Chile hopes to extradite Sydney nanny Adriana Rivas, implicated in Pinochet-era torture allegations
Updated
The Chilean government is hoping to extradite a Sydney woman to face trial on multiple charges of violent crime allegedly committed while she was serving under military dictator Augusto Pinochet's brutal intelligence apparatus.
ABC's Foreign Correspondent has discovered the woman, Adriana Rivas, works as a part-time nanny and cleaner in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
She settled there after after fleeing Chile in 2010 while on bail awaiting trial on charges of aggravated kidnapping.
A former servant at Santiago's infamous Simon Bolivar Barracks has provided testimony and evidence to Chilean prosecutors that Rivas was involved in kidnapping and allegedly played a major role in interrogating victims during gruesome torture sessions at what many described as an "extermination centre".
The former servant, Jorgelino Vergara, was arrested and charged in relation to the disappearance and murder of Victor Diaz, Chile's most senior underground Communist leader. He cut a deal with the prosecution and became their star witness.
Prosecutors in Chile have told Foreign Correspondent the accounts of Mr Vergara - also known as 'The Little Waiter' – are supported by others who have provided evidence in the case.
Mr Vergara was employed at Simon Bolivar during the 1970s to serve tea and sandwiches to the torture gangs while they inflicted shocking injuries on their victims, invariably killing them.
His testimony has already led to 74 arrests for aggravated kidnapping and homicide and the conviction of many former agents of the Pinochet regime.
Mr Vergara also fed the prisoners, and cleaned up the blood after torture sessions.
He told Foreign Correspondent that Rivas helped torturers exact confessions from victims and that she held a recording device close to their mouths as they were being beaten and receiving electric shocks.
"Generally Adriana Rivas, when she participated in the torture of the detainees, she beat them with sticks, she kicked them, punched them and also applied electricity to them," Mr Vergara said.
Chile's supreme court has endorsed an extradition application asking Australia to extradite Rivas, who has been living in Australia for more than 30 years.
The Attorney-General's office in Australia will not comment on the extradition process.
It is alleged Rivas worked as an intelligence agent for the so-called DINA, Chile's much-feared secret police.
Headed by General Manuel Contreras, the second most powerful man after Pinochet, DINA set up torture centres all over the country, and ordered the elimination of all three clandestine leaderships of the Chilean Communist Party.
Families say they want allegations answered
Extradition from Australia is a lengthy and complicated process involving courts and ministerial deliberation.
Seven Chilean families are encouraging Chilean authorities to bring charges of aggravated kidnapping against Rivas.
One of those families is the Ortiz family.
Their father, Fernando Ortiz, was kidnapped in 1976. He was a prominent professor from the University of Chile and he was a member of the Communist underground.
Mr Ortiz was so badly battered he was eventually killed by a lethal injection.
His daughter, Estela Ortiz, told Foreign Correspondent that Rivas needs to come home and answer the allegations.
"I believe that Adriana Rivas has to face justice... I think it's the only way for her to live relatively in peace. I believe she has to testify like any other Chilean," Ms Ortiz said.
"She has the right to a defence; she has the rights she didn't give to our people."
Chile considers Rivas a fugitive. When she returned there for a family visit in 2006 she was arrested and jailed for three months but when she was released on bail to await her trial months later, she skipped the country via Argentina and returned to Australia.
She declined Foreign Correspondent's requests for interview. In an interview granted to SBS online last year she denied she was involved in torture and kidnapping.
Topics: international-law, law-crime-and-justice, unrest-conflict-and-war, crime, sydney-2000, australia, chile
First posted
