Carabineros

   Members of the Chilean national police force. The primary responsibilities of the carabineros are to maintain public order, investigate crimes, and patrol the country’s borders. After the military coup of 11 September 1973, the department carried out a systematic campaign of human-rights abuse against Chilean citizens. Under the direction of General César Mendoza Durán (until 1985) and then General Rodolfo Stange Oelckers—both of whom served in the ruling junta—the carabineros took part in abduction, illegal detention, torture, summary execution, murder, and disappearance. During the first two years of military rule, their principal victims were demonstrators, workers, opposition-party members, and poor urban dwellers. The poor who resided in shantytowns suffered allanamientos, or surprise raids, in which people were rounded up while their homes were destroyed. The carabineros would later extend their campaign of state-sponsored terror to include members of local and international human-rights organizations active in recording and denouncing the department’s repression. In the 1980s, when popular protests were directed against the government, the carabineros renewed their violent assaults against demonstrators.