Chilean intelligence chief assassinated

Press, 17 July 1980, Page 6

Chilean intelligence chief assassinated

; NZPA-Reuter Santiago ‘ The Chilean President .(General Augusto Pinochet) ’said yesterday he had ordered a widespread hunt for the •killers' of a Senior army /officer and warned that the country still faced the threat of subversive violence. ; He said the killing of • Lieutenant-colonel Roger Vergara in an ambush on 'his, way to work this week •showed the country was not ;yet ready for a return to a traditional form of democracy. - ' “ ‘ ; ■ " President Pinochet said he ihad placed all the security ! forces under a single command to hunt for. the killers, said by the Army to be Left- ■ Wing extremists., ■ . “It is necessary for the entire country to unite to ;combat this and other types

of incidents carried out by the Marxists.” The colonel’s driver was seriously wounded in the attack. Colonel Vergara was the director of the Army’s School of Intelligence. The military Government has published a draft constitution which would allow General Pinochet to stay in power for a five-year transition period leading to an elected Government.

• Some politicians have criticised the draft, saying the country no longer faces the threat of subversive violence and should return to a tradit: ’lai form of democracy. ’ The draft, which will be put to a national vote, states that Chile is not ready for an immediate return to democracy, and prohibits the propagation of doctrines of a totalitarian nature, or based on class struggle.