January 1, 2004
In the thirtieth anniversary year of the 1973 military coup Chile made notable progress in bringing to trial former military personnel accused of grave human rights violations committed during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). The government introduced legislation in Congress to tackle other unresolved human rights legacies of military rule. In December, the lower house of Congress approved a very restrictive bill on privacy that would seriously restrict the press's watchdog role if passed. Many legislators appeared to have become increasingly concerned at the vigorous and uninhibited investigative role now being played by Chile's traditionally timid media. A still un-addressed legacy of the military government was the continuing jurisdiction of military tribunals over abuses committed by police and crimes of violence against them.
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- Prosecutions for Human Rights Violations under Military Rule
- Measures to Provide Justice and Compensation
- Restrictions on Media Freedom
- Military Justice
- Key International Actors
Prosecutions for Human Rights Violations under Military Rule
By July, more than 300 individuals were facing charges such as kidnapping, murder, and illegal arrest, mainly in connection with "disappearances" during the first five years of military rule. Sidestepping a 1978 amnesty decree left in place by successive elected governments, courts have now convicted three generals, fourteen lower ranking officers, and a civilian for "disappearances" in six separate cases. In each case the courts held that the amnesty was inapplicable since "disappeared" prisoners must be considered victims of ongoing abduction until the facts of their death are established.
In early January 2004 the Santiago Appeals Court upheld the conviction of Manuel Contreras, former head of the DINA (General Pinochet's secret police), for the 1975 "disappearance" of detainee Miguel Angel Sandoval Rodríguez. A few days later, another judge sentenced Contreras and three lower-ranking DINA agents to fifteen years' imprisonment for the "disappearance" of twenty-four-year-old Diana Aron, who was taken in 1974 to the same detention center as Sandoval. The Supreme Court is expected to hear an appeal in the Sandoval case in March 2004 at the earliest, a decision that will be historic in the long search for justice in Chile.
Measures to Provide Justice and Compensation
In August, President Ricardo Lagos announced a series of measures to address unresolved human rights problems from the period of military rule. They included a proposal to set up a commission to identify and provide some financial compensation to victims of torture, estimated to number tens of thousands of people. Relatives of those killed or disappeared would receive improved compensation benefits. The government promised to continue supporting the successful investigations undertaken by special judges appointed to work exclusively on human rights cases.
Following concerns expressed by human rights lawyers, the government modified a proposal to offer immunity to former military personnel who volunteered information that helped clarify cases of "disappearances," provided that they were not involved themselves in systematic human rights abuses. The final version of the bill provided no immunity from prosecution, instead allowing judges discretion to hand down more lenient sentences if the accused provided such information. Army Commander-in Chief Juan Emilio Cheyre, in controversial statements made in mid-January 2004, criticized the slow advance of the proposals, blaming what he termed "pressure groups."
Link to Report: Chile: A Discreet Path to Justice?
Restrictions on Media Freedom
Congress dragged its feet on legal reforms to remove restrictions on freedom of expression. In December, the lower house of Congress approved a bill to remove from the Criminal Code and Code of Military Justice articles that penalized the expression of strongly worded criticism of the president, members of Congress and the higher courts, and military officers, a type of law known as desacato. However, this advance for freedom of expression was overshadowed by the simultaneous approval of a highly restrictive draft law on privacy. The privacy bill could subject media that commented on politicians' private lives to crippling awards of damages. The proposals caused an outcry and the Chilean press called them a "gag law." The government, whose more balanced proposals the Chamber of Deputies had rejected, said it would seek amendments in the debate in the Senate.
Military Justice
Military courts continue to hold jurisdiction over crimes committed by civilians, such as assaults on members of Carabineros, Chile's uniformed police, which is a branch of the armed forces. Military courts also deal with crimes committed by members of the armed forces when on active service, such as the use of excessive force. These courts do not provide guarantees of independence and impartiality. In December 2003, a military prosecutor overruled the prosecution of Maj. Marcos Treuer, a police officer accused of the shooting death of seventeen-year-old Alex Lemún. The boy was fatally wounded by a shotgun pellet in the head on November 7, 2002, fired when police were evicting a group of Mapuche Indians occupying a forestry company property in the south of Chile. The victim's family, who were convinced that Treuer had broken police regulations on the use of firearms, appealed the decision to the Corte Marcial, or military appeals court. In August, President Lagos announced that his government would introduce legislation to restrict the scope of military justice, but by the end of the year had not drafted any.
Key International Actors
The United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement is scheduled to enter force on January 1, 2004, making Chile the first country in Latin America after Mexico to enter a bilateral free trade agreement with the United States. The agreement includes a section on the protection of labor rights in the two countries. Its only enforceable labor rights-related provision, however, is the requirement that the parties effectively enforce their labor laws, and it does not bind them to observe international standards. Instead, each party pledges to "strive to ensure" that its labor laws respect international standards, and that they do not weaken or reduce domestic labor rights protections in order to encourage trade or investment. Neither of these provisions is enforceable, however, by fines or other sanctions.
