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
3 - The return to democracy has failed to support Chilean collective
memory
Lissette
Fossa, a journalist from Londres38, spoke to MintPress about how
subsequent governments after Chile’s return to democracy remained
tied to the dictatorship’s legacy: “The Concertacion
governments generated a transition pact with the dictatorial regime
and its allies, resulting in an inability to pursue truth and
justice. In the words of former President Patricio Aylwin, ‘to do
justice to what extent is possible.’”
Fossa
noted that the Valech commission has been required, by law, to keep
victim testimonies as classified information for 50 years. Meanwhile,
most court sentences for human rights violations are not proportional
to the committed crimes, while the imprisoned perpetrators receive
many benefits in prison. She added: “We have information that
only about 10 percent of dictatorship-era state agents have been
tried and detained. This has made it easier for Pinera’s government
to release criminals under the guise of benefits or parole.”
One
major demand from the Chilean left-wing public was to close down
Punta Peuco — the luxury five-star prison that houses convicted
torturers from DINA and CNI. Despite pledging to close the prison and
transfer inmates to ordinary jails, former President Michelle
Bachelet — who was herself a torture victim and whose father was
murdered by the Pinochet dictatorship — ultimately reneged on her
promise, which she had made to Carmen Gloria Quintana. During a
protest against the dictatorship — on July 2, 1986 — seven
Chilean military officers doused Quintana and Rodrigo Rojas de Negri
with petrol and set them on fire. Rojas died of severe burns while
Quintana remained heavily scarred for life.
Last
July, the Chilean Supreme Court granted provisional liberty to seven
former dictatorship agents imprisoned in Punta Peuco. Two agents,
Moises Retamal Bustos and Manuel Antonio Perez Santillan, were
students at the School of the Americas (SOA), a U.S. army facility
that trained thousands of Latin American personnel whose names have
surfaced as torturers and assassins over the years. The facility is
now run by the U.S. Defense Department and known as the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). Santillan
was sentenced two years ago for his role in covering up the murder of
former DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios, who was tasked — along with
U.S. citizen, CIA and DINA agent Michael Townley — with the
production of sarin gas.
Another
of the released agents, Emilio De la Mahotiere Gonzalez, formed part
of the Caravan of Death squads under the supervision of Sergio
Arellano Stark, by which at least 75 Chileans were brutally murdered
between September 30 and October 22, 1973 — the aim being to
terrorize Chileans and thus prevent revolt against the dictatorship.
According
to the conducted psychological and behavioral analysis, none of the
seven inmates has demonstrated any remorse or acknowledgement of
their crimes against humanity.
In
October 2017, it was reported that DINA’s worst torturer, Miguel
Krassnoff Martchenko, as well as CNI chief Alvaro Corbalan, had
petitioned the Santiago Court of Appeals for parole. In the wake of
the released inmates from Punta Peuco, which is also Krassnoff’s
current location, defense lawyer Raul Meza, who represents Punta
Peuco’s inmates, stated: “I am convinced that Miguel Krassnoff is
innocent.” Krassnoff is currently serving 642 years for crimes
against humanity.
Fossa
emphasised the repercussions of such a possibility: “Londres38
considers the possible release of Krassnoff as extremely serious. He
is responsible for hundreds of killings and disappearances. His image
is symbolic due to the calculated cruelty and coldness in his crimes,
apart from never showing the slightest remorse or the intent to
collaborate. Releasing Krassnoff would have severe implications for
Chile’s justice system — it would constitute an undeniable
advancing of impunity. The current court decisions reflect a vision
that does not take into account the severity of crimes against
humanity and their consequences.”
More
than a year ago, Londres38 launched the campaign “Toda la Verdad,
Toda la Justicia” (All Truth, All Justice). Fossa explains: “We
launched this campaign because we believe that impunity is a
phenomenon that affects all of society in many ways, not only the
families of the detained, disappeared and executed. The campaign
aimed to raise awareness about the fact that only 10 percent of the
dictatorship criminals are in prison, while we do not know the
whereabouts of many of the disappeared.”
She
added: “Other crimes in Chile have gone unpunished, such as the
case of the three detained and disappeared during democracy — the
case of Jose Huenate, Hugo Arispe and Jose Vergara, as well as other
crimes against the Mapuche in Southern Chile. Allowing past crimes to
remain unpunished generates a society where new crimes are not
investigated and where popular power is obscured and repressed in
favor of the most powerful.”
Francisco
Estevez, the Director of Museo de la Memoria, explained to MintPress
how the decision to release the seven former torturers and agents
affects “the international commitment of the State of Chile to
comply with seeking full justice with regard to crimes against
humanity committed during the Pinochet dictatorship. When the state
is involved in violating the rights of its citizens, it must be
treated with different criteria than if it were a common crime.”
The UN
Human Rights Commission, Estevez states, requires of states the
responsibility and duty to remember situations of systematic
human-rights violations. The Chilean Supreme Court’s decision
“clearly runs contrary to these international guidelines, since
there are more than 2,200 victims of forced disappearance and the
remains of only 100 have been discovered.”
Building
upon the slogan “Never Again,” the Museum for Memory seeks to
build social and cultural awareness. Estevez explains that is is not
enough to confront threats coming from “negationist behavior and
the denial of truth.” Rather, he says: “Education is the
spirit behind the museum that teaches the values of tolerance and
non-violence, because the sacrifice of the victims, and the people’s
collective pain, can only be repaired if justice — through a
culture of peace and human rights — becomes permanent in our
country.”
Estevez
suggests linking the slogan “Never Again” with the sense of
urgency to combat the prevailing impunity: “More than ever,
‘Never Again’ needs to open a dialogue within society. This is
because there is an ethical consistency in defending human rights
violated during the dictatorship and defending those same rights if
they are violated in times of democracy.”
On
August 19, Chilean media reported Pinera announcing the creation of a
“Museum of Democracy” to showcase Chile’s democratic history
and its return after Pinochet. According to Pinera, Chile has lost
the “capacity for dialogue — hence the establishment of a
Democracy Museum, “because democracy is a fundamental value that
should not be taken for granted, because there are countries that
have lost it.”
Given
the recent developments in safeguarding impunity, however, Chile is
still far from embodying democratic values.
Source,
links:
Comments
Post a Comment