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The Pinochet Dictatorship: The Destruction of Society and the Construction of Impunity

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Book cover Human Rights Policies in Chile

Part of the book series: Studies of the Americas ((STAM))

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Abstract

This chapter contains an analysis of the goals and ideology of the Pinochet dictatorship and a summary discussion of the abuses, the abusers, and their collaborators. A brief analysis of the main human rights organizations formed during the dictatorship is also included. The goal of the chapter is not to provide an exhaustive description of the massive human rights abuses that took place between 1973 and 1989, but to provide a background to the human rights policies enacted between 1990 and 2013, and to highlight some of the worst atrocities committed by the regime

The chapter concludes that human rights abuses involved the actions and omissions of many participants including General Pinochet who ordered the crimes, the military personnel under his control and by the all-powerful Directorate of National Intelligence and Central Nacional de Informaciones whose members bragged about torturing and killing other human beings and terrorizing the society. The venerable Chilean Courts made a mockery of justice, served as accomplices to the crimes of the dictatorship, and failed in their basic mission of administering justice and protecting the citizens against government abuse. The right-wing politicians and Chile’s business class who unabatedly provided economic, intellectual, and political support to the dictatorship were also accomplices.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sergio Bitar, Isla 10, Quinta edición, Editorial Pehuén, Santiago, 1989, pp. 17 and 18.

  2. 2.

    Ascanio Cavallo, Manuel Salazar y Oscar Sepúlveda, La historia oculta del régimen militar chileno: Memorias de una época: 1973–1988, Uqbar Editores, Santiago, 2008, Capitulo 1.

  3. 3.

    Data on disappeared people was collected by Chile’s Truth Commission and the data on torture by the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture and Steve Stern, Op. Cit.,2010, p xxiii and xxiv.

  4. 4.

    Sergio Marras, Palabras de soldado, Santiago, Ediciones del Ornitorrinco, 1989, pp. 128–129.

  5. 5.

    Brian Loveman, The Constitution of Tyranny: Regimes of Exception in Spanish America, Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993, p. 403.

  6. 6.

    Heraldo Muñoz, Life under Augusto Pinochet: The Dictator’s Shadow, Basic Books, 2008, pp. 65 and 66.

  7. 7.

    See, Mitología Militar Chilena,: Surrealismo desde el superego, Minneapolis Institute for the Study of Ideologies and Literature, 1989; Dauno Totoro, La cofradía blindada, Chile civil y Chile militar: Trauma y conflict, Santiago: Editorial Planeta, 1998; Sergio Marras, Palabra de soldado, Santiago: Ediciones del Ornitorrinco, 1989; Brian Loveman, The Constitution of Tyranny: Regimes of Exception in Spanish America, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993 and For la Patria: Politics and the Armed Forces in Latin America, Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1999.

  8. 8.

    Borzutzky, S. “The Politics of Impunity: The Cold War, State Terror, Trauma, Trials and Reparations in Argentina and Chile”, Latin American Research Review, Vol. 42, No 1, February 2007.

  9. 9.

    Leslie Gill, The School of the Americas The School of the Americas: Military Training and Political Violence in the Americas, Durham: Duke University Press, 2004, p. 61.

  10. 10.

    Quoted by Marc Ensalaco, Chile under Pinochet, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999, p. 69.

  11. 11.

    Many books and articles discuss these policies see Silvia Borzutzky, op. cit., Leslie Gill, Op. Cit.; Katherine Sikkink, Mixed Signals: U.S. Human Rights Policy and Latin America Ithaca: Cornell University Press, A Century Foundation Book, 2004, 259 pp., J. Patrice Mc Sherry, Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2005.

  12. 12.

    Quoted in Mark Ensalaco, Op. Cit., p. 84.

  13. 13.

    Heraldo Muñoz, Op. Cit. p. 64.

  14. 14.

    Quoted in Heraldo Muñoz, Op. Cit., p. 66.

  15. 15.

    P. Constable and A. Valenzuela, Op. Cit., p. 91.

  16. 16.

    P. Constable and A. Valenzuela, Op. Cit., p. 97.

  17. 17.

    The term is borrowed from Constable and Valenzuela, Op. Cit.

  18. 18.

    Manuel Contreras and the Birth of DINA, http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/chile/DINA-birth.htm

  19. 19.

    Manuel Contreras and the birth of DINA, http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/chile/DINA-birth.htm

  20. 20.

    Mark Ensalaco, Op. Cit. p. 56.

  21. 21.

    Conception of the DINA (no author) http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~hrfisher/conception.html

  22. 22.

    Silvia Borzutzky, Op. Cit., 2002, p. 162.

  23. 23.

    Pedro Naranjo Sandoval, “Biografía de Miguel Enríquez Espinoza, http://www.lashistoriasquepodemoscontar.cl/miguelceme.htm

  24. 24.

    For a detailed analysis of the policies against MIR see Marc Ensalaco, Op. Cit. Ch. 4.

  25. 25.

    “Juez Carroza Identifica a Miguel Krassnoff, Teresa del Carmen Osorio y Rodolfo Concha como los autores del delito” El Mercurio, December 8, 2016

    www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=315913 See also, http://www.adnradio.cl/noticias/nacional/carroza-acusa-a-cuatro-exagentes-como-autores-del-asesinato-de-miguel-enriquez/20161207/nota/3325331.aspx For a detailed analysis of Krassnoff’s actions seehttp://www.memoriaviva.com/criminales/criminales_k/krassnoff_Martchenko.htm

  26. 26.

    Sergio Bitar, Op. Cit., pp. 172 and173.

  27. 27.

    Interview Carlos Morales Abarzúa, México City, June 1982, Sergio Bitar, Op. Cit., Miguel Lawner, Isla Dawson, Ritoque, Tres Álamos…: la vida a pesar de todo, LOM, Santiago, 2003.

  28. 28.

    El Campo de Concentración de Ritoque, Tres y Cuatro Álamos y el exilio Venezolano vivido por un estudiante de la UTE, http://lautevive.blogspot.com/2010/05/campos-de-concentracion-de-ritoque-tres.html

  29. 29.

    Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Organization of American States, “Report on the Status of Human Rights in Chile”, July 22–August 2, 1974http://cidh.org/countryrep/Chile74eng/chap.5.htm

  30. 30.

    Tercera Sesión de la Comisión Internacional de Investigación de los Crímenes de la Junta Militar en Chile, Ciudad de México, 18–21 de febrero de 1975, Denuncia y testimonio, Printed by the Commission in Helsinki, Finland, 1975, pp. 69–78.

  31. 31.

    Elizabeth Orrego y Gonzalo Zúñiga, “La solidaridad internacional con Chile: Una aproximación a la Comisión Internacional Investigadora de los crímenes de la Junta Militar en Chile” December 2011, www.cedocmuseodelamemoria.cl/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Sobre-la-Comisión-Internacional-InvestigadoraFinalísimo.pdf

  32. 32.

    Manuel Contreras and the Birth of the Dina, http://www.remember-chile.org.uk/beginners/contdina.htm

  33. 33.

    P. Constable and A. Valenzuela, Op. Cit., p. 99.

  34. 34.

    There are many sources that analyze this, See for instance J. Patrice McSherry, Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America, Rowman and Littlefield, Maryland, 2005.

  35. 35.

    Peter Kornbluh, The Pinochet File: A National Security Archive Book, The New Press, 2003, p. 201.

  36. 36.

    Peter Kornbluh, Op. Cit., pp. 201–233.

  37. 37.

    National Security Archives, Chile Documentation Project, Peter Kornbluh, Director, http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20000919/

  38. 38.

    Eugenio Ahumada, Rodrigo Atria, et. al., Chile: La memoria prohibida, Vol. II, pp. 41–44.

  39. 39.

    http://www.memoriaviva.com/criminales/criminales_m/mena_salinas_odlanier_rafael.htm

  40. 40.

    http://www.memoriaviva.com/criminales/criminales_g/Gordon.htm

  41. 41.

    http://www.memoriaviva.com/Ejecutados/Ejecutados_J/tucapel_francisco_jimenez_alfaro.htm

  42. 42.

    Cited by Cynthia Brown, Human Rights and the “Politics of Agreements”: Chile During President Aylwin’s First Year, An Americas Watch Report, 1991, p. 75, http://books.google.com/books?id=S_tDrlfM6McC&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=chile+CNI+terrorist+acts&source=bl&ots=lrnTtpm70a&sig=-Uc517HGdrQUV4p6FV0CxDki87Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3Ty7Uo_FM47isATLtYCwAQ&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=chile%20CNI%20terrorist%20acts&f=false

  43. 43.

    Mark Curtis, “The Pinochet Coup in Chile, 1973” http://markcurtis.wordpress.com/2007/02/12/the-pinochet-coup-in-chile-1973/

  44. 44.

    Chile: Torture and the Naval Training Ship the “Esmeralda” Transnational Institute, November 17, 2005, http://www.tni.org/archives/pin-docs_esm-amn

  45. 45.

    Retired navy officers indicted for killing, torture of priest” USA Today, April 19, 2008, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-04-19-chile-indictments_N.htm The Death Boat, Santiago Times, February 14, 2004, http://santiagotimes.cl/the-death-boat/

  46. 46.

    Raúl Zurita, The Country of Planks, Translated by Daniel Borzutzky, Action Books. Notre Dame, 2015, Introduction.

  47. 47.

    Correspondence between Zurita and Daniel Borzutzky, 2011.

  48. 48.

    “Esmeralda Torture Victims Reject Chile’s Navy Reparation Ceremony” Santiago Times, January 4, 2005, http://santiagotimes.cl/esmeralda-torture-victims-reject-chiles-navy-reparation-ceremony

  49. 49.

    Ascanio Cavallo, Op. Cit. Ch. 2; Paula Thorrington Cronovich, “Out of the Blackout and into the Light: How the Arts Survived Pinochet’s Dictatorship” http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.850.8701&rep=rep1&type=pdf

  50. 50.

    The Amnesty Law can be found in the Diario Oficial No. 30042 of April 19, 1978.

  51. 51.

    Chile: Legal Brief on the Incompatibility of Decree Law no 2191 of 1978 with International Law, Amnesty International, 2001 www.amnesty.org/…/amr220022001en.pdf

  52. 52.

    Decreto Ley Nº 1 de 1973, Acta de Constitución de la Junta de Gobierno, http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Decreto_Ley_N%C2%BA_1_de_1973,_acta_de_constituci%C3%B3n_de_la_junta_de_gobierno

  53. 53.

    International Commission of Jurists, Centre for the Independence of Jurists and Lawyers, “Chile: A Time of Reckoning, Human Rights and the Judiciary” (Geneva: Centre for the Independence of Jurists and Lawyers, 1992), p. 80.

  54. 54.

    Report of the National Commission of Truth and Reconciliation, Op. Cit., Vol. 1, p. 859 http://www.scribd.com/doc/18952823/Chileans-National-Commission-on-Truth-and-Reconciliation-Report

  55. 55.

    Report of the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, Translated by Phillip E. Berryman (Center for Civil and Human Rights, Notre Dame Law School, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1993) Vol. 1, p.123

  56. 56.

    International Commission of Jurists, Op. Cit., p. 87.

  57. 57.

    Report of the National Commission of Truth and Reconciliation, Op. Cit., Vol. 1, p. 859.

  58. 58.

    Report of the National Commission of Truth and Reconciliation, Op. Cit., Vol1, p. 126.

  59. 59.

    Robert Barros, Constitutionalism and Dictatorship: Pinochet, the Junta and the 1980 Constitution, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 98–105.

  60. 60.

    International Commission of Jurists, Op. Cit. pp. 88 and 89.

  61. 61.

    Constitution of the Republic of Chile, October 21, 1980 http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/research/chile-constitution.pdf

  62. 62.

    International Commission of Jurists, Op. Cit., p. 94.

  63. 63.

    Chile, Law 19027, http://books.google.com/books?id=bTDtd_vFSc4C&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=chile+law+19027+text&source=bl&ots=R3MoqCM4D1&sig=zPPMLv4XW1b8NPDdLG1BycPFIBc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mvXZUP7IG62M0QHEpIDQCA&sqi=2&ved=0CE0Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=chile%20law%2019027%20text&f=false\

  64. 64.

    Edward C. Snyder, “The Dirty Legal War: Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Chile 1973–1995”, Tulsa Journal of Comparative and International Law. Available through https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/evidence99/pinochet/HistoryGeneralArticle.htm

  65. 65.

    Brian Loveman and Elizabeth Lira, Las Ardientes cenizas del olvido: Vía Chilena de la reconciliación política 1932–1994, Lom Ediciones, Santiago, 2000.

  66. 66.

    Lisa Hilbink. Judges Beyond Politics in Democracy and Dictatorship: Lessons from Chile, (New York Cambridge University Press), 2007.

  67. 67.

    Jorge Correa Sutil, “The Judiciary and the Political System in Chile: The Dilemmas of Judicial Independence During the Transition to Democracy” in Irwin Stotzky, Transition to Democracy in Latin America: The Role of the Judiciary, Westview Press, 1993, pp. 73–88.

