The Tupamaros Interrogate Dan Mitrione: Rare Audio Recording (1970)

Watch more clips: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/08/cia-tupamaros-and-dan-mitrione.html

An excerpt from the interrogation of CIA officer Dan Mitrione by a member of the Tupamaros. This interrogation later became the basis for State of Siege (French title: État de Siège), a 1972 French film directed by Costa Gavras and starring Yves Montand and Renato Salvatori.

In Uruguay in the early 1970s, before the military dictatorship, an official of the US Agency for International Development (a group used as a front by the CIA for training foreign police in counterinsurgency methods) played by Montand, is kidnapped by a group of urban guerrillas.

From 1960 to 1967 Dan Mitrione worked with the Brazilian police, during a time in which political opponents were systematically tortured, imprisoned without trial and killed. He returned to the US in 1967 to share his experiences and expertise on "counter-guerrilla warfare" at the Agency for International Development (AID), in Washington D.C.. In 1969, Mitrione moved to Uruguay, again under the AID, to oversee the Office of Public Safety.

In this period the Uruguayan government, led by the conservative Colorado Party, had its hands full with a collapsing economy, labor and student strikes, and the Tupamaros, a left-wing urban guerrilla group. On the other hand, Washington feared a possible victory during the elections of the Frente Amplio, a left-wing coalition, on the model of the victory of the Unidad Popular government in Chile, led by Salvador Allende, in 1970. The OPS had been helping the local police since 1965, providing them with weapons and training. It is alleged that torture was already practiced since the 60s, but Dan Mitrione is reportedly the man who made it routine. He is quoted as having said once: "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 the Cold War. In his torture teaching experiments he used homeless wanderers.

As the use of torture grew and the tensions in Uruguay escalated, the Tupamaros kidnapped Mitrione on July 31, 1970. They proceeded to interrogate him about his past and the illegal intervention of U.S. government in Latin American affairs. They demanded the release of 150 political prisoners. The Uruguayan government, with US backing, refused, and Mitrione was later found dead in a car, with two shots in the head and no signs of any maltreatment (in fact, during the kidnapping, Mitrione had been shot in one shoulder and healed afterwards in the "Cárcel del Pueblo", "People's Prison").

Mitrione was married and he had 9 children. His funeral was largely publicized by the US media, and it was attended by, amongst others, David Eisenhower and Richard Nixon's secretary of state William Rogers. Frank Sinatra and Jerry Lewis held a benefit concert for his family in Richmond, Indiana. Though he was characterized at his death as a man whose "devoted service to the cause of peaceful progress in an orderly world will remain as an example for free men everywhere" by White House spokesperson Ron Ziegler, and as a "a great humanitarian" by his daughter Linda, evidence of his secret activities would later emerge, mostly through Cuban double agent Manuel Hevia Cosculluela.

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[MaripoVigil]

I would really like to find that book, can you give me more info?

[thefilmarchive]

@MaripoVigil The book with the transcript is called Dialogue Before Death (1971) - the Amazon catalogue code is B0006X4SRC

[marianabl]

Where did you get this? ICan you upload the rest of it??

[thefilmarchive]

The great documentary On Company Business. The full recording of the interrogation was turned into a book; unfortunately, all I have is this clip.

[lewiske]

@raccoonman14 Oh, I know. The only thing I would regret would be the beautiful senoritas getting caught-up in the left-wing purges. Oh well. They know how to please powerful men.

[raccoonman14]

@lewiske LOL you're adorable hahaha

[lewiske]

@raccoonman14 Sighs....whatever. Just like Bin Laden was only getting started after the Towers and Pentagon attacks. And Hussein, too. This is where I will leave you pretend warriors. When the day comes that you are in an interrogation room, don't say that you weren't warned. Your dear friend Barrack Hussein Obama won't even be able to help you. Vaya con dios......

[raccoonman14]

@lewiske they wont. Frente Amplio is just getting started

[lewiske]

Ummm, when the right-wing in Uraguay is back in power I wouldn't be so brave if I were you. Anyway, so you got Mitrone. Yay! We got Che, Allende, Lumumba, Ceaucescu, Amin, Mengistu, Palme, Hussein, and just recently Ghadaffi. Iran is next!!! There are also many, many others, including Chalres Horman and Frank Teruggi in Chile in 1973--both Americans!! Bye bye!! The funny thing is that you had Pinochet in custody and couldn't keep him there!! LOSERS!!!!

[PrensaFMLN]

In a soccer game between Uruguay and the us cocksuckers the uruguayans had a banner with this info: Welcome to the last destiny of Mitrione... hahaha... actually they gave mr. Mitrione what he deserved.

[PrensaFMLN]

@lewiske Vivan los tupamaros, fuck the us empire, killing people in Libia, Afganistan and everywhere aroud the world.