Chile Jails Former Chief of Secret Police : Justice: Retired general’s conviction in assassination of leftist in Washington created political tension.

Retired Gen. Manuel Contreras, the notorious chief of secret police in the 1970s, is finally behind bars. Officials said his imprisonment early Saturday, after months of delays and political tension, shows the Chilean army’s subordination to democratic civilian rule.

Contreras was convicted of ordering the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier, a prominent Chilean Socialist who was killed by a car bomb in Washington.

The Supreme Court confirmed a seven-year prison sentence in late May, but Contreras’ legal appeals and his hospitalization for four months kept him out of jail until Saturday.

At 1:40 a.m., under heavy security, a convoy of vehicles took Contreras into the new Punta de Peuco prison north of Santiago.

“With this, a chapter is closed,” President Eduardo Frei said later Saturday. “The law has been fortified, justice has shown its dominion, and Chile has won.”

Speaking in New York, where he was attending celebrations marking the United Nations’ 50th anniversary, Frei told a Chilean radio station that the imprisonment of Contreras is “good for the country. It’s good for the democratic institutions. I believe it is also very positive for the international image of our country.”

Chilean leftists had sharply criticized delays in sending Contreras to prison, complaining that military pressures were putting the retired general above the law.

Army officers, already unhappy about Contreras’ conviction and other court cases involving human rights crimes under military rule, bridled at the criticism.

Tensions flared between the civilian government and the army, which is still headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the former military president.

Pinochet called the Contreras trial “unjust” but said the army would respect the sentence.

After vowing that he would not go to prison, Contreras, 66, entered a naval hospital in southern Chile on June 13 for treatment of high blood pressure, diabetes and a hernia.

Meanwhile, his lawyers proceeded with a series of appeals against the sentence.

The appeals were based partly on arguments that conditions at the Punta de Peuco prison would not guarantee Contreras’ personal security.

The prison was specially built this year for him and other military officers convicted of human rights crimes. The only other inmate so far is former army Brig. Pedro Espinoza, who was convicted along with Contreras for the Letelier assassination and sentenced to six years.

In response to security concerns, the government agreed to let the army share responsibility for guarding the prison.

On Thursday, more than 20 noncommissioned army officers were assigned to work with regular prison guards.

Also Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected a final appeal by Contreras.

In the mid-1970s, Contreras was chief of the Chilean Directorate of National Intelligence, which hunted down leftist opponents of the military government that seized power in a 1973 coup against Socialist President Salvador Allende.

According to human rights investigations, hundreds of people disappeared at the hands of the agency, known by the Spanish acronym DINA.

Before civilian rule returned to Chile in 1990, the Supreme Court refused a U.S. request to extradite Contreras to stand trial in the United States for the Letelier assassination. The case languished in Chilean military court until 1991, when it was transferred to a civilian court. A preliminary verdict was issued in 1993.