Dan Mitrione

Dan Mitrione
Office of Public SafetyChief Public Safety Adviser inMontevideo,Uruguay
In office 1969(1969)– August 10, 1970(1970-08-10)
Chief ofRichmond, IndianaPolice
In office 1956(1956)–1960(1960)
Personal details
Born	Daniel Anthony Mitrione (1920-08-04)August 4, 1920 Italy
Died	August 10, 1970(1970-08-10)(aged 50) Montevideo, Uruguay
Cause of death	Execution by shooting
Spouse	Henrietta Lind
Children	9

Daniel Anthony Mitrione(August 4, 1920 – August 10, 1970) was aU.S. governmentofficial inLatin Americawho trained local police in the use of torture.He was kidnapped and executed by theTupamarosguerrilla group fighting against the authoritarian government inMontevideo, Uruguay.

Early life and career

Dan Mitrione was born in Italy, the second son of Joseph and Maria Mitrione. The family emigrated to America soon after Dan's birth, settling inRichmond, Indiana,where Mitrione grew up.Mitrione married Henrietta Lind while serving on a Michigan naval base during World War II, and the couple eventually had nine children.After the war ended, Mitrione became a police officer in Richmond. He started as a patrolman in 1945, rising through the ranks until he was hired as the Richmond chief of police in 1956, a position which he held until 1960.

Career in the Office of Public Safety

In 1960, Mitrione joined the Public Safety program of theInternational Cooperation Administration(ICA). The program, begun in 1954, provided U.S. aid and training to civilian police in countries around the world. Mitrione's first post was inBelo Horizonte,a large city about 250 miles northwest ofRio de Janeiro.During the two years Mitrione was posted in Belo Horizonte, ICA was replaced by theUnited States Agency for International Development,and the police aid program was reorganized into theOffice of Public Safety(OPS).

After two years in Belo Horizonte, Mitrione was transferred toRio de Janeiroin 1962, where he served as a training adviser for another five years. During these five years he shared torture techniques that were used by theBrazilian dictatorshipagainst its own citizens.In 1967, he was rotated back to the United States and taught for two years at the OPS International Police Academy in Washington, D.C.

Uruguay

In 1969, Mitrione was appointed the OPS Chief Public Safety Adviser in Montevideo, Uruguay. In this period the Uruguayan government, led by theColorado Party,had its hands full with a collapsing economy, labor and student strikes, and theTupamaros,a left-wing urban guerrilla group. On the other hand, Washington feared a possible victory during the elections of theFrente Amplio,a left-wing coalition, on the model of the also-Cuban-supported victory of theUnidad Populargovernment in Chile, led bySalvador Allende,in 1970.The OPS had been helping the local police since 1965, providing them with weapons and training.

Former Uruguayan police officials and CIA operativesstated Mitrione had taught torture techniques to Uruguayan police in the cellar of his Montevideo home, including the use of electrical shocks delivered to his victims' mouths and genitals.His credo was "The precise pain, in the precise place, in the precise amount, for the desired effect."He also helped train foreign police agents in the United States in the context of theCold War.In 1978, at the11th International Youth Festivalin Cuba, Manuel Hevia Cosculluela, a Cuban who claimed to have infiltrated the CIA as double agent from 1962 to 1970, stated that Mitrione ordered the abduction of homeless people, so that he could use them as 'guinea pigs' in his torture classes.He said that attempts would be made to keep each victim alive for multiple torture sessions,but that torture would eventually kill them, and that their mutilated bodies would be dumped in the streets. He claimed that Mitrione personally tortured four homeless people to death.

Mitrione's captors may also have believed him to be the inventor of a torture device known as the "Mitrioni vest".This alleged device was described as "an inflatable vest which can be used to increase pressure on the chest during interrogation, sometimes crushing the rib cage."

Mitrione was kidnapped by theTupamaroson July 31, 1970demanding the release of 150 political prisoners.The Uruguayan government, with U.S. backing, refused and Mitrione was later found dead in a car, shot twice in the head.There were no other visible signs of maltreatment,beyond the fact that during the kidnapping, Mitrione had been shot in one shoulder, a wound that was clean and healing well, and had evidently been treated while in captivity.

