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Renewal of the Struggle and Pinochet’s Final Dance with Justice (2001–2008)

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Battles for Memory and Justice in Chile

Part of the book series: Latin American Societies ((LAS))

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Abstract

This chapter aims to reconstruct the main debates that occurred around the issue of impunity, relations with official institutions, the recovery of Londres 38, and Pinochet’s final battle. It will therefore be a discursive analysis of the statements in the written press related to the struggles against impunity and the disaffection of an administration that isn’t working toward justice and truth. The chapter will begin by discussing the legal, judicial, and political contexts of the country at that time. Then, it will explore the discourses of the associations denouncing the contradictions between the human rights rhetoric of the Lagos and Bachelet administrations and what was being done on the ground. To conclude this chapter, the death of Pinochet in December 2006 will be as a micro-event that will once again change the memorial landscape.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Informe Anual sobre Derechos Humanos en Chile 2006 (Hechos de 2005)—Annual Report on Human Rights in Chile, 2006 (Events 2005), produced by the University Diego Portales

  2. 2.

    Of the 356 cases presented to the specialized judges, only 8 had been closed and a judgment had been given (Stern 2010: 330, Informe 2007: 264).

  3. 3.

    For a more comprehensive study of the rhetoric of stability and Chilean convivencia, see Doran (2009) and Moulían, 2005.

  4. 4.

    Agent of the DINA and the CNI, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison for the murder of union leader Tucapel Jiménez (Emol, 8/20/2005).

  5. 5.

    Notably Lorena Pizarro Sierra is a signatory, as well as members of the Communist Party of Chile, the PDC and the Socialist Party.

  6. 6.

    High school students came out to demand a thorough reform of the educational system. For more information on this topic, one can read Chovanec and Benitez (2008) or Belei and Cabalin (2013) to name just two examples.

  7. 7.

    These groups are linked to the group of 119 people listed in local newspapers and in the Southern Cone as victims of their own political movements. Operation Colombo or the Case of the 119 was carried out by the DINA between 1974 and 1975 with the objective of denying the existence of political prisoners and political executions and the disappeared (Biblioteca Nacional de Chile- Archivo nacional, 2005)

  8. 8.

    These authors discuss Villa Grimaldi, Londres 38, the National Stadium, Neptuno Street, and José Domingo Cañas among others (Wyndham and Read 2011).

  9. 9.

    This includes questioning the government’s investment in the preservation and establishment of these places of memory, their aesthetics, and who can or should be responsible for the content presented to visitors (Jean 2013: chap. 3).

  10. 10.

    December 10, 2006, is International Human Rights Day, but it is also the day that Judge Garzón launched the proceedings against him in London Ditto.

  11. 11.

    The silence described as relative here does not mean that the Fundación Pinochet has disappeared and has not made any public or political interventions, but that these have been made sparingly and that this does not constitute a representative element of the conjuncture studied.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sociology and Anthropology Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Joannie Jean

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Jean, J. (2023). Renewal of the Struggle and Pinochet’s Final Dance with Justice (2001–2008). In: Battles for Memory and Justice in Chile. Latin American Societies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25534-2_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25534-2_4

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