Chile identifies remains of 11 who shared President Allende’s last stand during Pinochet coup

Chile IDs remains of 11 with Allende in ‘73 coup

SANTIAGO, Chile — Forensic scientists have identified the bodies of 11 people who were among the last to see Chilean President Salvador Allende alive, rallying around him as Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s forces bombarded the presidential palace in 1973.

Forty of the socialist leader’s aides and supporters stayed with him during the military’s withering attack on the La Moneda palace. Many surrendered or were captured, but Allende, who had vowed not to be taken alive, slipped away and went upstairs, where he was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

On Tuesday, the Legal Medical Services agency, which worked with an Austrian lab, announced its findings that help clear up the 37-year-old mystery.

Of the 11 bodies found in 2001 in an unmarked grave in a military fort, two belonged to Allende aides Dr. Enrique Paris Roa and Hector Pincheira, the agency said. The other nine were presidential bodyguards.

President Michelle Bachelet said the findings show the importance of continuing efforts to investigate Chile’s past during the coup and dictatorship years.

“We must move ahead with the trials for human rights violations,” Bachelet said. “We must not resort to amnesties or endpoints that keep the truth from emerging. Let justice do its work.”

After the coup, most of the La Moneda prisoners were taken to a military facility in the capital, then moved two days later to another facility near Santiago where they were executed and buried in mass graves.

In 1978, as part of Operation Television Withdrawal, Pinochet ordered hundreds of buried victims unearthed and their remains disappeared.

Several of the newly identified bodies were misidentified years ago and mistakenly buried — among them Paris, who besides being Allende’s aide was also a professor.

“This demonstrates that the judges should continue investigating,” Paris’ son Enrique Paris Horvitz said in a radio interview. “It is possible to find more pieces of the truth, and through that truth possibly achieve a greater level of justice.”

Nine retired military officers were sentenced to 270 days of probation for digging up the bodies.

During the 1973-1990 Pinochet dictatorship, 3,197 people were murdered, according to official figures. Many of them never accounted for.