vault backup: 2026-09-21 17:31:27

20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/DINA.md

@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+---
+category: "Foreign Government"
+tags:
+  - Organization
+  - DINA
+  - Chile
+  - ManuelContreras
+  - AugustoPinochet
+  - OperationCondor
+  - CIA
+  - Assassination
+alias:
+  - Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional
+  - Direccion de Inteligencia Nacional
+summary: "Secret police of the Pinochet government under Manuel Contreras, 1974 to 1977, which killed Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires and Orlando Letelier in Washington while its director was in liaison with, and once paid by, the CIA."
+start: 1974
+location: "Santiago, Chile"
+created: 2026-09-21
+updated: 2026-09-21
+---
+
+The Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional was the secret police of the government of General [[Augusto Pinochet]] in [[Chile]]. Colonel [[Manuel Contreras]] directed it from 1974 to 1977, and [[Pedro Espinoza]] was its director of operations. It was the organizing service of [[Operation Condor]].[^1]
+
+### Killings Abroad
+
+General [[Carlos Prats]] and his wife, [[Sofía Cuthbert]], were killed in [[Buenos Aires]] on September 30, 1974, by a bomb built by the American-born agent [[Michael Townley]]. The [[National Security Archive]] describes it as the service's first assassination outside Chile. On October 6, 1975, the [[Christian Democratic Party (Chile)|Christian Democratic]] leader [[Bernardo Leighton]] and his wife were shot and gravely wounded in [[Rome]] by Italian fascists led by [[Stefano delle Chiaie]], whom Townley had recruited. In July 1976 agents of the [[Mulchén Brigade]] beat to death [[Carmelo Soria]], a Spanish official of the [[United Nations]] in [[Santiago]], in the front yard of Townley's house. On September 21, 1976, Townley's bomb, placed with members of the [[Cuban Nationalist Movement]], killed [[Orlando Letelier]] and [[Ronni Moffitt]] in Washington.[^2]
+
+### The CIA
+
+The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] reported to Congress in 2000 that it had kept up liaison with Contreras from 1974 to 1977. By April 1975 its own reporting called him "the principal obstacle to a reasonable human rights policy" within the junta. An interagency committee directed that the relationship continue. A proposal to put Contreras on the payroll was overruled, and one payment was made to him in 1975 all the same. He met the deputy director, General [[Vernon Walters]], that August. The Archive's summary of the report was that "the head of Chile's feared secret police, DINA, was a paid CIA asset in 1975," and that contact went on after his agents had been to Washington to kill Letelier. It ended in November 1977.[^3]
+
+Townley pleaded guilty in Washington in August 1978 and testified against Contreras, Espinoza, [[Armando Fernandez Larios|Armando Fernández Larios]], and five Cubans. He served 62 months and entered the [[Witness Protection Program|witness protection program]]. [[Argentina]]'s request for his extradition in the Prats case was not granted. Contreras was convicted in Chile in 1995 and died in a military hospital on August 7, 2015, under sentences that came to more than 500 years.[^2][^4]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Central Intelligence Agency, "CIA Activities in Chile," report to Congress under section 311 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000, September 18, 2000. https://irp.fas.org/cia/product/chile/index.html
+[^2]: National Security Archive, "The Pinochet Regime at 50: The Assassination of General Carlos Prats and Sofia Cuthbert," October 1, 2024. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2024-10-01/pinochet-regime-50-assassination-general-carlos-prats-and-sofia ; Kornbluh, Peter, ed. "The Pinochet Dictatorship Declassified: Confessions of a DINA Hit Man," National Security Archive, November 22, 2023. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2023-11-22/pinochet-dictatorship-declassified-confessions-dina-hit-man
+[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, "CIA Activities in Chile," report to Congress under section 311 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000, September 18, 2000. https://irp.fas.org/cia/product/chile/index.html National Security Archive, "CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression," September 19, 2000. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20000919/index.html
+[^4]: "Ex-Chile spy chief dies while serving 500-year sentence," Al Jazeera, August 8, 2015.

