Human Rights in Chile: Remeberance and Reckoning

Soon after, the bombardment of the presidential palace took place. On September 12^th, soldiers entered the factory where there were arrests and much violence, taking the workers to the Chile Stadium, where many were being held. He was detained until December 22 or 23, and was eventually released, surviving to tell the tale.

"I went to Puchuncavi, where there was another camp, but it was the same story. I practically lived at Tres Alamos in the hope that someone would have seen him and he’d turn up somewhere. One day some girls came looking for me. They had been friends of my son and had been detained with him in a torture house over by Quilin. They had testified to the tribunals because, in that house, they were with three people who were among the disappeared. They said that one day Lucho was taken away, and he never came back. They also said that he was in terrible shape. These two friends went to France during the amnestyin ‘76, but while they were in Tres Alamos I clung to them because they were the last people to see my son. “Mamita,” they would say to me, “we’re absolutely sure that you’re not going to find him alive.” (Politzer, 146)

The artist Sting’s song “They Dance Alone,” speaks of the plight of mothers of the disappeared in the Southern Cone, with lyrics that fit Elsa’s years of incomplete mourning and loneliness: “They dance with their husbands, dancing with their sons, they dance alone...”

The legalities of the Pinochet case

The arrest of Pinochet in October 1998, in London under the authority of a Spanish warrant, was what Human Rights Watch has described as a “‘wake-up call’ to tyrants everywhere” (http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/chile-98/brochfln.htm). The arrest was possible under international law, and was specifically a criminal complaint filed by the lawyers of human rights victims in Spain. A similar request to arrest Pinochet in London was made by the countries of Belgium, France, and Switzerland. Although Pinochet ultimately was not extradited to Spain to stand trial as a human rights abuser, due to what was determined to be the poor state of his mental health, the extradition trial took place and the claim given by Pinochet lawyers that he was entitled to immunity as a former head of state was rejected. Equally significant was that as part of Chile’s transition into democracy, the former dictator had restructured the constitution in part to create what Human Rights Watch calls “a legal structure of absolute impunity” for himself and “most of his accomplices”.

Human Rights Watch has issued a pamphlet of the legalities of the Pinochet case called “The Pinochet Precedent” that specifically addresses how the arrest was possible and “how victims can pursue human rights criminals abroad.” (http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/chile-98/brochfln.htm) The pamphlet reviews the principles of “universal jurisdiction” as was pertinent in this case. The rule of “universal jurisdiction,” according to HRW, is “the principle that every state has an interest in bringing to justice the perpetrators of particular crimes of international concern, no matter where the crime was committed, and regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators or their victims.” Both piracy and slave-trading were the original “universal” crimes in international law. Universal crimes after World Was II included: genocide, torture, and other “‘crimes against humanity’.” (HRW) Human rights crimes that are subject to universal jurisdiction are the following: torture, genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

General Pinochet lost his political immunity and was “ruled subject to extradition” under the 1984 U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. According to HRW, “as of February 2000, 118 states had ratified the Torture Convention.” As HRW also points out, “Because of the Convention’s clear and unambiguous command, torture charges may be the most fruitful in extraterritorial cases brought in the countries, as illustrated by the Pinochet [case].”

The Chilean Truth and Reconciliation Commission gathered information on over 2,000 killings and “disappearances.” According to other sources, the statistics are higher. Says one article:

"From the very start of his rule, General Pinochet moved to suppress all opposition. He banned all other political parties, suspended labor unions, and cracked down on all dissidents to his regime. During his 16 years in power, his repressive apparatus executed at least 1,500 activists, exiled 15,000 others, and imprisoned, tortured, assassinated, or caused the “disappearance” of countless thousands more.[1] According to one human rights group, the Pinochet regime was responsible for 11,536 human rights violations between 1984 and 1988 alone.[2]" (“Chile: the laboratory test”)

The arrest of Pinochet is significant not only in and of itself, but has resulted in a broader understanding of the history of the Chilean dictatorship, the full extent of human rights abuses, and international involvement in the situation. During the Clinton administration, partially as a result of the case against Pinochet and also due to efforts of families who had lost members during the Pinochet years, many previously classified documents were released for public scrutiny. These documents have provided important evidence indicating that the U.S. government knew of many cases of human rights abuses and had chosen to ignore human rights interests under the excuse of Cold War security issues.