Title	Chile: Transition at the crossroads: human rights violations under Pinochet rule remain the crux
Publisher	Amnesty International
Publication Date	6 March 1996
Country	Chile
Topics	Administrative courts | Constitutional law | Criminal justice | Disappeared persons | Human rights and fundamental freedoms | Military courts | Military law | Security forces | Transitional justice (including amnesty laws)
Citation / Document Symbol	AMR 22/001/1996
Reference	Amnesty International is a worldwide voluntary movement that works to prevent some of the gravest violations by governments of people's fundamental human rights. The main focus of its campaigning is to: free all prisoners of conscience people detained an
Cite as	Amnesty International, Chile: Transition at the crossroads: human rights violations under Pinochet rule remain the crux, 6 March 1996, AMR 22/001/1996, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a9b94.html [accessed 2 November 2019]
Comments	Chile's transition to democracy is at a crossroads. Whilst democratically elected governments have been in office since March 1990, in recent months the Chilean Government has publicly discussed the remaining obstacles to a full transition, which it openly admits is incomplete. Central to these discussions, and the focus of intense debate in Chilean society, is the question of human rights violations under the government of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-90), the future of investigations into them and the prosecution of those found responsible. Amnesty International is concerned at moves to speed the definitive closure of all court investigations into human rights violations from the period of military rule. The organization is concerned both by legislative proposals which would effectively seal cases from prosecution and further investigation, and by the apparent undue haste with which the Chilean courts have been closing cases before the full truth has been established. These moves are clearly influenced by military pressure to confirm total immunity from prosecution to perpetrators of human rights violations. Much attention has focused on the Supreme Court's May 1995 confirmation of seven and six year prison sentences for General Manuel Contreras and Brigadier Pedro Espinoza for the assassination of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and US citizen Ronnie Moffit in Washington DC in 1976, which sparked intense and continuing protest from the Armed Forces. Since July 1995, the Chilean Supreme Courts has definitively closed 14 court proceedings on human rights cases involving 104 individual victims, with the pace of closures speeding-up as legislative proposals on the issue have been presented to Congress. Three main legislative proposals on this matter have been presented in the Chilean Senate since July. The last of these, the Figueroa-Otero Bill, was presented in November and was the result of negotiations between the government and the right-wing opposition National Renovation (Renovación Nacional) party. It has now been passed from the Senate's Constitution, Legislation and Justice Committee to the Senate's Human Rights Committee, after which it may be presented to the full Senate and House of Deputies for debate and voting. This Figueroa-Otero Bill would prevent prosecutions, restrict judicial investigations to locating the remains of the "disappeared", ensure total secrecy for these investigations, and allow cases to be closed before remains are located or the full truth is established. It has been roundly condemned by human rights organizations in Chile. The governing coalition had presented its own original legislative package in August 1995 combining human rights legislation with reforms to the Constitution to extend civilian power over military appointments, the Constitutional Court, the National Security Council and the Senate. It presented the package as essential in furthering the transition to democracy, and asserted that concessions on the prosecution of those responsible for human rights violations would not be made in the absence of wider institutional provisions to address "authoritarian enclaves remaining in our society". Before leaving office in March 1990, the military imposed restrictions on the power of civilian governments, guaranteeing military representation in key institutions, that General Pinochet would remain as Commander of the Armed Forces until March 1998, and appoint nine members of the Senate with mandates until that date. Continuing debate and negotiations over these legislative proposals has been heated. Further amendments to the Figueroa-Otero Bill and to the proposals for constitutional reform are likely to be presented as they pass through the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Much debate has focused on the interpretation and application of Chile's 1978 Amnesty Law (from which the Letelier/Moffit case was specifically excluded). This report analyses the application of this law to hundreds of cases of grave human rights violations which occurred in the period of greatest repression, 1973-1978, and examines a number of key cases that have had repercussions in the courts and in Chilean society. Amnesty International believes that both the Amnesty Law and the way it has been applied are contrary to international human rights standards. The organization believes that details of individual cases of human rights violations during the military period have yet to be fully established, and therefore strongly opposes any further restriction on the investigation of these violations or on the prosecution of those found responsible.
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