Eugenio Berrios

Early Life and Education

Eugenio Antonio Berríos Sagredo was born on November 14, 1947, in Santiago, Chile. Raised in a middle-class environment, Berríos showed an early aptitude for science, particularly chemistry. He began his studies at the University of Concepción but completed his degree in biochemistry at the University of Chile in Santiago, a prestigious institution that positioned him for a career in scientific research. Little is known about his personal life during this period, though he later married Viviana Egaña Bonnefoy, a former vedette whose identity he altered using his intelligence contacts to obscure her past, reflecting his early ties to clandestine networks.

Career with DINA and Proyecto Andrea

In 1974, Berríos joined the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), Chile’s secret police under General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, adopting the alias “Hermes.” His expertise in biochemistry made him a key figure in DINA’s covert operations, particularly Proyecto Andrea, a Pinochet-ordered initiative to develop chemical and biological weapons. Berríos synthesized sarin gas, a nerve agent that mimics heart attack symptoms, as well as anthrax and botulism, which were used to eliminate political opponents discreetly. He worked in a clandestine laboratory at Vía Naranja de Lo Curro in Santiago, part of DINA’s Quetropillán unit, alongside Michael Townley, a U.S.-born CIA and DINA operative.

Berríos’s lab, later moved to Colonia Dignidad, a German cult in Chile used as a DINA torture center, produced toxins for assassinations, including the 1976 murder of Orlando Letelier, Chile’s former ambassador, in Washington, D.C., where Berríos crafted the explosive device. Townley’s 1978 confession revealed Berríos synthesized sarin used to kill Renato León Zenteno, a real estate archives custodian, and Manuel Leyton, a Chilean Army corporal, in 1976 and 1977, respectively. Berríos was also suspected of torturing and killing Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria in 1976, using sarin gas at Townley’s Lo Curro mansion.

Beyond chemical weapons, Berríos allegedly produced cocaine for Pinochet, who reportedly sold it to Europe and the U.S., and developed “black cocaine” (mixed with sulfato ferroso to evade detection) at the Army’s FAMAE facility. During the late 1970s Beagle Crisis with Argentina, he reportedly planned to poison Buenos Aires’s water supply, though this was never executed. These activities, detailed in The Pinochet File by Peter Kornbluh, highlight Berríos’s role in DINA’s “dirty war” against dissidents, often tied to Operation Condor, a U.S.-backed campaign by Southern Cone dictatorships.

Colonia Dignidad and Chemical Experiments

In 2005, Townley testified to Chilean Judge Alejandro Madrid that Berríos’s laboratory work continued at Colonia Dignidad, under ex-Nazi Paul Schäfer, in collaboration with the Laboratorio de Guerra Bacteriológica del Ejército (Army Biological Warfare Laboratory). This facility, an extension of Vía Naranja, allegedly produced toxins used in the suspected 1982 poisoning of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva. Townley also claimed prisoners at Colonia Dignidad were subjected to biological experiments, implicating Berríos in human rights abuses.

Escape to Uruguay and Disappearance

By 1991, Chile’s transition to democracy under Patricio Aylwin intensified scrutiny of Pinochet’s regime. Berríos, indicted by Judge Adolfo Bañados for his role in the Letelier and Soria cases, became a liability due to his knowledge of DINA’s chemical weapons and assassinations. In April 1991, DINA launched Operación Silencio to silence key figures, spiriting away operatives like Carlos Herrera Jiménez, killer of trade unionist Tucapel Jiménez. On October 26, 1991, Berríos was escorted to Uruguay by the Dirección de Inteligencia del Ejército (DINE)’s Special Unit, led by Maximiano Ferrer Lima, to evade testimony.

Using false passports (Argentine, Uruguayan, Paraguayan, Brazilian) under the alias “Tulio Orellana,” Berríos was hidden in Montevideo, protected by Chilean and Uruguayan military intelligence, part of La Cofradía, a Condor successor network. He stayed in hotels and a residential building, guarded by Uruguayan Colonel Eduardo Radaelli. On November 15, 1992, Berríos escaped and appeared at a Montevideo police station, claiming he was kidnapped. Radaelli and Colonel Tomás Casella retrieved him, after which he vanished.

Death and Identification

In April 1995, skeletal remains were found buried on a beach in El Pinar, near Montevideo, with two bullet wounds to the neck and signs of being bound. Forensic dentistry and 2002 DNA analysis confirmed a 99.9% match to Berríos, ruling his death a homicide. Uruguayan and Chilean investigations implicated DINE operatives and Uruguayan officers, with Arturo Silva Valdés, a DINE officer and Pinochet’s security chief, identified as a key suspect in the execution, per CIPER Chile. In 2006, Chile’s Supreme Court stripped Pinochet’s immunity, charging former DINE directors Hernán Ramírez Rurange and Eugenio Covarrubias with obstruction of justice, kidnapping, and homicide. Uruguayan officers Tomás Casella, Washington Sarli, and Eduardo Radaelli were extradited to Chile in 2006 but released on bail. In 2015, 21 individuals, including four Chilean generals, were convicted, with Silva Valdés receiving 15 years.

Alleged CIA Connections

Townley’s CIA ties raise questions about Berríos’s involvement. A 1978 CIA declaration by Robert Gambino denied Townley’s agency status post-1971, but Contreras’s 2005 testimony claimed Townley, Berríos, and others received CNI payments (1978–1990), suggesting U.S. complicity. Allegations of Berríos’s role in Olof Palme’s 1986 assassination or Iran-Contra, cited in Panorama and by agents Ibrahim Razin and Richard Brenneke. The CIA’s use of Crypto AG devices to monitor Condor nations, per the 2020 Washington Post report, likely included DINA’s communications.

Legacy and Critical Perspective

Eugenio Berríos’s work as DINA’s biochemist, producing sarin and other weapons, made him a central figure in Pinochet’s repressive apparatus, implicated in assassinations and human rights abuses. His death, likely to silence his testimony, underscores the lengths to which Chile’s military went to conceal Condor’s crimes. His Colonia Dignidad role, confirmed by Townley, highlights the cult’s integration into DINA’s network, while Condortel facilitated his operations, though Crypto AG’s use was broader.

Establishment Narrative: Sources like The Guardian and Wikipedia rely on declassified CIA documents and Chilean court records, portraying Berríos as a DINA operative whose murder protected Pinochet’s regime.

Conclusion

Eugenio Berríos Sagredo’s life as a DINA biochemist, crafting sarin for assassinations like Letelier’s, and his murder in Uruguay to silence him, epitomize the brutality of Pinochet’s regime and Operation Condor. His Colonia Dignidad work and cocaine production reveal the depth of DINA’s criminality.