  68. 68.

    Código Civil de Chile.

  69. 69.

    For a discussion of the Supreme Court’s class bias see, Eduardo Novoa Monreal, “Justicia de Clases”, Revista Mensaje No 187, Mar/April 1970, pp. 108–118.

  70. 70.

    Report of the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation, Op. Cit., Vol. 1, p. 126.

  71. 71.

    MercoPress, “Chile’s Judges apologize for their passive complicity with the Pinochet regime., September 5, 2013”, http://en.mercopress.com/2013/09/05/chile-s-judges-apologize-for-their-passive-complicity-with-the-pinochet-regime.

  72. 72.

    Partido Unión Democrática Independiente, Declaración de principios, Biblioteca Congreso Nacional, Chile http://www.bcn.cl/erecomen/pp/udi

  73. 73.

    Interview Jaime Guzmán, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBG9teBBJOE

  74. 74.

    Jaime Guzmán Errázuriz, http://arcvdong.blogspot.com/p/biografia.html

  75. 75.

    Rosario Guzmán, “Carta abierta a mi hermano Jaime”, La Tercera, March 27, 2016 http://www.latercera.com/noticia/politica/2016/03/674-673995-9-carta-abierta-a-mi-hermano-jaime.shtml See also, El Tío, http://www.latercera.com/noticia/nacional/2013/08/680-539396-9-el-tio-jaime-guzman.shtml http://www.caras.cl/cine/ignacio-santa-cruz-la-muerte-de-guzman-se-cocino-entre-pinochet-y-contreras/

  76. 76.

    América, Economía, Política y Sociedad “Chile: diputada UDI sostiene que gobierno de Pinochet fue una dictadura diferente, el golpe lo pidió la gente”, http://www.americaeconomia.com/politica-sociedad/politica/chile-diputada-udi-sostiene-que-gobierno-de-pinochet-fue-una-dictadura-di, January 9, 2012.

  77. 77.

    http://co.noticias.yahoo.com/gobierno-distancia-pinochet-policia-reprime-200200927.html

  78. 78.

    Peter Winn, Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, 1973–2002, Duke University Press, London, 2004, pp. 25 and 26.

  79. 79.

    Peter Winn, Op. Cit., pp. 26 and 27.

  80. 80.

    W.J. Samuels “Further Limits to the Chicago Doctrine” quoted in Juan Gabriel Valdes, La Escuela de Chicago: Operación Chile, Grupo Editorial Zeta, Buenos Aires, 1989, p. 102.

  81. 81.

    Silvia Borzutzky, “From Chicago to Santiago: Neoliberalism and Social Security Privatization in Chile” Governance, Vol 18, Issue 4, pp. 665–674, Oct 2005.

  82. 82.

    Silvia Borzutzky, Vital Connections: Politics, Social Security and Inequality in Chile, University of Notre Dame Press, 2002, pp. 153 and 154.

  83. 83.

    Sergio de Castro, Speech, Asociación Latinoamericana de Instituciones de Desarrollo, Marzo 29, 1977, Published in Carlos Méndez, ed. Chilean Economic Policy, Santiago, 1978, pp. 233–242.

  84. 84.

    Data from various sources including: Banco Central de Chile, Official Statistics, Several years; Alejandro Foxley, Latin American Experiments with Neo-Conservative Economics Berkeley, University of Berkeley Press, 1983, p. 32; Aníbal Pinto, “El modelo ortodoxo y el desarrollo nacional”, Trimestre Económico, 47, n 192, October–December 1980, p. 855.

  85. 85.

    José Piñera, Speech at the Segundo Simposio Latinoamericano y Europeo de Cooperación Económico, August 1979.

  86. 86.

    P. Constable and A. Valenzuela, Op. Cit. p. 223.

  87. 87.

    P. Constable and A. Valenzuela, Op. Cit. p 231.

  88. 88.

    Peter Winn, Op. Cit., pp. 37 and 38.

  89. 89.

    Foxley, Latin American Experiments, pp. 41 and 42 and Fernando Dahse, El mapa de la extrema riqueza: Los grupos económicos y el proceso de concentración de capitales, Santiago, Editorial Aconcagua, pp. 22, 176–178.

  90. 90.

    Peter Winn, Op. Cit. Title.

  91. 91.

    BBC News, “Business: The Economy German industry unveils Holocaust fund”, Tuesday, February 16, 1999, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/280475.stm

  92. 92.

