SANTIAGO, Chile — A former army officer has openly confirmed stories that have long circulated in Chile — that political prisoners were routinely executed at a soccer stadium in the capital of this South American country after the 1973 military coup.
Former guard Roberto Saldias' interview Monday on state-owned television was the first time a member of the armed forces has verified such stories publicly and without the cloak of anonymity.
Rumors about executions, torture and other violations of human rights at the National Stadium after the coup led by then army chief Gen. Augusto Pinochet have been rampant for decades.
In the interview, the noncommissioned officer said he was prepared to identify the executioners by name.
"They took the law in their own hands," said Saldias. At the time, he said, he was one of the hundreds of guards at the stadium, which was used as a prison camp.
Saldias' willingness to reveal the names of alleged human rights violators could be the first concrete, public result of the armed forces' commitment to help determine the fate of more than 1,000 dissidents who disappeared after being arrested under the dictatorship.
An agreement with the military was reached early last week that included the guarantee of anonymity for those who deliver information on those who disappeared.
According to Saldias, prisoners at the stadium were organized in groups identified by yellow, black and red discs.
"Whoever received a red disc had no chance" and would be killed, Saldias said.
The only person Saldias named in the interview was former Lt. Armando Fernandez Larios, who fled to the United States in the late 1970s and cooperated with investigators looking into the killing of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier in Washington in September 1976.
"Armando Fernandez Larios is the biggest murderer in Chile; he's a psychopath and a murderer," Saldias said.
According to an official report, 3,190 people were killed under Pinochet's regime and more than 1,000 remain missing.