Human rights violations in Pinochet's Chile
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Human rights abuses in Chile under Augusto Pinochet were the
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
, persecution of opponents, political repression, and
state terrorism State terrorism refers to acts of terrorism which a state conducts against another state or against its own citizens.Martin, 2006: p. 111. Definition There is neither an academic nor an international legal consensus regarding the proper def ...
committed by the
Chilean Armed Forces The Chilean Armed Forces ( es, Fuerzas Armadas de Chile) is the unified military organization comprising the Chilean Army, Air Force, and Navy. The President of Chile is the commander-in-chief of the military, and formulates policy through the Mi ...
, members of
Carabineros de Chile ( en, Carabiniers of Chile) are the Chilean national law enforcement police, who have jurisdiction over the entire national territory of the Republic of Chile. Created in 1927, their mission is to maintain order and enforce the laws of Chile. Th ...
and civil repressive agents members of a
secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...
, during the
military dictatorship of Chile A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
under General
Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
from 1973 to 1990. According to the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation (Rettig Commission) and the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture (Valech Commission), the number of direct victims of human rights violations in Chile accounts for around 30,000 people: 27,255 tortured and 2,279 executed. In addition, some 200,000 people suffered exile and an unknown number went through clandestine centers and illegal detention. The systematic human rights violations that were committed by the military dictatorship of Chile, under General Augusto Pinochet, included gruesome acts of physical and sexual abuse, as well as psychological damage. From 1973 to 1990, Chilean armed forces, the police and all those aligned with the
military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...
were involved in institutionalizing fear and terror in Chile. The most prevalent forms of state-sponsored torture that Chilean prisoners endured were electric shocks,
waterboarding Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water torture, water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. In the most common method ...
, beatings, and sexual abuse. Another common mechanism of torture employed was "disappearing" those who were deemed to be potentially subversive because they adhered to leftist political doctrines. The tactic of "disappearing" the enemies of the Pinochet regime was systematically carried out during the first four years of military rule. The "disappeared" were held in secret, subjected to torture and were often never seen again. Both the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture (
Valech Report The Valech Report (officially The National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture Report) is a record of abuses committed in Chile between 1973 and 1990 by agents of Augusto Pinochet's military regime. The report was published on November ...
) and the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation (
Rettig Report The Rettig Report, officially The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report, is a 1991 report by a commission designated by Chilean President Patricio Aylwin (from the ''Concertación'') detailing human rights abuses resulting in dea ...
) approximate that there were around 30,000 victims of human rights abuses in Chile, with 40,018 tortured and 2,279 executed.


History

The military rule was characterized by systematic suppression of all political dissidence, which led some to speak of a ''"
politicide Political cleansing of population is eliminating categories of people in specific areas for political reasons. The means may vary from forced migration to genocide. Politicide Politicide is the deliberate physical destruction or elimination o ...
"'' (or "political genocide"). Steve J. Stern spoke of a politicide to describe "a systematic project to destroy an entire way of doing and understanding politics and governance." The worst violence occurred in the first three months of the coup's aftermath, with the number of suspected leftists killed or "
disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organi ...
" (''desaparecidos'') soon reaching into the thousands. In the days immediately following the coup, the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs informed Henry Kissinger that the
National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...
was being used to hold 5,000 prisoners, and as late as 1975, the CIA was still reporting that up to 3,811 prisoners were still being held in the Stadium. Amnesty International, reported that as many as 7,000 political prisoners in the National Stadium had been counted on 22 September 1973. Nevertheless, it is often quoted in the press, that some 40,000 prisoners were detained in the Stadium. Some of the most famous cases of ''"desaparecidos"'' are
Charles Horman Charles Edmund Lazar Horman (May 15, 1942 – September 19, 1973) was an American journalist and documentary filmmaker. He was executed in Chile in the days following the 1973 Chilean coup d'état led by General Augusto Pinochet, which overthr ...
, a U.S. citizen who was killed during the coup itself, Chilean songwriter
Víctor Jara Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez (; 28 September 1932 – 16 September 1973) was a Chilean teacher, theater director, poet, singer-songwriter and Communist political activist. He developed Chilean theater by directing a broad array of works, rang ...
, and the October 1973 Caravan of Death (''Caravana de la Muerte'') where at least 70 persons were killed. Other operations include
Operation Colombo Operation Colombo was an operation undertaken by the DINA (the Chilean secret police) in 1975 to make political dissidents disappear. At least 119 people are alleged to have been abducted and later killed. The magazines published a list of 119 de ...
during which hundreds of left-wing activists were murdered and
Operation Condor Operation Condor ( es, link=no, Operación Cóndor, also known as ''Plan Cóndor''; pt, Operação Condor) was a United States–backed campaign of political repression and state terror involving intelligence operations and assassination of o ...
, carried out with the security services of other Latin American dictatorships. Following Pinochet's defeat in the 1988 plebiscite, the 1991
Rettig Commission The Rettig Report, officially The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report, is a 1991 report by a commission designated by Chilean President Patricio Aylwin (from the ''Concertación'') detailing human rights abuses resulting in dea ...
, a multipartisan effort from the Aylwin administration to discover the truth about the human rights violations, listed a number of
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
and detention centers (such as
Colonia Dignidad Colonia Dignidad ("Dignity Colony") was an isolated colony of Germans established in post-World War II Chile by emigrant Germans which became notorious for the internment, torture, and murder of dissidents during the military dictatorship of G ...
, the ship ''Esmeralda'' or Víctor Jara Stadium), and found that at least 3,200 people were killed or disappeared by the regime. A later report, the
Valech Report The Valech Report (officially The National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture Report) is a record of abuses committed in Chile between 1973 and 1990 by agents of Augusto Pinochet's military regime. The report was published on November ...
(published in November 2004), confirmed the figure of 3,200 deaths but dramatically reduced the alleged cases of disappearances. It tells of some 28,000 arrests in which the majority of those detained were incarcerated and in a great many cases
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
d. Some 30,000 Chileans were
exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
d and received abroad,Chile en el umbral de los noventa: quince años que condicionan el futuro, Jaime Gazmuri & Felipe Agüero, p. 121, Planeta, 1988 in particular in
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, as political refugees; however, they were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the frame of
Operation Condor Operation Condor ( es, link=no, Operación Cóndor, also known as ''Plan Cóndor''; pt, Operação Condor) was a United States–backed campaign of political repression and state terror involving intelligence operations and assassination of o ...
which linked South-American dictatorships together against political opponents. Some 20,000-40,000 Chilean exiles were holders of passports stamped with the letter "L" (which stood for ''lista nacional''), identifying them as ''persona non grata'' and had to seek permission before entering the country. Nevertheless, Chilean Human Rights groups maintain several hundred thousand were forced into exile. According to the Latin American Institute on Mental Health and Human Rights ( ILAS), "situations of extreme trauma" affected about 200,000 persons; this figure includes individuals killed, tortured (following the UN definition of torture), or exiled and their immediate relatives. While more radical groups such as the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) were staunch advocates of a Marxist revolution, it is currently accepted that the junta deliberately targeted nonviolent political opponents as well. A court in Chile sentenced, on March 19, 2008, 24 former police officers in cases of kidnapping, torture and murder that happened just after a
U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
-backed coup overthrew President
Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...
, a
Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
, on September 11, 1973.


Bureaucratic authoritarianism

The concept of bureaucratic authoritarianism characterizes the military regimes that rose to power in South America between the 1960s and 1980s, specifically in the
Southern Cone The Southern Cone ( es, Cono Sur, pt, Cone Sul) is a geographical and cultural subregion composed of the southernmost areas of South America, mostly south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Traditionally, it covers Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, bou ...
regions of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. These regimes had a technocratic approach to policy-making and were accompanied by substantial repression.
Guillermo O'Donnell Guillermo Alberto O'Donnell Ure (February 24, 1936 – November 29, 2011) was a prominent Argentine political scientist, specializing in comparative politics, who spent most of his career working in Argentina and the United States, and who m ...
—a prominent Argentine political scientist— labeled these regimes as "bureaucratic authoritarian" in order to "distinguish them from oligarchical and populist forms of the authoritarian rule found in less modernized countries." From its inception on September 11, 1973, the Chilean bureaucratic authoritarian regime's ultimate agenda was to repress political dissidents—which some have classified as ''"
politicide Political cleansing of population is eliminating categories of people in specific areas for political reasons. The means may vary from forced migration to genocide. Politicide Politicide is the deliberate physical destruction or elimination o ...
"'' (or "political genocide). General Pinochet's assumption of power through a violent, and bloody military coup d'état foreshadowed the brutal conditions that many innocent people would endure over the next 17 years. Pinochet genuinely feared the supporters of the Popular Unity Party (PU) and its leader
Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...
, who had been the first Marxist to become
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
of a Latin American region through open elections. General Pinochet lived in a state of paranoia, and constantly feared being assassinated or losing power. Thus, he set out to destroy those who were not in unity with his policies, particularly those who had once served the PU. As Pinochet's suspicions grew, the military dictator targeted anyone who was in some way associated with the "leftists," which even included the mothers, wives, and children of the potential subversives. In order to legitimize control of the country, Pinochet created institutions that were seemingly democratic. He organized a
plebiscite A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
, held on September 11, 1980, which approved a new
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...
that went into effect on October 21, 1980, and that validated the legal system he had established by decree. The Constitution proscribed an 8-year election period, permitted reelections and gave the President of the Republican immense amount of power. Laws were passed to criminalize acts of terror and limit the use of ''
habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
''. A crucial aspect of the Pinochet regime was how unified the military was. Another was the disarray of civilian society, which created an atmosphere that was conducive to repressing all those who supposedly supported the PU, other leftist organizations, and even Centrist institutions like the
Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...
.


Instilling a sense of fear


Caravan of Death

From the moment Pinochet assumed power, he wanted to instill a sense of fear in the Chilean population. These fears manifested with his authorization of the " Caravan of Death". Following the coup on September 11, Pinochet ordered this Chilean Army death squad to target the leaders of the PU by any means necessary. The Caravan of Death, under the leadership of Sergio Arellano Stark, killed 68 people within three days, by stabbing, beating, and shooting them. The establishment of the Caravan of Death served three main purposes: 1) silence dissent through murder, 2) weed out military officials who were not aligned with Pinochet's regime and 3) establish fear within leadership ranks. The Caravan of Death resulted in the institutionalization of a state-sponsored system of terror.


DINA

On June 14, 1974, Junta Decree 521 mandated the creation of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA). There were thousands of people working in this agency. DINA was instituted to "produce the intelligence necessary to formulate policies and planning, and to adopt measures to procure the safeguarding of National Security and development of the country." DINA established interrogation and detention camps, in which former members of Allende's Marxist government and the Leftist movements like the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria were incarcerated and brutally tortured. Pinochet's goal was to annihilate all forms of opposition. He therefore greatly supported Military Decree 1697, which outlawed the formation of any political party. A large proportion of the Chilean population was vulnerable to surveillance. Chile's churches, universities, businesses, and neighborhoods were all under intense scrutiny.


Joint Command

The Joint Command operated as a ''
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' institution from late 1975 until late 1976 and was based primarily in
Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated Regions of Chile, region, t ...
. Like DINA, this institution coordinated intelligence activities and political repression, with the air force having a major role in carrying out its agendas. The Joint Command was responsible for "disappearing" approximately thirty people during the bureaucratic authoritarian era.


State-sponsored torture and repression

From 1974 to 1977, DINA (National Intelligence Directorate) and other agencies such as the Joint Command were the main institutions responsible for committing most acts of repression. It was during this period when most of the forced disappearances took place. While these agencies committed barbaric acts of physical and sexual torture, they also caused an immense amount of psychological pain and suffering.


Detentions and torture centers

Intelligence agencies under Pinochet's regime instituted secret detention and torture sites to conduct political repression. In total, Chile had 17 torture centers. On occasion, prisoners were released after being confined and tortured. However, many detainees were also killed and "disappeared."


Cuatro Alamos

Cuatro Alamos was a detention center that no one outside the DINA had access to, except personnel from other intelligence agencies. It was instituted in 1973, during the earliest phase of the regime. Life in Cuatro Alamos was relatively easier than it was in other detention sites. It consisted of twelve small cells, one large cell, and staff offices. There were very few instances of torture within the walls of the prison.


Londres No. 38

Londres No. 38 was a secret detention center located in downtown Santiago, where DINA members operated from 1973 until the end of 1974. This was one of the many sites that had been previously owned by leftist organizations. Prisoners at Londres No. 38 endured lengthy interrogation periods and continual humiliating treatment. Captors preferred to torture detainees by electrocuting them. Not only were the suspects incarcerated, but their relatives were also arrested. Family members underwent sexual abuse in the presence of their relatives. However, during the initial period, prisoners were still permitted to interact with one another and share information.


Villa Grimaldi

Villa Grimaldi Villa Grimaldi is considered the most important of DINA’s (Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, the Chilean secret police during the Pinochet regime) many complexes that were used for the interrogation and torture of political prisoners during ...
, located in Santiago, was DINA's most important torture center that began operating in 1974. Prisoners were interrogated for long periods of time. Once people were incarcerated on a massive scale, new places were reconditioned to hold them. The "tower" was designated as a holding center for political prisoners. There was a water tank on the top floor of the building, which included ten tight spaces where prisoners were held. These spaces were so small that victims had to enter them by crawling on their knees. The tower also included a torture chamber, where prisoners were kept in isolation. Many of them were never seen again. Food was scarce and the conditions were extremely unsanitary.


Physical torture

One torture method, which was very commonly used, was the "grill" or " La Parrilla." In this torture,
electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
was fed from a standard wall outlet through a control box into two wires each terminating in
electrodes An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e.g. a semiconductor, an electrolyte, a vacuum or air). Electrodes are essential parts of batteries that can consist of a variety of materials de ...
. The control box gave the torturers the option of adjusting the voltage being administered to the prisoner. The naked prisoner was stretched out and strapped onto a metal bedframe, or a set of bedsprings, and tied down. He or she was subjected to electrical shocks on several parts of the body, especially on sensitive areas like the genitals and on open wounds. The Valech Report includes a testimony of a Chilean man who was interrogated by prison captors. They took off his clothes and "attached electrodes to his chest and testicles. They put something in his mouth so he would "bite his tongue while they shocked him." In another method, one of the wires would be fixed to the prisoner (typically to the victim's genitalia) while another wire could be applied to other parts of the body. This caused an electric current to pass through the victim's body, with a strength inversely proportional to the distance between the two electrodes. A smaller distance between the electrodes led to a stronger current and thus more intense pain for the prisoner. A particularly barbaric version of the "grill" was the use of a metal bunk bed; the victim was placed on the bottom bunk while a relative or friend was simultaneously tortured on the top bunk. Most prisoners suffered from severe beatings, and broken or even amputated limbs. At Villa Grimaldi, DINA forced non-compliant prisoners to lie down on the ground. The captors ran over their legs with a large vehicle and crushed the prisoners' bones. The assailants also beat prisoners in the ear until they became deaf and entirely unconscious; this torture method was called the "telephone." Most of the acts of punishment were intended to severely humiliate the prisoners. At the Pisagua Concentration Camp, captors intimidated prisoners by forcing them to crawl on the ground and lick the dirt off the floors. If the prisoners complained or even collapsed from exhaustion, they were promptly executed. Prisoners were also immersed into vats of excrement, and were occasionally forced to ingest it.


Sexual abuse

Pinochet's regime carried out many gruesome and horrific acts of sexual abuse against the victims. In fact, several detention sites were solely instituted for the purpose of sexually tormenting and humiliating the prisoners. Discothèque ( Venda Sexy) was another one of DINA's main secret detention centers. Many of those who "disappeared" were initially held in this prison. The prison guards often raped both men and women. It was at this prison where internal repression operations were centralized. Militants anally raped male prisoners, while insulting them, in an attempt to embarrass them to their core. Women were the primary targets of gruesome acts of sexual abuse. According to the Valech Commission, almost every single female prisoner was a victim of repeated rape. Not only would military men rape women, but they would also use foreign objects and even animals to inflict more pain and suffering. Women (and occasionally men) reported that spiders and live rats were often implanted on their genitals. One woman testified that she had been "raped and sexually assaulted with trained dogs and with live rats." She was forced to have sex with her father and brother—who were also detained. In the words of
Alejandra Matus Alejandra Matus Acuña is a Chilean journalist and writer. In 1999 she published ''El libro negro de la justicia chilena'' (lit. " The Black Book of Chilean Justice"). The available copies of the book were confiscated one day before the planned re ...
detained women were doubly punished, first for being "leftists" and second for not conforming to the militaries ideal of women usually being called ''perra'' (lit. "bitch").


