[2] In the late 1970s, at the height of the Beagle Crisis between Chile and Argentina, Berríos is reported to have worked on a plan to poison the water supply of Buenos Aires.
[7] Questioned in March 2005 by Judge Alejandro Madrid about ex-Chilean Christian Democrat President Eduardo Frei Montalva's death, DINA agent Michael Townley acknowledged links between Colonia Dignidad, led by ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer, and DINA on one hand, and the Laboratorio de Guerra Bacteriológica del Ejército (Army Biological Warfare Laboratory) on the other hand.
[8] However, Townley, who answered personally to DINA head Manuel Contreras,[9][10] left Chile in April 1978 after he agreed to surrender to U.S. authorities for his role in the Orlando Letelier-Ronnie Monfitt assassination that occurred on U.S.
[12] Townley also previously acknowledged in a secret "confession" letter in 1978 that the laboratory where he personally produced the toxins which he used when he carried out some assassinations on behalf of DINA was in fact in the basement at his mansion in the upper-class Lo Curro neighborhood of Santiago.
[15][16] On October 26, 1991,[17] a year before the "terror archives" were found in Paraguay, Eugenio Berríos was escorted from Chile to Uruguay by the Special Unity of the DINE (Direccion de Inteligencia del Ejército, Army's Intelligence agency), in order to avoid him testifying before the Chilean court regarding the Letelier case and the case concerning the 1976 assassination of the Spanish diplomat and CEPAL civil servant Carmelo Soria.
[1] "Operación Silencio" started in April 1991, in order to hinder the investigations of the Chilean legal system regarding crimes committed during Pinochet's dictatorship, and the spiriting away of Arturo Sanhueza Ross, linked to the murder of MIR leader Jecar Neghme in 1989.
In Uruguay, Berríos was hidden at one of Uruguayan Colonel Eduardo Radaelli's family estates at Parque del Plata, using the alias "Tulio Orellana".
[21] Berríos, however, escaped imprisonment on November 15, 1992, asking for sanctuary next door at a retired navy officer's residence who, along with his wife, decided to escort him to the closest police station, Seccional 24 Parque del Plata.
[21] In June, 1993, an anonymous letter sent to various Uruguayan deputies denounced Berríos' presence in the country, leading them to request of President Luis Alberto Lacalle's government immediate investigations.
[25] Three Uruguayan military officers (Tomas Casella, Washington Sarli and Eduardo Radaelli[22]) have been extradited in April 2006 to Chile and were detained there, before being released on bail in September 2006.
[21][26][27] In October 2006, the Court of Appeal of Santiago stripped Pinochet's parliamentary immunity (who was, in 1992, head of the Chilean military), opening up the way for his judgment concerning the homicide of Berríos.
[29] In July 2006, after having denounced Augusto Pinochet's involvement in the cocaine trade, former DINA director Manuel Contreras asserted in a judicial document handed to Judge Claudio Pavez, presiding over the investigation concerning the 1992 assassination of Colonel Gerardo Huber, that Berríos was in fact alive and now worked for the DEA.
The movie was adapted from the book 99 por ciento asesinado written by the Uruguayan writer Pablo Vierci, and was presented in the San Sebastián International Film Festival.