Osvaldo Romo

Osvaldo Romo Carlos Mena (20 April 1938 – 4 July 2007) was a neighborhood leader and central committee member of the Chilean Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) from 1973 to 1977, during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Romo was involved in the forced disappearance of over one hundred people, including Christians for Socialism and MIR members Diana Arón Svigilsky, Manuel Cortez Joo and Ofelio Lazo. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but several of the sentences were suspended by the Chilean Supreme Court.

Life Left-wing activism Osvaldo Romo became known in working-class neighborhoods before Pinochet's coup in 1973 as a leftist activist, member of the Popular Socialist Union (USOPO) This political party advocated a moderate strategy and maintained its distance from the more radical groups.

Life since 11th September 1973 Following the coup, he reappeared in these neighborhoods in a military uniform, without being part of the Army, arresting his friends and contacts, becoming an informer of the DINA. There are still debates in left-wing circles over whether Romo suddenly changed his political orientation or if he had always been a mole for the Chilean security services.

Known as Guatón Romo ("Fatso Romo") or Comandante Raúl, he was one of DINA's civilian key torturers, operating in centers such as Villa Grimaldi.

Life in Brazil and arrest In 1977, Romo was sent to Brazil by his superiors, and may have participated in death squads there, according to human rights NGOs.

Romo, suffering from diabetes and heart failure, was moved to the hospital of Santiago Penitentiary on 3 July 2007, and died the following day. His funeral was held on 5 July at the Cementerio General de Santiago, with no one in attendance.