- by Graham Holton
- The Guardian
- Issue #2191
Adriana Rivas is a 72-year-old Chilean Australian, who lived in Bondi, Sydney working as a nanny and a cleaner. During her time in Australia, she was hiding her past working for Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) the secret police of Chile during the vicious dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Initially DINA was a Chilean Army intelligence unit headed by Contreras, but in 1977 it became the Central Nacional de Informaciones (National Information Centre) or CNI. DINA has been referred to as Pinochet’s ‘Gestapo,’ as it was involved in torture, disappearance, and international terrorism.
During the Pinochet era, 40,000 people were tortured or imprisoned, with probably 10,000 murdered. Testimony from former DINA agents and survivors tell of victims being detained, tortured, and never returned. These cases are classified legally as ongoing crimes because the bodies were never found.
After the 1973 coup against the elected socialist president, Salvador Allende, Chile was ruled by a military regime under Augusto Pinochet. Rivas is accused of direct involvement in DINA’s disappearance of seven Communist Party members in 1976 during the Pinochet dictatorship. Chilean prosecutors allege that Rivas, working directly under Contreras, was more than clerical staff. They claim she participated in the operations of the DINA unit’s Lautaro Brigade, and actively assisted operations in the aggravated abduction of multiple left-wing activists.
In 2013 Rivas returned to Chile. In an interview she tried to justify the actions of the regime, sparking renewed interest in her role. Between 2014 and 2018 Chile formally sought her extradition, and in 2019 she was arrested in Australia. From 2021 to 2023 Australian courts heard multiple appeals from Rivas as she fought extradition.
Her legal defence argued that she was only a secretary, and that there is insufficient evidence. They also said that the statute of limitations had expired, and raised how she would be prosecuted in Chile. Australian courts ruled that her arguments were legally flawed, and there was sufficient evidence for a trial and that she should be extradited to Chile. The court ruled the charges of seven counts of ‘aggravated kidnapping’ satisfied extradition law. In 2024 Australia approved her extradition.
This is one of Australia’s longest-running extradition cases and is significant because it shows ‘disappearance’ cases of Latin American dictatorship crimes do not expire legally. In April 2026 she faced extradition for crimes against humanity, under Chilean law. Rivas is currently still in Australia waiting to be handed to Chilean authorities.
The families of Chilean victims have described the ruling as a major step toward long-delayed justice. Some of the families of those killed during Pinochet’s rule attended court during the two-day hearing. Their lawyer, Adriana Navarro, said the families were “truly, truly delighted” to have a positive outcome fifteen years after Rivas fled to Australia to avoid charges.
