 1991, visitors could view a note from Pinochet, and a ceremonial sword donated by him, on display in the office of the Commandant (Charles Call, MH, 8/9/93)

Graduates of the School of the Americas have comprised 1 out of every 7 members of the command staff of DINA, the notorious Chilean intelligence agency responsible for many of the worst human rights atrocities during the Pinochet years.

SOA grads who were members of the DINA command staff include:

Sub Tte. Luis Alberto Medina Aldea (1970, Combat Arms Orientation), Jorge Aro Peigneguy (not in SOA Grads database, but under Chiles MNG’s webpage), Sub Tte. Eugenio Videla (1965, Basic Airborne), Sub. Tte. Rene Riveros (1970, Combat Arms Orientation), and Guillermo Salinas, Hugo Acevedo (1970, Combat Arms Orientation), COL Jose Zara (1965, Basic Airborne; 1970, Basic Officer Orientation) Captain Carlos Parera Silva (1969, Irregular Warfare Operations)
(Souces: Situación de derechos humanos en Chile durante el primer semestre del 1996, Arzobispado de Santiago, & Primera Confesión desde el Interior de la DINA, Revista APS, Santiago de Chile).

Some of the 30 officials cited in the case of Augusto Pinochet for crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, and illegal arrest cited in the Spanish Human Rights Case 1998:

Rene Patricio Quilhot Palma (1971, Combat Arms Orientation, MAJ Guillermo Humberto Salinas Torres, (1974, Curso de Armas Combinadas para Cadetes), Odlanier Mena, (1970, Comando y Estado Mayor), LTC Fernando Lauriani, (1971, Combat Arms Orientation Course), 1LT Miguel Krassnoff (1974, Urban Counterinsurgency Course), Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann (1965, Basic Airborne Course), Humberto Gordon Rubio (1954, Infantry Weapons; 1954, Operaciones y
Mantenamiento de Radio; 1955, Tank Gunnery Course), Washington Carrasco Fernandez (1961, Contra-Resistencia, Informacion Militar para Oficiales), Ernesto Baeza Michelsen (1964,Comando y Estado Mayor). (Source: Derechos Chile)

Name: Colonel Pablo Belmar
Dates/courses: Guest Instructor in 1987, and took Basic Arms Orientation course in 1968
Info: Directly implicated in the 1976 torture and murder of United Nations official Carmelo Soria, whose neck was broken after he was arrested and tortured by Chilean DINA (Dirección de lnteligencia Nacional) personnel, Pinochet's personal secret police force that operated from 1974-1977. Soria's car and body were dumped in a Santiago canal in order to make his death appear accidental. (Americas Watch Report, Unfinished Business: Human Rights in Chile at the Start of the Frei Presidency, 1994) According to former SOA instructor Maj. Joseph Blair, as a guest instructor in 1987, Belmar was responsible for teaching the human rights component to the students.

Name: First Lieutenant Miguel Krassnoff
Dates/courses: 1974, Urban Counterinsurgency Course Cited in Spanish Human Rights Case, 1998: Info: One of 30 officials cited in the case of Augusto Pinochet for crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, and illegal arrest. A former member of the DINA, Krassnoff was known by political prisoners held and tortured at Villa Grimaldi, Tress Alamos and Cuatro Alamos. Implicated in the death by torture of former Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria in 1976. Took part in the assault on the residence of former president Salvador Allende who was deposed by the Army in Sept. 1973. (Derechos Chile)

Name:Armando Fernandez Larios
Dates/courses:Combat Arms Orientation, 1970
Info: Fernandez Larios was second in command to General Sergio Arellano Stark, whose tour of northern cities in 1973 resulted in dozens of summary executions. (Americas Watch Report, Chile in Transition, 1989) He was one of two DINA agents charged with assassinating General Carlos Prats Gonzalez, who was defense minister under the regime Augusto Pinochet overthrew. Prats and his wife were killed by a car bomb in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Americas Watch Report, Unfinished Business: Human Rights in Chile at the Start of the Frei Presidency, 1994) He was also indicted in 1979 by U.S. grand jury for involvement in the Letelier assassination in Washington, D.C. (Americas Watch Report, Chile in Transition, 1989)

Name: Hugo Acevedo
Dates/courses:1970, Combat Arms Orientation
Info: DINA: According to testimony by Luz Arce, Acevedo was a key official in the repressive forces of the DINA. (Primera Confesión desde el Interior de la DINA, Revista APS, Santiago de Chile)

