Osvaldo Romo Mena; Security Agent Under Pinochet

Osvaldo Romo Mena, 70, a security agent who became a symbol of torture and repression under Gen. Augusto Pinochet's former military dictatorship in Chile, died in prison July 4 of heart and respiratory problems, the National Corrections Service said.

Mr. Romo was serving two prison terms totaling 15 years for the killing of three dissidents during Pinochet's 1973-90 regime. He faced several other trials on human rights cases.

Scores of court testimonies detailed Mr. Romo's participation in dozens of cases of torture.

As a civilian in Pinochet's feared security service, DINA -- the Directorate of National Intelligence -- Mr. Romo was more prominent than even some high-ranking officers who gave orders for repression. He was a field operative openly involved in repressive actions, some of which he later boasted about.

While in prison, he said in a TV interview that he told the DINA commander, Gen. Manuel Contreras, that it was a mistake to leave some of the jailed dissidents alive.

" 'Let's not leave any of these kids alive, my general,' I told Gen. Contreras," Mr. Romo said, facing the camera.

Contreras is in prison, indicted in one of the scores of human rights trials he faces.

Mr. Romo also gained notoriety for having infiltrated leftist groups before the 1973 military coup in which Pinochet toppled Marxist President Salvador Allende.

Posing as "Comandante Raul" in an ultra-leftist group, Mr. Romo was later able to point out group members to security agents. On the day of the coup he was seen wearing a military uniform in patrols that crushed the weak resistance in some working-class neighborhoods of Santiago.

After the Pinochet regime ended in 1990, Mr. Romo fled to Brazil but was arrested there and extradited to Chile.

According to an official report, 3,197 people were killed for political reasons under Pinochet, and thousands were tortured.

Pinochet was also under indictment for human rights abuses when he died in December at 91.