Sergio Arellano Stark

Sergio Arellano Stark (10 June 1921 – 9 March 2016) was a Chilean military officer. He led the so-called "Caravan of Death," which killed 97 Chileans from helicopters and established Augusto Pinochet’s hold on power.

Biography Born on June 10, 1921 in Santiago, Arellano Stark quickly advanced through the ranks of the military. He trained at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In the 1960s, he was an aide to President Eduardo Frei Montalva and served in Spain.

Arellano Stark's squad helped maintain Pinochet in power for 17 years. Arellano Stark retired from the military in 1976 and got involved in a number of business ventures. In 1978, Pinochet pardoned members of the military from prosecution for human rights abuses. However, in 1999, the Chilean Supreme Court made an exception for missing victims. In 2001, in an interview with a television network, retired general Joaquin Lagos Osorio said that Arellano Stark showed him paperwork in 1973 that revealed his role as Pinochet's delegate in order to “review and accelerate” the judicial process for rebels. Osorio described the death squad in detail: