On September 11, 1973, Augusto Pinochet, then army commander-in-chief, took control of Chile. He led a U.S.-sponsored coup that murdered popularly elected President Salvador Allende and overthrew the governing coalition headed by the Socialist Party. Pinochet ruled Chile until 1990, when he went back to being the commander-in-chief of the army.

To run the economy Pinochet installed "the Chicago boys," trained by right-wing economist Milton Friedman. Among other things, they restricted labor unions and privatized Social Security. A few corporations made billions, but the standard of living of most Chileans plummeted.

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In 1986, Quintana, then 18, and Rodrigo Rojas, 19, were captured by Chilean soldiers while observing a workers' strike in Santiago against the Pinochet dictatorship. Rojas, a budding photographer, had been born in Chile but grew up in Washington, DC. He had returned to see the land of his birth.

The soldiers severely beat Rojas and Quintana, doused them with gasoline and left them for dead. They were found by local workers and taken to a hospital.

Quintana was severely disfigured. Rojas died within four days.

The case of "los quemados," the "burned ones," brought outrage from human rights groups around the world, but no one was held accountable until two weeks ago.

De-classified papers recently posted by the National Security Archives show that Pinochet, the U.S. State Department, the CIA and President Ronald Reagan knew almost immediately what had happened to Rojas and Quintana.

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