The Government of Chile assigned him a “high priority” to the extradition from Australia of the former agent of the dictatorship Adriana Rivassubjected to a process in the South American country as co-author of the classified kidnapping of opponents.
“We value the decision of the Australian Government last Augustto grant the extradition of Ms. Rivas so that she returns to Chile and faces the charges for which she has been accused,” the Chilean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In particular, Rivas is charged with crimes in the cases ‘Conference I’, ‘Conference II’ and the episode ‘Reinalda Pereira’events in which political opponents of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), in particular seven members of the Communist Party of Chile, were murdered and disappeared from clandestine extermination barracks in Santiago.
Rivas was an agent of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), a repressive organization that operated until 1978. under the command of Manuel Contreras persecuting, arresting, torturing, murdering and disappearing leftist militants and citizens opposed to the regime that overthrew the democratically elected president Salvador Allende.
The Chilean Government noted that it “takes note of the decision of Ms. Rivas’s defense to challenge the granting of extradition before the Federal Court of Australiawhose first review hearing will take place on November 14 and will be attended by the Chilean ambassador to Australia.”
“In this regard, we reiterate our deep commitment to the respect and promotion of human rights, as well as to the need for those responsible for serious crimes to be held accountable before Chilean justice”added the Foreign Ministry.
“The cowardly maneuver is unacceptable”
For his part, heto National Human Rights Commission of the PC of Chile described as an “unacceptable cowardly maneuver” the resource used by Rivas’s defense to delay the Australian attorney general’s decision.
“Consistent with his cowardice, during the trial for these crimes (2007-2009), carried out by the Chilean justice system, Adriana Rivas González fled the country, being detained in Australia, after the request of the Chilean State, in 2019“, denounced the commission through a statement.
