Adriana Rivas is accused of kidnappings, torture, murders, and disappearances of left-wing activists.

On Thursday, relatives of victims of the Chilean dictatorship asked President Gabriel Boric to expedite the extradition of Adriana Rivas, a former Augusto Pinochet’s agent who is imprisoned in Australia since February 20, 2019.

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Relatives of Reinalda Pereira, Fernando Navarro, Lincoyan Berrios, Horacio Cepeda, Juan Fernando Ortiz, Hector Veliz, and Victor Diaz, leaders of the Chilean Communist Party, conveyed their frustration to Boric, regarding the lengthy timeframe set for the hearing, which is delaying Rivas’s extradition to justice in Chile.

The family members received the support of Boric, who assured them that “as a government, we will do everything in our power to achieve justice,” according to Adriana Navarro, the victims’ lawyer in Australia.

Extradition proceedings were requested by Chile in 2014 and approved by the Australian courts in 2020. Adriana Rivas is being prosecuted in Chile for her participation as an accomplice in aggravated kidnappings and crimes against humanity. The next hearing is scheduled for March 30, 2026, where Federal Judge Michael Lee will decide on her extradition to Chilean authorities.

The text reads, “Today I met with the families of the victims of Operation Conferencia Street. They told me about the circumstances in which their loved ones were kidnapped and disappeared, including Reynalda Pereira, 29, who was pregnant at the time of her abduction. One person, who escaped from Chile while under precautionary measures, could provide information about their whereabouts. She is Adriana Rivas, currently detained in Australia, and we, as the State of Chile, have requested her extradition. As a government, we will do everything in our power to achieve justice.”

Rivas was an agent for the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), a repressive agency that operated until 1978 under the command of Manuel Contreras. She is linked to the kidnappings, torture, murders, and disappearances of left-wing activists and citizens opposed to the military dictatorship that overthrew President Salvador Allende in 1973

Among other things, Rivas is accused of participating in the aggravated kidnapping of Victor Diaz, deputy secretary of the Communist Party in 1976, as well as the disappearance of Reinalda Pereira, who was pregnant at the time of her arrest.

Rivas traveled to Australia in 1978 with her then-husband and lived in Bondi, east of Sydney, where she worked for three decades as a cleaner and babysitter. In 2006 she returned to Chile, being arrested for the cases that motivated her extradition, however she escaped to Australia three years later.

teleSUR: JP

Source: EFE

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