Human rights abuses in Chile under Augusto Pinochet
[citation needed] 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.
[1] The most prevalent forms of state-sponsored torture that Chilean prisoners endured were electric shocks, waterboarding, beatings, and sexual abuse.
"[5] The worst violence occurred in the first three months of the coup's aftermath, with the number of suspected leftists killed or "disappeared" (desaparecidos) soon reaching into the thousands.
Following Pinochet's defeat in the 1988 plebiscite, the 1991 Rettig Commission, a multipartisan effort from the Aylwin administration to discover the truth about the human rights violations, listed a number of torture and detention centers (such as Colonia Dignidad, the ship Esmeralda or Víctor Jara Stadium), and found that at least 3,200 people were killed or disappeared by the regime.
[17] 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.
[citation needed] 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.
[citation needed] 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.-backed coup overthrew President Salvador Allende, a Socialist, on September 11, 1973.
[19] 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 regions of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
[21] 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, who had been the first Marxist to become President of a Latin American region through open elections.
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.
He organized a plebiscite, held on September 11, 1980, which approved a new Constitution that went into effect on October 21, 1980, and that validated the legal system he had established by decree.
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.
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.
"[28] 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.
Like DINA, this institution coordinated intelligence activities and political repression, with the air force having a major role in carrying out its agendas.
[30] 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.
[40] The military junta often framed leftist individuals and groups in order to justify its agenda to target and torture political dissidents.
Pinochet also authorized DINA to stage the bombing of a Chilean safe house, placing the blame on leftist extremists to demonstrate the danger they posed to society.
Members of intelligence agencies like DINA and the Joint Command attempted to extract information from victims by threatening their children and loved ones.
[43] 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.
[43]While "disappearing subversives" was the central instrument of state terror administered by the Argentine military regime from the 1960s to the 1980s, it was also extremely widespread and prevalent in Chile.
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 Stadium on September 18, 1973.
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 about the fate of approximately 180 people who had disappeared.
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.
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.
[51] Pinochet's Amnesty Law effectively insulated the military regime from retribution for even the most brutal and horrific human rights violations.
DINA was established in November 1973 as a Chilean Army intelligence unit, with General Manuel Contreras as its head and Raúl Iturriaga as its vice-director, who fled from justice in 2007.
Since human rights violations during the military regime corresponded to state policy, the number of people involved in these acts as authors, accomplices, or accessories is high.