    In a recent development Mitsubishi agreed to compensate World War II Chinese workers. See, The Wall Street Journal, “Mitsubishi Materials Strikes Deal With Chinese Over WWII Forced Labor” June 1, 2016 http://www.wsj.com/articles/mitsubishi-materials-strikes-deal-with-chinese-over-wwii-forced-labor-1464778677

  93. 93.

    Daniel Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust, Alfred P. Knopf, New York, 1996.

  94. 94.

    Cath Collins, Op. Cit., p. 65.

  95. 95.

    Cath Collins, Op. Cit. p. 65.

  96. 96.

    P. Lowden, Moral Opposition to Authoritarian Rule in Chile, 1973–1990, New York MacMillan, 1996, p. 32.

  97. 97.

    Arzobispado de Santiago, Fundación Documentación y Archivo, Vicaría de la Solidaridad, http://www.vicariadelasolidaridad.cl/vicaria_accion.php

  98. 98.

    Cachando Chile: Reflections on Chilean Culture, “Chilean Arpilleras: A Chapter of History Written on Cloth”, September 11, 2010 https://cachandochile.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/chilean-arpilleras-a-chapter-of-history-written-on-cloth/

  99. 99.

    Pamela Lowden, Op. Cit. p. 32.

  100. 100.

    Darren Hawkins, International Human Rights and Authoritarian Rule in Chile, University of Nebraska Press, 2002, p. 56.

  101. 101.

    Darren Hawkins, Op. Cit., p. 57.

  102. 102.

    Cited by Darren Hawkins, p. 57.

  103. 103.

    Derechos Chile, Directory of Human Rights Organizations, http://www.derechoschile.com/ONG/ngo.html

  104. 104.

    Derechos Chile, Directory of Human Rights Organizations, http://www.derechoschile.com/ONG/ngo.html

  105. 105.

    Viviana Díaz, interview, Santiago December 28, 2011.

  106. 106.

    Mara Loveman, “High Risk, Collective Action: Defending Human Rights in Chile, Uruguay and Argentina”, American Journal of Sociology, Vol.104, no 2, Sept. 1998, pp. 477–478.

  107. 107.

    Mara Loveman, Op. Cit., p. 492.

  108. 108.

    http://word.world-citizenship.org/wp-archive/2320

  109. 109.

    http://word.world-citizenship.org/wp-archive/2320

  110. 110.

    Viviana Díaz, interview, Santiago December 28, 2011.

  111. 111.

    Paula Allen, Flowers in the Desert: The Search for Chile’s Disappeared, Second Edition, Foreword by Isabel Allende, p. viii.

  112. 112.

    Steve Stern, Op. Cit., 2010, p. 14.

  113. 113.

    Patricia Verdugo, “The Tragedy of Calama” in Paula Allen, Op. Cit., p. xix; For a detailed analysis, see Patricia Verdugo, La Caravana de la Muerte: Pruebas a la vista, Editorial Sudamericana Chilena, Santiago, 2000.

  114. 114.

    Paula Allen, Op. Cit., pp. xxiv-xxvi. These stories are beautifully depicted in the film Nostalgia de la Luz, Directed by Patricio Guzmán.

  115. 115.

    “Caravana de la Muerte: Identifican restos de Carlos Berger esposo de Carmen Hertz”, La Nación, January 31, 2014 http://www.lanacion.cl/noticias/pais/tribunales/caravana-de-la-muerte-identifican-restos-de-carlos-berger-esposo-de-carmen-hertz/2014-01-31/121847.html Carmen Hertz and her son German stories have been the subject of two TV programs: “Ecos del Desierto” y “Mi Vida con Carlos”.

  116. 116.

    PCChile, “Emoción y dolor en funeral de Carlos Berger”, April 14, http://www.pcchile.cl/?p=9057

  117. 117.

    La Memoria obstinada de Carmen Hertz, Revista Paula, April 23, 2014 http://www.paula.cl/entrevista/la-memoria-obstinada-de-carmen-hertz/

  118. 118.

    Mara Loveman, Op. Cit.

  119. 119.

    The term is borrowed from a book edited by M. Gibney, R.E. Howard-Hassmann, J.M. Coicaud and N Steiner, The Age of Apology: Facing up to the Past, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.

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    Silvia Borzutzky

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Borzutzky, S. (2017). The Pinochet Dictatorship: The Destruction of Society and the Construction of Impunity. In: Human Rights Policies in Chile. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53697-2_2

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