Psychological repression

The military junta often framed leftist individuals and groups, in order to justify its agenda to target and torture political dissidents. The Junta fostered fear of leftists by staging arsenal captures and portraying leftist extremists in an extremely negative light. The regime falsely accused leftists of stealing dangerous weapons from weapons stores in order to justify the illegal capture of dissidents. Such fake portrayals of "the revolutionary threat" resulted in the legitimization of the Pinochet regime. The Junta commissioned the Chilean public to report the actions of any suspected leftists, and proceed to turn them in. Pinochet also authorized for DINA to stage the bombing of a Chilean safe house. The blame was placed on the leftist extremists, in order to demonstrate the danger they posed to society. Essentially, the military junta made use of brainwashing propaganda to portray the leftists as the enemies. Psychological torture was used to destroy a prisoner's will, dignity, moral and physical resolve in order to extract pertinent information from the victim. Members of intelligence agencies like DINA and the Joint Command attempted to extract information from victims by threatening their children and loved ones. Many mothers who were incarcerated in illegal detention centers had to choose between saving themselves or their children's lives. On August 21, 1989, military personnel seized Jessica Antonia Liberona Ninoles and detained her in a dark, solitary room. She was stripped naked, forced to lie down on an uncomfortable prison cot, and was not permitted to sleep for five days during the interrogation period. The captors constantly threatened to kidnap her nine-year-old daughter from school if she failed to cooperate. According to the Valech Commission,
waterboarding Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water torture, water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. In the most common method ...
was one of the torture methods most commonly recorded by victims of imprisonment and torture. The captors poured water over a cloth that covered the victims' faces and breathing passages, causing individuals to experience a drowning sensation, and a near-death experience. Waterboarding caused detainees to asphyxiate, while their heads were submerged into the water several times in a row. Often, prisoners were hung upside-down with ropes, and they were dropped into a tank of water, headfirst. The water was contaminated and filled with debris. Waterboarding was employed to cause both physical and psychological pain; however, victims found that the mental suffering they endured was far worse than the physical pain. They attested that even thirty years after being "waterboarded," they still suffered from the devastating effects of psychological torture. Many victims reported suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, humiliation, worthlessness, shame, anxiety and hopelessness.Christian Correa, "Waterboarding Prisoners and Justifying Torture:Lessons for the U.S. from the Chilean Experience,"p.22-23 The Valech Commission Report describes the testimony of a man who experienced waterboarding in September 1973:
They put cotton on both eyes, then taped them and tightened a hood around my neck. They tied my hands and legs, submerged me in a 250-liter tank that had ammonia, urine, excrement, and seawater. They submerged me until I could not breathe anymore. They repeated it over and over, while beating me and asking me questions. That is what they called the submarine.


Disappearances

While "disappearing subversives" was the central instrument of state terror administered by the Argentine military regime from the 1960s to the 1980s, it was still extremely widespread and prevalent in Chile as well. According to the Rettig Report, 1,248 people were "disappeared" by the Pinochet Regime. However, this number still remains a source of contention, as hundreds of bodies have yet to be discovered. There are several different approximations made for the number of people who had been "disappeared" by the military regime. Many of those who "disappeared" were not given the chance to escape nor become asylum seekers elsewhere. Their bodies were deliberately hidden in undisclosed locations. Only seven days after Pinochet seized power, he ordered the military to round up approximately 10,000 students, workers, and political activists and jammed them into Santiago's National Football Stadium on September 18, 1973. This stadium, which symbolized Chile's greatest pastime, turned into a concentration camp within a few days. Many were tortured and gunned down, and several hundred bodies were shuttled into secret mass graves. These were victims of a well-organized program of official, yet a clandestine, program of torture and murder. Many people were last seen in the detention and torture centers instituted by the intelligence agencies of the military regime. Following Pinochet's arrest in 1998, Chile made a renewed effort to uncover the atrocities of the past. For the first time in several decades, human rights lawyers, and members of the armed forces wanted to investigate where the bodies of the "disappeared" were buried. On January 7, 2000, President Ricardo Lagos made a 15-minute nationwide address, revealing that the armed forces had uncovered information on the fate of approximately 180 people who had disappeared. According to Lagos, the bodies of at least 150 of these people were thrown into lakes, rivers and the Pacific Ocean. The whereabouts of hundreds of more bodies remain unknown.


Institutionalized terrorism

The dictatorship under Pinochet erected a complex web of legal instruments that it used to repress anyone deemed to be "subversive." Pinochet was extremely tactical in his attempts to camouflage the human rights violations committed by the state. He called for a National Plebiscite in 1980 to approve the 1980 Political Constitution of the Republic of Chile— a seemingly democratic motive. Pinochet promised to cut back inflation, which was around 30-35% in 1978; he was intent on restructuring both the economic and political institutions of the region. These agendas were part of a broader scheme to garner approval from the state, making it more feasible to prosecute, imprison, and execute civilians suspected of subversion. The military and armed personnel, under Pinochet, were able to operate offensively without restrictions, as the Chilean Government had been restructured to Pinochet's liking. Even the Constitution was drafted to give Pinochet impunity. The military dictatorship utilized its own justice system to adjudicate the regime's enemies. Additionally, the Amnesty Law decreed in 1978 by Pinochet, guaranteed impunity to those responsible for the "systematic and widespread human rights violations and was a major obstacle to bringing Pinochet to justice in Chile. Even today, "the Amnesty Law is still in force. It was recently applied by the Chilean Supreme Court in December 2007." While Pinochet was detained under house arrest on October 30, 2006, over "charges including, murder, torture and kidnapping in the years following his 1973 coup, he was never formally convicted. He died before the investigation process reached a conclusion. Pinochet's Amnesty Law effectively insulated the military regime from retribution for even the most brutal and horrific human rights violations.


Repressive agencies

The ''Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional'' ( en, National Intelligence Directorate) or DINA was the Chilean
secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...
in the government of Pinochet. DINA was established in November 1973, as a
Chilean Army The Chilean Army ( es, Ejército de Chile) is the land arm of the Military of Chile. This 80,000-person army (9,200 of which are conscripts) is organized into six divisions, a special operations brigade and an air brigade. In recent years, and a ...
intelligence unit headed by General Manuel Contreras and vice-director
Raúl Iturriaga Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann (born 23 January 1938) is a Chilean Army general and a former deputy director of the DINA, the Chilean secret police under the Augusto Pinochet military dictatorship. He was in charge of a secret detention cen ...
, who fled from justice in 2007. It was separated from the army and made an independent administrative unit in June 1974, under the aegis of decree #521. DINA made it possible for Pinochet to come to power. DINA existed until 1977, after which it was renamed the ''
Central Nacional de Informaciones The National Information Center (Spanish: Central Nacional de Informaciones, CNI) was the political police and intelligence body which functioned as an organ of persecution, kidnapping, torture, murder and disappearance of political opponents durin ...
'' (CNI) (National Information Center).


Main human rights violators

Since human rights violations during the military regime corresponded to a state policy, the number of people involved in these acts as authors, accomplices or accessories, is high. While it is difficult to determine their number, it is estimated that exceeds several hundred. Approximately sixty persons have been condemned by Chilean courts. * Sergio Arellano Stark * Víctor Barría * Patricio Carranza Saavedra *
Manuel Contreras Juan Manuel "Mamo" Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda (4 May 1929 – 7 August 2015) was a Chilean Army officer and the former head of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), Chile's secret police during the ...
* * Patricio Díaz Araneda * * Armando Fernández Larios * Humberto Gordon * Carlos Herrera Jiménez * Raúl Iturriaga Neumann * * Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko * Roberto Lawrence Mires *
Gustavo Leigh Air General Gustavo Leigh Guzmán (September 19, 1920 – September 29, 1999) was a Chilean general, who represented the Air Force in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état and, for a time, in the ruling junta that followed. Leigh was forced out of th ...
* José Toribio Merino * Marcelo Moren Brito *
Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
* Alfonso Podlech *
Osvaldo Romo Osvaldo may refer to the following people: Given name *Osvaldo Alonso, Cuban football player *Osvaldo Ardiles (born 1952), an Argentine football player and coach *Osvaldo Bagnoli, an Italian football coach *Osvaldo Brandão, a Brazilian football c ...
* * Nelson Valdés CornejoCondenan a seis miembros de la DINA por cinco crímenes en Tejas Verdes
retrieved on 31 January 2013. The 6th is Manuel Contreras
* Raúl Quintana Salazar * David Miranda Monardes * Klaudio Kosiel Honing * Vittorio Orvietto Tiplitzky * Ingrid Olderock


See also

* Forced disappearance in Chile *
Patio 29 Patio 29 (Spanish: Yard 29) is a common grave site in Santiago General Cemetery in Chile, where political prisoners, especially those who "disappeared" during the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, were buried anonymously. The mass grave, the larges ...


References


External links

* {{cite news, last1=Gorodischer, first1=Jonathan, last2=Maltz, first2=Judy, date=13 June 2022, url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-06-13/ty-article-magazine/.premium/under-pinochets-nose-the-secret-israeli-rescue-of-hundreds-of-dissidents-from-chile/00000181-487a-d953-a585-7d7ffb0a0000, title=Under Pinochet's Nose: The Israeli Diplomats Who Rescued Hundreds of Leftist Dissidents From Chile, newspaper=Haaretz, access-date=13 June 2022 1973 establishments in Chile 1990 disestablishments in Chile Human rights abuses in Chile Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990) Operation Condor Political violence in Chile Sexual abuse Torture in Chile