He led the so-called "Caravan of Death," which killed 97 Chileans from helicopters and established Augusto Pinochet’s hold on power.

[1] Arellano Stark was one of the key officers involved in the September 11, 1973 coup that deposed democratically elected President Salvador Allende and led to the installment of Pinochet.

The helicopter squad surprised several commanders, who were not expecting it to brandish heavy firearms and instead were planning a grand parade.

In 2001, in an interview with a television network, retired general Joaquin Lagos Osorio said that Arellano Stark showed him paperwork in 1973 that revealed his role as Pinochet’s delegate in order to “review and accelerate” the judicial process for rebels.

Nonetheless, in 2008 the Supreme Court convicted Arellano Stark for his role in the deaths of four people in San Javier.