Human Rights in Chile: Remeberance and Reckoning

These latest developments are crucial in the context of international human rights. Human rights activists are discovering the need to confront state governments not only about their own laws and direct treatment of citizens, but their involvement with international covert operations and agencies, in addition to their foreign and national security policies. Certainly, in Latin America the issue of human rights has been incredibly influenced by the Cold War. It is situations such as Chile’s that have led theorists such as Michael Ignatieff to the following conclusion:

It is essential for those in the field of human rights to continue to monitor not only standard legal proceedings within the nation-state, but also their covert operations and foreign policy interests.

Conclusion

It is difficult to understand exactly how a human rights crisis occurs, particularly because the nature and extent of abuse may seem contrary to other human interaction and/or cultural values. In broader structural terms, an international crisis in one area or system does not necessarily cause an immediate crisis in the general society, or not always an obvious one, especially when there is forced silence, oppression, and manipulation of the media. In Chile, the constitutional crisis that occurred with the military coup was offset in part by the superficial resolution of economic crisis.

It is also somewhat difficult to understand politicians and policies of the Cold War era, at least from a non-political perspective. Obviously, tensions of the nuclear age and the threats that were perceived by superpowers during the Cold War had an incredible impact on human rights of this century. As mentioned earlier, that the concept of genocide is now being considered as a term that includes political parties indicates how completely polar political ideologies can impact the lives of everyday people. Although this paper is an attempt to focus on one country, evidence of the human rights crisis in Chile indicates that the international situation had a huge impact on the domestic situation.

In exploring the role of the U.S. in Chilean politics one must consider the policies supported by the U.S. with regard to treatment of its neighbors. In analyzing comments given by Kissinger and others, as well as understanding the atmosphere of the CIA during this time, it would be good to go back and look at the Containment policies started under the Eisenhower administration in Southeast Asia. Communism, at this point, was seen as such a threat that Eisenhower introduced the domino theory in 1954 that became incredibly important in international politics. Eisenhower said: “You have a row of dominos, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly.” (Kort, 38) Thus, Eisenhower reasoned, it was necessary to prevent further gains of communism throughout the world.

The situation in the Americas was exacerbated with the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. This certainly had a tremendous impact on the sociopolitical scene in Chile. The communist party in Chile was very active and found many representatives who had an international voice, such as Pablo Neruda. Repression was clearly against the left and international forces were willing to sacrifice democracy, its principles, and basic human rights because of perceived security threats. Indeed, from a human rights perspective, the Spanish definition of genocide— that is, inclusive of political groups— should be researched in order to understand exactly what tragedy did occur.

With the most recent democratic reforms in Chile, mainly the end to Pinochet’s immunity as head of state and banning him from his permanent seat in Congress, the cause of human rights in Chile is gaining progress. In reference to the most recent developments in efforts to prosecute Pinochet, one article states:

"Pinochet has not only lost his power and freedom. Gone are also his dignity, political legacy and historical reputation. If the thrust of criminal law is to deter from similar crimes, the Pinochet case has been an unqualified success. Most importantly, the defendant has, at long last, ceased to be a menace to society." (Sonderriis, http://www.remember~chile.org.uk)

In addition, these reforms have opened the way to prosecute other military leaders who operated under Pinochet.