Name: Ernesto Baeza Michelsen
Dates/courses: 1964,Comando y Estado Mayor
Info: Cited in Spanish Human Rights Case, 1998: One of 30 officials cited in the case against Augusto Pinochet for crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, and illegal arrest. Former head of Investigations Police who allegedly chose 50 members of his institution to take part in the actions known as Covem, in which 14 people were arrested. One of the 14, a journalism student, Eduardo Jara, died as a consequence of the torture he received. (Derechos Chile)

Name: Lieutenant Colonel German Barriga
Dates/courses: 1986, Instructor
Info: Repression of socialist party: According to testimony by Luz Arce, Barriga was in charge of repression of the socialist party by the DINA. (Primera Confesi?n desde el Interior de la DINA, Revista APS, Santiago de Chile). Note: On January 17, 2005, German Barriga lept to his death out of an 18th floor window of a recently finished building in downtown Santiago, Chile. He`d written a farewell letter explaining his decision. He`d been the object a few times of the "funa," a tactic that`s been developed by Chilean families of the tortured and disappeared in which a large group of people gather outside the home or office of a known torturer or murderer and create havoc with pots and pans and songs and let everyone within earshot know what this person did during the dictatorship. Barriga was also reported to have been involved in the disappearance of Jorge Mu?oz, the husband of Gladys Mar?n, the beloved ex-head of the Chilean Communist Party. For more information, visit www.lanacion.cl.

Name: Alejandro Burgos
Dates/courses: 1975, Basic Officer Orientation
Info: Manipulation of Political Prisoners: According to testimony by Luz Arce, Burgos was involved in a
plan to get left-wing political prisoners who had been tortured into collaborating with the DINA to meet
with the U.S. Ambassador to show that they had changed their political convictions. (Primera Confesión desde el Interior de la DINA, Revista APS, Santiago de Chile)

Name: Colonel Alfredo Canales
Dates/courses: 1974, Basic Officer Orientation Course
Info: Barred exhumation of body, July 14, 1994: In an event related to the disappearance of four soldiers in 1974, Canales personally barred the exhumation of a body believed to have been illegally buried on Army premises. Canales had earlier given his approval to the exhumation. (Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York Weekly News Update on the Americas, 7/30/94)

Name: Washington Carrasco Fernandez
Dates/courses: 1961, Contra-Resistencia
Info: Informacion Militar para Oficiales Cited in Spanish Human Rights Case, 1998: One of 30 officials cited in the case against Augusto Pinochet for crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, and illegal arrest. (Derechos Chile)

Name: Sergio Espioza Davies
Dates/courses: 1972, Combat Arms Orientation
Info:Participation in Secretive War Tribunals, 1973: In October 1998, HumanRights Watch wrote a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations requesting the removal of Espinoza Davies as head of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan because of his role as a member of secretive war tribunals which judged political opponents during the Pinochet dictatorship. In one case in October 1973, Espinoza’s tribunal sentenced six socialist leaders to death after an irregular proceeding. Four of the men were executed the next morning. (Human Rights Watch)

Name: Lieutenant Colonel Alfonso Faundez Norambuena
Dates/courses: 1969, Chilean Officer Orienation
Info: Concentration Camp: Faundez was active in the Villa Grimaldi concentration camp in which nearly 4,500 prisoners were held. (Presos Politicos de Chile)

Name: Humberto Gordon Rubio
Dates/courses: 1954, Infantry Weapons; 1954, Operaciones y Mantenamiento de Radio; 1955, Tank Gunnery Course
Info: Cited in Spanish Human Rights Case, 1998: One of 30 officials cited in the case against Augusto Pinochet for crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, and illegal arrest. Former head of the CNI secret police and also former member of the military Junta. (Derechos Chile)

Name: Major Carlos Herrera Jimenez
Dates/courses: 1971, Combat Arms Orientation
Info:Torture, murder, 1984; murder, 1982: Sentenced in December 1991 for the torture and murder of a transport worker in La Serena. Also implicated in the abduction and murder of trade unionist Tucapel Jim?nez in 1982. (Americas Watch Report, Unfinished Business: Human Rights in Chile at the Start of the Frei Presidency, 1994)

Name: Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann
Dates/courses:1965, Basic Airborne Course
Info:Info:Exploitation of political prisoners: According to testimony by Luz Arce, Iturriaga and other officers of the DINA used political prisoners that had been tortured into collaboration as secretaries and analysts in their offices. (Primera Confesion desde el Interior de la DINA, Revista APS, Santiago de Chile)
Cited in Spanish Human Rights Case, 1998: One of 30 officials cited in the case against Augusto Pinochet for crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, and illegal arrest.(Derechos Chile)

