22 Mar Judge Indicts 13 Former Chilean Army Officers Involved in the Caravan of Death
The Santiago Times reports that a Chilean judge has indicted 13 retired army officers, including one general, on murder charges in connection with the notorious 1973 “Caravan of Death,” in which 75 jailed dissidents — many of whom had voluntarily turned themelves in — were killed by a gang of soldiers that roamed the country by helicopter in the weeks after the coup that brought PInochet to power. The indicted officers were not themselves part of the Caravan, but allegedly either participated in the illegal executions or later helped dispose of the bodies.
Although Pinochet himself was indicted in the case in 2001, the Supreme Court of Chile ruled that he was physically and mentally unfit to stand trial and dropped the charges.
Interestingly, although relatives of the victims and human-rights groups are eager to see the officers prosecuted, they are outraged by Judge Montiglio’s decision, issued four days ago, to charge them with murder instead of “secuestro permanente ” — “permanent kidnapping.” According to the Santiago Times, permanent kidnapping qualifies as a crime against humanity under international human-rights law, and is thus not subject either to a statute of limitations or to the controversial 1978 Amnesty Law issued by the Pinochet regime. Murder, by contrast, is potentially subject to either.
Judge Montiglio’s decision has led the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Antonio Leal, to seek special legislation to revoke the amnesty law.
This brings back memories: first of learning about the Chilean coup from my parents’ Time magazine back in the days when you could distinguish the articles from the ads. Second, of reading Marc Cooper’s remarkable little book, Pinochet and Me (Verso, 2001). I quote from the preface: ‘…[F]or many…around the world, Chile briefly shined as a beacon of inspiration. It gave life to the notion that, perhaps, radical social change and resulting improvements in the lives of common people were possible through democratic, peaceful, and legal means rather than through the violent and often treacherous turns of armed revolution. In that sense, Chile was to be the exception in revolutionary history. But in other ways often overlooked, Allende’s Chile was engaged in much more of a classic revolutionary scenario that that passed through by Russia or even Cuba. In Chile, the ascension to power of Socialist Party leader Salvador Allende came not as a result of the dogged tenacity of an armed elite. It was rather the culmination of fifty years of massive electoral campaigning for a democratic socialism. Socialism was not some novel idea that had to be announced or decreed during a post-election rally. It was, rather, something… Read more »