SANTIAGO—As hearings began on April 26 into the request to lift former dictator Augusto Pinochet’s parliamentary immunity, a new document surfaced which appears to personally implicate him in crimes committed by his subordinates.
On April 25, the online publication El Mostrador (www.elmostrador.cl) revealed the existence of a secret decree from August 1980 that stipulated that the army’s Antiterrorist Unit (UAT) could only act with the approval of the president—Pinochet. The UAT is considered responsible for the killing of journalist José Carrasco in 1986 and of 12 Communist youths in 1987, two of the cases currently before the courts.
Other evidence directly implicating Pinochet in human rights crimes came to light when retired Brigadier Pedro Espinoza, former number two in the DINA, the secret police, ratified before judge Juan Guzmán the veracity of a notarized statement he made in 1978 revealing that he had been coerced into concealing Pinochet’s involvement in the Letelier murder. Journalist Patricia Verdugo had revealed the existence of this statement in mid-March. The document says that a military prosecutor forced Espinoza to state that former head of the DINA, Manuel Contreras, had given him the order to kill Letelier and to excise from his deposition the claim that Contreras had done so “on the orders of the President of the Republic.”
The August 1980 secret decree and Espinoza’s statement now provide the “smoking gun” that corroborates what many have long surmised and Pinochet had all but admitted when he boasted that “not a leaf fell” in Chile without his knowledge. At the very least, the documents put Pinochet unequivocally in the loop, rather than simply in a position of formal overall responsibility, and this will certainly influence the immunity proceedings now under way at the Santiago court of appeals. If Pinochet is stripped of his immunity, he faces 102 criminal charges against him involving gross human rights abuses.
The possibility of Pinochet being brought to justice is making the military increasingly restless. The commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Ricardo Izurieta, has been outspoken in his support of Pinochet, stating to the press that he would not be satisfied in the event that Pinochet is stripped of his immunity. This comment drew harsh criticism from Héctor Salazar, one of the human rights attorneys participating in the government’s Roundtable for Dialogue, a body which is rejected by Chilean human rights organizations because it is seen as a means to avert the pending trials. In statements published by El Mostrador on May 6, Salazar called Izurieta “unfit” to continue in his charge as commander-in-chief because he had transgressed the Constitution.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Latin America Weekly Report is published weekly by Latin American Newsletters. For free samples and subscription information: Dept. 96A11, 61 Old Street, London EC 1V 9HW, England, Email: WR@latinnews.com.
Margot Olavarría is associate editor of NACLA Report on the Americas and is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the New School University.