Name: Lieutenant Colonel Fernando Lauriani
Dates/courses: 1971, Combat Arms Orientation Course
Info: Cited in Spanish Human Rights Case, 1998: One of 30 officials cited in the case of Augusto Pinochet for crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, and illegal arrest. (Derechos Chile) Kidnapping, disappearance, 1974: Implicated in the 1974 kidnapping and disappearance of brothers Juan Carlos and Jorge Elias Andr?nico Antequera, Lauriani's was one of the few cases of military crimes to be tried after Pinochet's brutal dictatorship. Unfortunately, Pinochet brought all of his influence to bear and the case was finally handed to a military court, which, of course, absolved Lauriani and closed the case. (Americas Watch Report, Unfinished Business: Human Rights in Chile at the Start of the Frei Presidency, 1994)

Name: Colonel Jaime Lepe Orellana
Dates/courses: 1968, Basic Arms Orientation Course
Info: Torture, murder of U.N. official, 1976: Directly implicated in the 1976 torture and murder of United Nations official Carmelo Soria, whose neck was broken after he was arrested by Chilean DINA
personnel. Soria's car and body were dumped in a Santiago canal in order to make his death appear
accidental. At the time the case was reopened in 1991, Lepe was General Pinochet's personal secretary. (Americas Watch Report, Unfinished Business: Human Rights in Chile at the Start of the Frei Presidency, 1994)

Name: General Augusto Lutz
Dates/courses: 1966, Comando y estado mayor
Info: Coup: Lutz was one of the military officials who participated with Pinochet in the coup against the Allende government. (Juicio a Pinochet en Espana, Equipo Nizkor)

Name: Odlanier Mena
Dates/courses: 1970, Comando y Estado Mayor
Info: Cited in Spanish Human Rights Case, 1998: One of 30 officials cited in the case of Augusto Pinochet for crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, and illegal arrest. (Derechos Chile) Exploitation of prisoners: Luz Arce, a political prisoner who was torutred by DINA officials, testified that Mena offered her freedom in exchange for working three years as a spy for the DINA. (Primera Confesion desde el Interior de la DINA, Revista APS, Santiago de Chile)

Name: Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Rolando Mosqueira Jarpa
Dates/courses: 1970, Combat Arms Orienation
Info: Concentration camp: Mosqueira was active in the Villa Grimaldi concentration camp in which more than 4500 people were held. (Presos Poloticos de Chile)

Name: Colonel Manuel Provis Carrasco
Dates/courses: 1970, Combat Arms Orienation
Info: Concentration camp: Provis was active in the Villa Grimaldi concentration camp in which more than 4500 people were held. (Presos Pol?ticos de Chile)

Name: Colonel Marco Antonio Saez Saavedra
Dates/courses: 1970, Combat Arms Orientation
Info: Concentration camp: Saez was active in the Villa Grimaldi concentration camp in which more than 4500 people were held. (Presos Politicos de Chile)

Name: Major Guillermo Humberto Salinas Torres
Dates/courses: 1974, Curso de Armas Combinadas para Cadetes
Info: Cited in Spanish Human Rights Case, 1998: One of 30 officials cited in the case of Augusto Pinochet for crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, and illegal arrest. (Derechos Chile)
Assassination, 1976: Salinas was linked to the assassination of Spanish citizen Carmelo Soria.
However, due to Pinochet’s amnesty laws, the case was stayed. (Caso Carmelo Soria, Equipo Nizkor)

Name: Carlos Parera Silva
Dates/courses: 1969, Irregular Warfare Operations
Info:DINA: According to testimony by Luz Arce, Silva was one of the key actors within the repressive forces of the DINA. (Primera Confesion desde el Interior de la DINA, Revista APS, Santiago de Chile)

Name: Rene Patricio Quilhot Palma
Dates/courses: 1971, Combat Arms Orientation
Info: Cited in Spanish Human Rights Case, 1998: One of 30 officials cited in the case of Augusto Pinochet for crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, and illegal arrest. (Derechos Chile)

Name: Colonel Jose Zara
Dates/courses: 1965, Basic Airborne; 1970, Basic Officer Orientation
Info: Linked to Pratts assassination: According to lawyers working on the case, Zara, as undersecretary of the Foreign Relations department of the DINA, provided logistical support for the assassination of the ex-Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean army, General Carlos Prats and his wife. (Situacion de derechos humanos en Chile durante el primer semestre del 1996, Arzobispado de Santiago)