Telegram from G.L. Malik, Indian Ambassador to Chile, 'The Internal Situation in Chile'

SECRET

No: SANT/101/3/73

FROM: G.L. Malik, Ambassador to Chile

TO: Shri Avtar Singh, Secretary (West), MEA

DATE: November 22, 1973

Subject: The Internal Situation in Chile

…We had a dramatic example of this torture yesterday evening. Just after 8 pm we were sitting in the back verandah of the Embassy residence with an English journalist couple and Ani Rodriguez, whom you probably remember from the time last year when she and her husband were in India. Suddenly, we noticed three young men walking towards us through the bushes. On seeing we had company they turned away to hide behind the house. I immediately went up to talk to them and found that they had climbed over the back wall and were seeking asylum. One was a Socialist and two were Communists. One of the Communists appeared to be in some pain. They were all willing to talk about their experiences, to explain the charges against them and why they apprehended that they would be killed or tortured if the policy could lay hold of them. We gave them tea and asked them to sit down. The man in pain explained that he had been arrested and tortured. He said he had managed to escape with six other friends and showed us the marks of torture. Needles had been jabbed into his right arm and into his abdomen and electric current had been passed through him. The pain came from similar treatment in other parts of his body. The Socialist said that two of his brothers had been killed by the Armed Forces. I am happy to say that all three are now saw in the Venezuelan Embassy.

A the French Embassy residence, there were 110 refugees when we dropped in on the Ambassador and his wife last Sunday. The Ambassador said that he has another 90 in the Chancery. I saw one person lying on a camp bed on the lawn with somebody else sitting beside him. The Ambassador explained that this was the first time that this seriously injured person had been moved out of the house. A burst of machine gun fire had caught him across both thighs so that he had had to be put in plaster. The doctor expected, however, that he would not lose his legs.

It is hard to believe that the well-educated, civilized Chilean army officer, whom one knows socially whether here or in India, is responsible for all this. Yet, the evidence cannot be denied.

The curious part is that many of the well-heeled rightwing Chileans, who we have known for several years, either disbelieve the evidence or maintain that the people concerned are Marxists who deserve no better. It is surprising to find the President of the Supreme Court, former parliamentarians, professional people and businessmen believing in “Plan Z.” This is the document produced by the Junta, according to which there was to be a massacre of Senior Armed Forces officers, rightwing journalists, judges, foreign diplomats and others in the middle of September, which was only prevented by the coup on the 11^th. In spite of the government’s attempts to publicize “Plan Z,” both abroad and here, it appears to have carried no conviction with the world press or even with foreign journalists in Santiago.