In his autobiography (Ambassador Ortiz: Lessons from a Life of Service,Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 2005, p. 106),Frank V. Ortizwhose appointment as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Montevideo coincided with the kidnapping and killing of Mitrione, wrote: "My first duty, on my first day in Montevideo, was to attend a memorial service for Dan Mitrioni, a former state chief of police from New Mexico who headed a U.S. mission to train the Uruguayan police to combat terrorism. Just four days before we [Ortiz and his family] arrived, the Tupamaros had kidnapped Mitrioni during a carefully organized operation against American Embassy officials. They also captured the head of the commercial section of the embassy by hitting him on the head, wrapping him in a rug, and tying him down in the back of a pickup. Fortunately, he worked his ties loose and jumped out of the pickup while it was speeding down the road. The terrorists also tried to take the cultural attaché. They jumped him in the garage of his apartment building, but he honked his car horn, attracting attention and scaring off his would-be captors. But poor Mitrioni--they tied him up, tortured him, and finally killed him."

In 1987, two years after being released from prison, the leader of the Tupamaros,Raúl Sendic,said in an interview that Mitrione had been selected for kidnapping because he had trained police inriot control,and as retaliation for the deaths of student protestors. He did not mention the accusations of torture.In addition, Sendic also revealed that Mitrione's death was unintended; the Tupamaro leaders had decided to keep Mitrione alive and hold him indefinitely instead of killing him if the government continued to refuse their demands.

On August 7, 1970, just a week after the kidnapping, the Uruguayan police raided the house where the Tupamaro leadership was staying and captured Sendic and the others. A short time later, he said, the replacement leadership, which also knew of the plan to keep Mitrione alive, was also captured. "Those captured lost all contact with the others," he said, "and when the deadline came the group that was left with Mitrione did not know what to do. So they decided to carry out the threat."

Continuing controversy and diplomatic exchanges

The Mitrione case continued to reverberate withinU.S.-Uruguayan relationsin 2008, with U.S. Ambassador to UruguayFrank E. Baxterbeing involved in high level exchanges about Uruguayan investigations into other crimes committed during the country's civilian-military dictatorship from 1973 until 1985, to which linkages were allegedly perceived.

Commemoration

TheNixon Administration,through spokesmanRon Ziegler,affirmed that Mitrione's "devoted service to the cause of peaceful progress in an orderly world will remain as an example for free men everywhere."His funeral was widely publicised by the U.S. media and was attended by, amongst others,David EisenhowerandRichard Nixon's secretary of stateWilliam Rogers.

Frank SinatraandJerry Lewisheld abenefit concertfor his family inRichmond, Indiana.

In fiction

The 1972 movieState of SiegebyCosta-Gavrasis based on the story of Mitrione's kidnapping.

The kidnapping and the execution of Mitrione are also central to the plot of the novelEl color que el infierno me escondieraby Uruguayan authorCarlos Martínez Moreno.

The French espionage fiction novelSAS 31: L'ange de Montevideo,written in 1973 byGérard de Villiers,relates the CIA agent kidnapping, torture and killing by the Tupamaros. The agent's name is Ron Barber, but as is often the case in SAS novels, the stories are based on real world events and being as the fictional character Ron Barber was a torture instructor in Uruguay; it is possible that Barber is based on Dan Mitrione.

See also

• History of Uruguay
• History of Brazil (1964-1985)

Sources

• Langguth, A. J.(1978).Hidden Terrors: The Truth about U.S. Police Operations in Latin America.New York:Pantheon Books.ISBN0-394-73802-0.

Further reading

• Aldrighi, Clara (2007).La intervención de Estados Unidos en Uruguay (1965—1973): El caso Mitrione.University of Michigan.ISBN9789974324510.Retrieved6 February2023.
• Osorio, Carlos; Enamoneta, Marianna; Aldrighi, Clara (August 11, 2010)."To Save Dan Mitrione Nixon Administration Urged Death Threats for Uruguayan Prisoners".National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 324.National Security Archive.Retrieved6 February2023.
• Ronfeldt, David (1987) [1974]."The Mitrione Kidnapping in Uruguay".RAND Study.Retrieved6 February2023.
• Wilkins, Brett (12 August 2020)."Teaching Torture: The Death and Legacy of Dan Mitrione".OpEdNews.Archived fromthe originalon 2020-08-12.Retrieved6 February2023.

External links

• Torture's Teachers