 |
| Subscriber Access |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
| FREE
User Content |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
| Classified Ads - Chile |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
| Search
Our Archives |
|
| |
|
| |
|
.gif)
| |
|
|
|
HUMAN
RIGHTS ISSUES IN CHILE: SCHIZOPRHENIC TIMES
Analysis by
Fernando Paulsen
(Ed. Note: A number of very bewildering and
convoluted events have occurred in recent weeks related to Chile’s
ongoing effort to deal with the Pinochet-era human rights legacy:
Lagos’ aborted support for human rights pardons; the nomination of
Judge Sergio Muñoz to the Supreme Court, and the back-and-forth
jurisdictional issues related to prosecutions at the Colonia
Dignidad German compound in southern Chile.
In the essay
below, one of Chile’s foremost journalists, Fernando Paulsen, tries
to put it all together in an understandable format. Not an easy
task.)
Just 12 days ago, two opposition rightist senators
and two senators from the governing Concertación coalition announced
a legislative initiative to benefit human-rights violators who had
served 10 years in jail: it would allow them conditional leave from
prison.
The President insinuated that he looked favorably
upon the measure. But things got complicated when presidential
candidate Michelle Bachelet said she didn’t think it was the
appropriate time to talk about pardons, to which the President
replied, “I agree with you.”
Also, in the past week, there
was a vacancy on the Supreme Court to be filled. The Court submitted
a list of five nominees, which included Judge Sergio Muñoz from the
Appeals Court, the judge in charge of the Spiniak child sex ring
case and the investigation into Pinochet’s secret bank accounts at
the Riggs Bank.
The nomination of Muñoz for the post was
made with a speed that is historically unheard of – within 48 hours,
President Lagos determined that Muñoz was to be the Supreme Court
candidate sent before the Senate for ratification.
But
human rights attorneys alleged the nomination was a back-door
maneuver to get Muñoz off the Riggs Bank case, and would have
national and international repercussions. They were thus able to get
the Senate to delay the vote on Muñoz until October 4.
In the
so-called Operation Colombo case, which is also part of the
Operation Condor case, the Supreme Court ruled that Pinochet must
face the courts and so stripped him of his legislative immunity. But
24 hours later, the same Supreme Court denied a petition from
plaintiffs in the Operation Condor case that would have assured that
Pinochet face a day in court. The Supreme Court made its ruling
based on health problems the general has, but these health problems
apparently weren’t considered in their decision to strip him of his
legislative immunity in the Colombo case.
A specially
appointed judge in the Colonia Dignidad case, Jorge Zepeda, was able
to secure in three months many of the things that the police and the
government had been unable to get after 15 years of effort: the
confidence of the Colonia’s residents. As a result, they finally
helped locate hidden armaments, intelligence files and even buried
autos. But his effort was challenged by the egocentric State Defense
Council and a judge in Parral, who raided the Colony with a
helicopter and special armed forces. They announced that the
leadership of the Colony had been charged with “illicit association”
(which carries stiff jail sentences if those accused are convicted,
and was thus a disincentive for collaboration with Zepeda), and put
all the economic activities of the Colony into receivership. To
carry out this order, the CDE used photocopies of various files, a
procedure that necessarily invalidated the proceedings – something
that cannot be ignored by the Supreme Court.
Judge Zepeda,
instead of taking it all quietly and thereby scoring points within
the government establishment, instead did what he is supposed to do
– even though it was politically incorrect – and dropped the charges
that had been brought by the CDE against Colony leaders Schäfer,
Hopp and the others. The judge also terminated the work of the
Colony’s newly appointed executor, a man much favored by the CDE.
All of this generated a ferocious response from the Interior
Minister, who proclaimed that the government’s work was being
thwarted.
Then the executive branch, which just weeks ago
said it “would not comment on judicial rulings,” instead began
challenging the judge’s rulings.
And if a case like this can
be challenged by the executive branch, then why not a case like
MOP-Gate, where those most affected are much closer to La Moneda
than the German community?
I am certain that if the criminals
at Colonia Dignidad are ever to spend time behind bars, it will be
because of the work done by Judge Zepeda, even though his
investigation upsets the egos of some State authorities. Zepeda,
thus far, has been a guarantor that our institutions function as
they must and that “due process” exists in our legal system. These
are two concepts that should not be scorned, but rather,
respected.
SOURCE: DIARIO SIETE
Translated by Steve
Anderson (features@santiagotimes.cl)
| |
|
|
.gif){kind=spacer}
