Chile doubles down on prosecutions for Pinochet-era crimes
Chile doubles down on prosecutions for Pinochet-era crimes
Nov 13, 2015
Gram Slattery
FOR nearly three decades after Veronica de Negri’s 19-year-old son Rodrigo Rojas was burned to death by Chilean soldiers during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, her hunt for justice had been fruitless. Two legal battles failed, as unsympathetic judges and amnesty laws foiled all attempts to bring charges.
But then in July 2015, she finally had a breakthrough. Cajoled by the Supreme Court president, prosecutors charged seven former military officers for burning de Negri’s son alive while he was photographing a political protest in 1986. “I wanted to scream to the world what was happening,” said de Negri, who was told of the arrest warrants before they were served.
De Negri’s case is among hundreds sent to prosecutors in the past two years. Led by Supreme Court President Sergio Munoz, Chile’s courts are racing to address dictatorship-era crimes before the deaths of witnesses, victims, and the accused makes doing so impossible. During Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship, an estimated 3,200 people were murdered and another 28,000 tortured by the state.
That was not on the same scale as in Argentina, where a military junta killed as many as 30,000 during the country’s 1976-1983 “Dirty War”. But unlike Argentina, Chile’s military government retained support among conservatives after its downfall, and for years they blocked attempts to deal with the dictatorship’s crimes. Pinochet died in 2006 without ever being convicted for human rights abuses.
More:
http://saudigazette.com.sa/world/chile-doubles-down-on-prosecutions-for-pinochet-era-crimes/
Good reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016136884
