At a demonstration held in Valparaiso, Chile, on the evening of the day five British Law Lords ruled that General Augusto Pinochet was not immune from prosecution on genocide, state terrorism and torture charges, a tearful elderly woman commented: "Chile is full of dead people that cannot rest in peace. It is their souls that are keeping the dictator in prison, not the British judges". If one examines recent Chilean history one can see how her words carry a lot of truth. On October 16th 1973, 13 people were executed in Copiapó, 795 kilometres north of Chile’s capital, Santiago. 25 years later, on the very same day, General Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London. Was it a mere coincidence or was it the wandering soul of the disappeared crying for help?
Pinochet has had every possibility of defending himself. The thirteen people killed in Copiapo were not allowed the "luxury of a fair trial". On the night of October 16th they were taken from the local prison and massacred by army officers. It was the dreaded "Death Cortege" that, led by General Sergio Arellano under direct orders from Pinochet, murdered 72 prisoners in five different cities. In Copiapo the victims were accused of trying to escape, but fellow prisoners heard their cries as the soldiers were murdering them. 11 of the bodies were located in 1991; however, not a single empty cartridge was found which means that the prisoners were not shot.
María de la Luz Salas, a Human Rights lawyer who was present during the identification process says, "they died a slow painful death. They were massacred with knives, yataghans and bowie knives. According to the available forensic evidence, there was no single mortal wound, which means that they just bled to death. Adolfo Palleras, for example, whom I represent, died as a result of at least 20 small knife type injuries on his back. This can be inferred from his sweater, which was preserved due to the salty nature of the country’s northern soil. In fact, it is believed that many of them were buried alive."
Army officers committed such atrocities, such cruel action was carried out under orders from General Augusto Pinochet, the same who now demands to be released from prison on humanitarian grounds. Right after the Law Lords ruling was made public, Augusto Pinochet Hiriat, his eldest son, in an aggressive and hysterical speech, called on to Chileans "to close ranks" behind his father. But the majority of the Chilean people want the dictator to be brought to justice either here or elsewhere. In spontaneous and peaceful manifestations of joy, people took to the streets, university professors had to stop their lectures, because students wanted to go out to demonstrate, students and lecturers embraced each other, many shedding tears. At least 5 thousand people marched from the headquarters of the Association of the Relatives of the Disappeared to Santiago’s city centre. Hundreds of passers by joined in in a spontaneous manifestation of joy. The police used water cannons to disperse the demonstrators, as usual, but it did not matter, because people were happy.
Pinochet supporters, on the other hand, reacted hysterically, attacking reporters, violently confronting the police, setting up street barricades and burning British flags. A day after the ruling, the GOPE, the Police’s Special Operation Unit, was called to Congress buildings after someone denounced the existence of a car bomb at the building’s parking lot. At around midday, just a block away from where I am writing this article, the police conducted a controlled explosion of a suspicious package found under a railway bridge. The army issued a threatening statement saying that the ruling had caused the institution "frustration, indignation and uneasiness", adding that it offends in an extremely great fashion the "sovereignty and dignity of the fatherland." Indeed, the "sovereignty"argument has been used by the Right and government alike in order to defend the dictator as if Pinochet and the nation was one and the same thing. They aren’t, they never have been and they never will be. Our nation, our people, are not murderers, torturers, rapists. It was general Pinochet who raped our country, our people.
Pinochet’s detention has not opened any old wounds, for the simple reason that these have never healed. It is patently clear from the reaction in relation to the British judges verdict that after 25 years very little has changed in our country: the military are still in power and the civilian government is frightened to death of doing anything to upset them. Viviana Díaz, vice president of the Association of Relatives of the Disappeared, says "we have asked to meet with President Eduardo Frei on at least 15 occasions in the past four years. He has never received us." On the other hand, when Pinochet was arrested on October 16th the current commander in chief of the army, General Ricardo Izurieta, held an urgent meeting with the government that very same night. Why, if Pinochet is not a general anymore, why if he is simply a civilian, a senator?
For Viviana the answer is obvious, the military still control the country. However, "I was convinced that Pinochet was going to be arrested sooner or later, that one day he would pay for his crimes". Viviana’s father was detained and disappeared in 1976 and has never been seen since. Would she ever reconcile with those who kidnapped and killed his father? "Not unless and until they repent from what they have done to us and are brought to justice." But the military never will, former commander in chief of the navy, Jorge Martinez, has just stated "why should we repent? We are not responsible for the events of 1973." Likewise, Lucía Pinochet, the dictator’s daughter, declared in London "my father has always wanted peace and the unity of our country". What kind of peace was she referring to? That of the mass graves, of long months of solitary confinement, of unconsciousness after the application of electricity?
No, Chile, has never found peace since General Pinochet and the Armed Forces took over power 25 years ago, that’s why the dead of Copiapó are haunting Pinochet, the dead of Chile are haunting Pinochet, but it is up to us, the survivors, to fulfil their quest for justice. Only then can they rest in peace.
Tito Tricot Chile November 98
Tom Kruse Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-4) 248242 Email: tkruse at albatros.cnb.net