Santiago: A caller into a radio show shocked Chile this week with a chilling confession of executions he had taken part in as a conscript during Chile's military dictatorship, and the socialist party said a judge had ordered his arrest.

A caller to the Chacotero Sentimental radio station on Wednesday, who identified himself as 62-year-old "Alberto", began talking about a love affair but then moved on to describing how he had executed people during the 1970s.

General Augusto Pinochet salutes supporters on his 74th birthday, November 25, 1989. Credit:AP

The brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet ruled Chile between 1973 and 1990, when an estimated 3200 people were murdered and another 28,000 tortured by the state. Many of the victims had been affiliated with the socialist government of Salvador Allende, who was deposed in a 1973 coup.

Courts are still hearing cases of those accused of human rights abuses.