20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/INTERNATIONAL/Minpeco.md

@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+---
+category: "Foreign Government"
+tags:
+  - Organization
+  - Minpeco
+  - Peru
+  - SilverThursday
+  - HuntBrothers
+  - RICO
+  - CommoditiesManipulation
+alias:
+  - Minpeco S.A.
+  - Minero Peru Comercial
+summary: "Peruvian state minerals trading company that lost on short silver positions in 1979 and 1980 and won a federal judgment of more than 132 million dollars against the Hunt brothers and their partners."
+start: 1974
+location: "Peru"
+created: 2026-09-21
+updated: 2026-09-21
+---
+
+Minpeco S.A. was established by the government of [[Peru]] in 1974 with "the exclusive right and obligation to trade" the silver produced by the state mining company [[Centromin]], which refined about half the country's output, and by private miners. Its charter defined it as "a public enterprise, as a juridical person of public internal law, with administrative, economic and technical autonomy." It held short positions in silver futures when the price rose from about six dollars an ounce to fifty between 1979 and January 1980. The [[Central Reserve Bank of Peru|Banco Central de Reserva]] lent it physical silver and joined a loan to cover its margin calls.[^1]
+
+### The Defendants
+
+Minpeco sued in the federal court in Manhattan in 1981, docket 81 Civ. 7619, before Judge [[Morris Lasker]]. The defendants were [[Nelson Bunker Hunt]], [[William Herbert Hunt]], and [[Lamar Hunt]]; the [[International Metals Investment Company]], their [[Bermuda]] partnership with Saudi investors; Sheik Mohammed Aboud Al-Amoudi and Sheik Ali Bin Mussalem; the Brazilian speculator [[Naji Nahas]]; [[Mahmoud Fustok]]; Faisal Bin Abdullah; [[Gilian Financial]]; [[Banque Populaire Suisse]]; [[Advicorp|Advicorp Advisory and Financial Corporation]]; the trader [[Norton Waltuch]] and his firm [[ContiCommodity Services]]; the brokers [[ACLI International]], [[Merrill Lynch]], [[Bache Halsey Stuart Shields]], and [[E.F. Hutton]]; and the two exchanges, the [[COMEX|Commodity Exchange]] and the [[Chicago Board of Trade]]. The Hunts were represented by [[Hughes Hubbard and Reed]] of [[New York City|New York]] and by Shank, Irwin, Contant, Williamson and Grevelle of [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]]. [[Arnold and Porter]] appeared for the Swiss bank.[^2]
+
+On November 24, 1982, the court refused to dismiss the claims against the brokers, holding that financing a conspiracy "with the intent of participating in and aiding" it could create liability where ordinary lending did not. It dismissed the antitrust claims against the exchanges, because the complaint alleged a failure of oversight and not an agreement with the conspirators.[^2]
+
+### The Single Entity Defense
+
+The defendants argued from 1982 onward that the Peruvian mining sector was one government enterprise "from cradle to grave," so that the gain to Peru from the higher price of the silver it mined must be set against the trading company's loss. After five years of discovery they showed that the central bank was state owned, that its board was appointed largely by the government, and that it had lent Minpeco silver and money. In an opinion dated May 12, 1988, the court held this insufficient to overcome the presumption that a government instrumentality is distinct from its sovereign, and removed the defense from the case.[^1]
+
+### Verdict
+
+The jury found the Hunts, International Metals, and Fustok liable for antitrust violations and common law fraud, and all of them except Lamar Hunt liable under the [[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act]]. The judgment exceeded 132 million dollars, covering the losses on the short positions, the interest on the loans taken to meet margin calls, and lost profits. The court denied the defendants' motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict on July 18, 1989, and later that year refused to reconsider the racketeering verdict in light of the Supreme Court's decision in H.J. Inc. v. Northwestern Bell. Bunker Hunt had filed for personal bankruptcy in September 1988.[^3][^4]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Minpeco, S.A. v. Hunt, 686 F. Supp. 427 (S.D.N.Y. 1988).
+[^2]: Minpeco, S.A. v. ContiCommodity Services, Inc., 552 F. Supp. 327 (S.D.N.Y. 1982).
+[^3]: Minpeco, S.A. v. Hunt, 718 F. Supp. 168 (S.D.N.Y. 1989).
+[^4]: Minpeco, S.A. v. Hunt, 724 F. Supp. 259 (S.D.N.Y. 1989).