Supreme Court Appears Ready to Decide Whether to Allow Trial on Murder and Kidnapping Charges
SANTIAGO, Chile -- In the long struggle to seek justice for victims of human rights abuses committed during 17 years of military rule in Chile, former dictator Augusto Pinochet has repeatedly escaped efforts to prosecute him and bring him to trial. With Pinochet now under house arrest, the country's Supreme Court is said to be ready to announce Monday whether the ailing ex-general will finally be brought to court.
Last Monday, the Santiago Court of Appeals cleared the way for Pinochet, 89, to face trial on murder and kidnapping charges, but the final decision rests with the high court. After the 1973 military coup that brought him to power, an estimated 3,200 Chileans were detained in a campaign to root out Marxist groups and other political opponents. They were either killed or never seen again.
Relatives of the victims celebrated the decision.
"We're ecstatic," said Viviana Diaz, secretary general of the Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared. Diaz, who was 25 when her father disappeared in 1976, has devoted more than half of her life to searching for his remains -- and to seeking justice for those responsible.
"Personally, I always believed Pinochet would be tried," she said, stroking the faded photograph of a young, long-haired man pinned to her blouse. "Many times when I said this, people laughed at me. Even judges said, 'Who are you?' We were a helpless cry in the desert." But now that Pinochet is facing specific charges of multiple assassinations, she said, "we have more hope than ever."
The legal momentum that has gathered against Pinochet, coupled with dramatic revelations about past abuses, has also reopened political divisions in Chile, where Pinochet remains revered in some sectors of society for freeing the country of leftist influence. The coup he led overthrew the elected socialist government of President Salvador Allende, who died that day.
Pinochet's supporters and attorneys have termed the legal process a political witch hunt, saying it is inhumane to try a man his age. One of his attorneys, Pablo Rodriguez, last week decried the current court case as "a persecution that aims to injure and denigrate General Pinochet in the eyes of the public."
Ruth Garcia was among the handful of Pinochet supporters who gathered at the courthouse this week, chanting and waving flags.
"This is an injustice for my general," Garcia said. "My general gave his life for this country. He saved us from civil war. And if there were abuses in the process, then we are all guilty, because we were all banging on his door, asking him to save us."
Various court cases have been brought against Pinochet, beginning in the 1990s. In 1998 he was held under house arrest in London and then returned to Chile in 2000 to face charges. But he has avoided prosecution repeatedly by claiming poor physical or mental health, and no case has resulted in a trial or conviction.
The current case, in which Pinochet has been charged with orchestrating several assassinations of opponents overseas, began gaining ground last May, when the Santiago Court of Appeals stripped him of immunity from prosecution. In August, the Supreme Court unexpectedly upheld that ruling, and he underwent psychological and neurological exams. Judge Juan Guzman formally charged him Dec. 13.
Pinochet's health remains an unpredictable factor. He was excused from trial in 2001 by the Supreme Court after tests showed he suffered from mild dementia. Four of the five judges who must decide on his case now were on the panel that excused him then.
Medical exams in October showed that Pinochet's mental health had deteriorated, and last weekend he was sent to hospital after suffering a stroke. Eduardo Contreras, the prosecuting attorney, insisted Pinochet was still competent to stand trial, but some human rights groups say prosecuting him now might be a mistake.
"If Pinochet's real mental state is such that he cannot really mount a defense, he can't recognize the incidents he's been accused of . . . then to try a person in that state is a travesty of what justice is all about," said Sebastian Brett, a researcher for Human Rights Watch here. "So if you've been pushing for these trials . . . and you end up with a travesty of justice, then you end up with sort of a Pyrrhic victory."
Today, few figures in Latin America evoke as much outrage and adulation as Pinochet. He was initially supported by many middle-class and affluent Chileans opposed to Allende's rule, and he gained new support in the 1980s after the country experienced an economic revival. He narrowly lost a referendum in 1988 and handed over power two years later.
But Pinochet's popularity waned over the course of his rule, and it has continued to plunge as new revelations about abuses have emerged.
Until recently, Pinochet had been seen as legally untouchable. But in recent months, several high-profile human rights cases and a financial scandal involving secret bank accounts he held in Washington have appeared to turn the tide of public, and possibly legal, opinion.
"There has been a sort of domino effect, with a cascade of legal actions starting with Pinochet's loss of immunity back in May," said Sergio Laurenti, director of the Amnesty International office in Chile. "The appeals court's decision this week was an extraordinary victory."
In a country that once denied its bloody past, there has been a new drive to confront it. Last month, Gen. Emilio Cheyre, the army commander, took institutional responsibility for abuses committed during the dictatorship, and the Supreme Court struck down Pinochet's 1978 amnesty law for 1,200 disappearance cases, opening the door to a deluge of new charges.
At the same time, a major government report was released with graphic details of 35,000 torture cases under military rule. The government, headed by Ricardo Lagos, responded with lifetime pensions for torture survivors.
Three weeks ago, Pinochet suffered another legal defeat in a separate case, having his immunity stripped by the courts for a second time this year. As a result, he may soon be formally charged for ordering the 1974 murder of Gen. Carlos Prats, a former Chilean army chief, and his wife in Buenos Aires.
Finally, Pinochet is facing yet another Chilean judicial inquiry, as well as a tax evasion investigation, to determine if his secret accounts with Riggs National Bank, which came to light in July, contain any stolen government funds.
All of this points to a government -- and a legal system -- ready to take on what has become a thorn in their side, said Errol Mendes, a Brazilian international law professor.
"There has been a very cautious approach by a democratic government to try and downsize his influence until now, when both the government and the judiciary feel they can launch full-scale attacks," Mendes said. "Pinochet is now becoming synonymous with not only universal jurisdiction against human rights abuses, but universal jurisdiction against bribery and corruption. It's not a legacy that he would want to be known for."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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