The Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional or DINA was the Chilean secret police in the government of Augusto Pinochet, and has been called Pinochet's Gestapo. The DINA was established in November 1973, as a Chilean Army intelligence unit headed by Colonel Manuel Contreras and vice-director Raúl Iturriaga. It was separated from the army and made an independent administrative unit in June 1974, under the aegis of decree #521.