Sergio Arellano Stark (10 June 1921 – 9 March 2016) was a Chilean military officer. He led the so-called "

Caravan of Death The Caravan of Death () was a Chilean Army death squad that, following the Chilean coup of 1973, flew by helicopters from south to north of Chile between September 30 and October 22, 1973. During this foray, members of the squad ordered or pe ...

," which killed 97 Chileans from helicopters and established

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

’s hold on power.

Biography

Born on June 10, 1921 in Santiago, Arellano Stark quickly advanced through the ranks of the military. He trained at the Command and General Staff College at

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Fort Leavenworth () is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, Leavenworth. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., an ...

. In the 1960s, he was an aide to President

Eduardo Frei Montalva Eduardo Nicanor Frei Montalva (; 16 January 1911 – 22 January 1982) was a Chileans, Chilean political leader. In his long political career, he was Minister of Public Works, president of his Christian Democratic Party (Chile), Christia ...

and served in Spain. Arellano Stark was one of the key officers involved in the September 11, 1973 coup that deposed democratically elected President

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until Death of Salvador Allende, his death in 1973 Chilean coup d'état, 1973. As a ...

and led to the installment of Pinochet. After the coup, Arellano Stark handpicked a squad to spend two months going from town to town searching for dissidents under the

military junta A military junta () is a system of government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''Junta (governing body), junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the Junta (Peninsular War), national and local junta organized by t ...

. Once the rebels were killed, their names were crossed off a list. The "Caravan of Death" was estimated to have killed 75 political prisoners. The helicopter squad surprised several commanders, who were not expecting it to brandish heavy firearms and instead were planning a grand parade. Soldiers were ordered to perform summary killings, and bodies were dumped in mine shafts or in the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...

. Arellano Stark's squad helped maintain Pinochet in power for 17 years. Arellano Stark retired from the military in 1976 and got involved in a number of business ventures. In 1978, Pinochet pardoned members of the military from prosecution for human rights abuses. However, in 1999, the

Chilean Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Chile is the highest court in Chile. It also administers the lower courts in the nation. It is located in the capital Santiago. In the Chilean system, the court lacks the broader power of judicial review—it cannot set bindi ...

made an exception for missing victims. 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. Osorio described the

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings, massacres, or enforced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in w ...

in detail: Arellano Stark disputed these claims, saying garrisons were disobedient to his commands. Nonetheless, in 2008 the Supreme Court convicted Arellano Stark for his role in the deaths of four people in San Javier. He was sentenced to six years in prison, which was not carried out due to his declining mental health. He died on March 9, 2016. The cause of death was complications from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arellano Stark, Sergio 1921 births 2016 deaths Chilean anti-communists Chilean mass murderers Chilean Army generals Chilean expatriates in the United States People of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional Bernardo O'Higgins Military Academy alumni Politicide perpetrators