Pinochet’s poisons: examining Chile’s historical interest in chemical and biological weapons

Abstract

ABSTRACT Under military rule (1973–1990), Chile embarked upon several top-secret chemical and biological weapons (CBW) programmes. ‘Project ANDREA’ and the development of sarin is the best known, although other programmes have also been reported. However, these programmes remain poorly understood – particularly in English language sources. To resolve this, this paper draws upon local-language reporting, Cold War histories and other sources to provide insight into the histories, key personalities, and evolution of Chile’s historical CBW programmes. This paper contributes to wider literature on Chile’s dictatorship, but also literature on CBW-proliferation, which remains confined to a relatively small set of case studies.