Chilean justice rules out the murder of former president Frei Montalva, leader of the opposition to Pinochet

Former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva, in 1979.

The investigation into the death of Eduardo Frei Montalva, former Chilean Christian Democrat president between 1964 and 1970, who died on January 22, 1982, when he was leader of the opposition to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, has taken a new turn.

The ninth chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals, by unanimous vote of its three members, has overturned the ruling that Judge Alejandro Madrid made two years ago, in January 2019, when he accused six people of murder.

According to the higher court, Frei Montalva did not die from poisoning and from the use of an experimental drug, but died "as a consequence of medical complications" due to a surgical intervention in December 1981, due to problems with a hiatal hernia and an infectious picture.

“The evidence gathered during the processing of the process, assessed in accordance with the law, has not been able to demonstrate that the death of the former president of the Republic Eduardo Frei Montalva is attributable to any fraudulent or culpable action of one or more third parties, nor to any omission attributable to those who, in their capacity as doctors, were in a position of guarantor of their life taking care of their state of health ”, says the ruling.

According to the Court of Appeals, the second of the two interventions to which the former president was submitted, “was necessary and correctly executed or, at least, it is not possible to ask those who participated in it or decided the moment of his execution, any criminal legal reproach, as no fraudulent or culpable infringements of the

medical

have been verified

”.

The

is one of the most important judicial investigations of the last decades in Chile.

The Frei are one of the main political clans in the country —Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, the son, was president between 1994 and 2000, while his daughter Carmen was a senator between 1990 and 2006—, and because according to the accusing party, the family, it would be the first assassination in the history of Chile, an unprecedented crime and the largest intelligence operation that has ever been carried out in the time of the Republic.

The Court of Appeals, however, reversed the murder thesis, in a ruling released on Monday.

It also acquitted the six defendants - four doctors and two agents of Pinochet's secret police, the CNI -, although three have died since the accusation was heard in the first instance by Judge Madrid, who dedicated more than 16 years to the investigation.

Frei Montalva (1911-1982) was the founder of the Christian Democracy in Chile, a party that defined Chilean politics in the second half of the 20th century.

During his government, he carried out fundamental transformations such as agrarian reform and although he was one of the most fierce opponents of his successor, the socialist Salvador Allende (1970-1973), after the military coup he became one of the main voices Criticisms of Pinochetism.

In August 1980, he called for free and open elections in an event known as the

, the first organized demonstration of an opposition that was beginning to re-establish itself after the massacre.

Frei was a dangerous figure for the regime: unlike the leaders of the left who went into exile, he had remained in the country and played an important role against the dictatorship from within the territory.

Frei's family has had different emphases to approach the investigation into the death of the former president, but the main accusing voice has been Carmen Frei, former senator of the DC, who categorically rejected the ruling of the Court of Appeals: "The hour of the truth and Justice will sooner or later have to arrive, "he said in a statement released a few hours ago.

“It is clear that my father did not die from medical complications as stated in the ruling [of the appeal court], but from specific fraudulent actions, carried out by specific individuals, including at least three agents from the intelligence agencies of the dictatorship, ”said the former legislator, who announced that they will appeal to the Supreme Court.

He explained: “We will appeal to this ruling because it does not know the evidence collected and rendered during the investigation of the process in order to demonstrate that President Eduardo Frei Montalva was assassinated by a complex intelligence plot of the civic-military dictatorship of the time to generate the conditions that made his murder possible ”.

His brother Eduardo, former president, expressed his "surprise and disappointment" at this resolution in the second instance.

"I maintain my absolute conviction that Frei was assassinated and I do so based on the facts and the long investigation that has been carried out," said Frei Ruiz-Tagle, the second president after the recovery of democracy in 1990.

The Madrid judge's ruling had certain inconsistencies, which were readily recognized by the parties involved when his accusatory opinion was released two years ago. One of the issues that has marked the discussion of this case has been the slowness of a process that began in 2003, when the Frei family asked the Justice to investigate the death of the ex-president. The presence of chemical agents in different cases linked to the action of Pinochet's intelligence services made him suspect the action of third parties. If the appeal is made to the highest court, the Supreme Court will not have an established term for a final ruling.