As
Chile nears its 45th anniversary since the socialist government of
Salvador Allende was overthrown, former National Intelligence
Directorate (DINA) and National Information Centre (CNI) agents are
being released from prison on parole, despite having been handed
multiple lengthy prison sentences.
by
Ramona Wadi
Part
1
It is
clear that former state-employed torturers have become emboldened
since the electoral triumph of Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.
While last year’s presidential election illustrated the Chilean
left’s disillusion with the center-left coalitions — resulting in
a low voter turnout and a right-wing victory — for Chilean memory
groups, the events now unfolding in the wake of that victory
constitute a severe threat to Chile’s collective memory, the quest
for justice, and the constant efforts to discover the fate of the
disappeared. It also signals a new wave of impunity, in which the
state and courts are collaborating to silence the ongoing memory
struggle.
Memory
groups are mobilizing against the current tide, which is seeking,
politically and judicially, to eliminate the right of victim
survivors and relatives of the Chilean disappeared to demand answers,
or changes, to governmental decisions that affect the struggle for
memory.
As a
result of mobilization among memory groups, the past weeks saw the
newly-appointed Minister of Culture Mauricio Rojas resign from his
position within three days. Thousands of Chileans protested against
his appointment, announced on August 10, on grounds of his comments
made in 2015, revisited by Chilean newspaper La Tercera, in which he
claimed that Santiago’s Museo de la Memoria (Museum of Memory) is a
fabrication of history. By August 13, Rojas handed his resignation to
President Pinera.
While
the insults hurled against Chilean memory were the prime reason for
the collective mobilization against Rojas, claims that he formed part
of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) were also heavily disputed.
In an interview published in El Desconcierto, MIR’s former
secretary general, Andres Pascal Allende, spoke about Rojas possibly
harboring some left-wing sympathies through the influence of his
mother, who was a socialist. However, he refuted the claims that
Rojas ever formed part of the militant movement.
Rojas’s
transient stint as culture minister occurred at a time when
right-wing President Sebastian Pinera was seeking to implement the
late dictator Augusto Pinochet’s request that Chileans “forget”
the crimes against humanity that happened during the U.S.-backed
dictatorship. As Chile nears its 45th anniversary since the socialist
government of Salvador Allende was overthrown, former National
Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and National Information Centre (CNI)
agents are being released from prison on parole, despite having been
handed multiple lengthy prison sentences; while, on the other hand,
investigative journalist and author Javier Rebolledo faced charges of
calumny by a former DINA torturer who is currently imprisoned in the
luxury prison of Punta Peuco.
There is
a growing concern that all imprisoned torturers and agents involved
in human-rights violation during the Pinochet dictatorship will be
allowed to walk free by 2022 — the reason being that Chilean law
does not distinguish between common crime and crimes against
humanity. Behind this impunity lies a web of U.S. involvement,
notably through the CIA, which intervened in Chile after coming to
the conclusion that Allende’s presidency would succeed.
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