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CNI Y COVEMA
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Detention Centers of CNI:
The CNI inherited some buildings from the DINA and also established its own detention centers. The most well-known of these are the República Avenue headquarters, the General Borgoño garrison, now used by the International Police and Villa Grimaldi, formerly run by the DINA. The CNI's methods were so secret that many of the arrests and detention centers were not known. This is especially true for the 1981-89 period.
"I was arrested on Tuesday, December 8, 1987... in Santiago, on my way to a friend's house. Several heavily-armed individuals dressed as civilians participated in my arrest. They used a white service van and a taxi that appeared to be an Opala. They forced me to get in the van by hitting me with their fists and feet..."
(Read the testimony of Max Horacio Trujillo, published in Amnesty International report
"The Secret Detention Centers Are Still Functioning", May 1988 Summary)
On June 14, 1984, the Interior Ministry issued a law naming places to be used by the CNI as detention centers throughout the country. Other legislation, in June 1987, prohibited the CNI from keeping prisoners. In May 1988, Amnesty International Chile reports that the CNI continued to use secret detention centers, where detainees were interrogated and tortured before being handed over to the Carabineros police.
Detention Centers of COVEMA:
The Anti-Subversive Commando (CAS), informally known as COVEMA (the Martyrs' Revenge Command), was formed in response to the July 1980 murder of Army Lieutenant Coronel Roger Vergara Campos, chief of Army intelligence, also used secret detention centers.
These organizations made many arrests, documented in the Rettig report, for which they used a large number of secret detention centers. According to testimony gathered from victims, these places were located in downtown Santiago, they were large and gave the impression that a large number of people went about their daily work in them.
Detainees wers subject to constant torture - primarily beatings and electrical shocks in different parts of their body.
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