Tuesday, May 29th 2012 - 20:02 UTC

Chile debates legal status of ‘forcibly disappeared’ persons during Pinochet dictatorship

Amnesty International Chile made public its 2012 Annual Report on Human Rights last week putting a special emphasis on justice for victims of human rights atrocities committed during the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1973-1990.

Vergara, President of Amnesty International Chile: “government has to take a position on the case”

The report was launched in the midst of a recently rekindled Chilean national debate over the legal status of forcibly disappeared persons during that period.

In Chile, victims of the forced disappearances are legally considered to be alive, in spite of the insistence by some human rights activists that they be given a special “forcibly disappeared” status, as is the case in neighbouring Argentina.

Hernán Vergara, President of Amnesty International Chile urged the government to take action. “The government has to take a position on the case,” Vergara told the Santiago Times at the report’s launching.

This debate re-emerged in Chile after the national electoral service, Servel, released a sample of newly electronic voting registries, which included the names of about 1,000 forcibly disappeared persons.

Juan Carlos Moraga of Servel insisted that Servel had not made a mistake, since these people were all legally alive.

“The deep-down problem is that the Chilean state has not been able to classify the legal state of disappeared persons,” Moraga told the Santiago Times.

Lorena Fries, president of Chile’s National Institute of Human Rights (INDH), voiced this opinion as well.

“The solution to this has to do with modifying the law to give special status to the people that appear on the electoral register even though they are disappeared persons,” Fries told La Tercera.

The UN’s International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance states that “each state party shall take the appropriate steps with regard to the legal situation of disappeared persons whose fate has not been clarified.”

Providing special legal status is only one step in finding justice for the victims, however. As the Amnesty International report also recognized, only 66 out of the 245 convicted perpetrators of human rights abuses during the dictatorship are currently in prison.

By Maria Giulia Agostini - The Santiago Times

7 comments Feed

Note: Comments do not reflect MercoPress’ opinions. They are the personal view of our users. We wish to keep this as open and unregulated as possible. However, rude or foul language, discriminative comments (based on ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or the sort), spamming or any other offensive or inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated. Please report any inadequate posts to the editor. Comments must be in English. Thank you.

1 JohnN (#) May 29th, 2012 - 10:41 pm Report abuse
Wonder what Argentina has done with many of its 30,000 dead who were disappeared over the Rio de la Plata or South Atlantic?
2 Sergio Vega (#) May 30th, 2012 - 03:15 am Report abuse
In Chile, when a person is missed for more than five years its kin can ask for the alleged died status with no considertion on its death cause, so they can go ahead with their lives, heritage and other benefits for the widow/er and kids....The kin of the leftist missing people during the military Gvt. in Chile have been used to use this condition as a way of life to earn a lot of benfits paid by the Chilean inhabitant's pockets....and political abuse to keep the division through the society as they are expert on....

One person can be death or alive, nothing more......the missing people is a fake status created by the hatred leftist around the world....
3 Guzz (#) May 30th, 2012 - 04:20 am Report abuse
Argentina jailed the junta leaders, Chile has done very little.

Sergio
Now it's the “leftists” fault your dear Pinochet killed and disappeared thousands? Nunca mas! :)
4 Think (#) May 30th, 2012 - 04:23 am Report abuse
(1) JohnN

Don't “wander”....., try reading.
You can read?..............Can you?.....

“In Chile, victims of the forced disappearances are legally considered to be alive, in spite of the insistence by some human rights activists that they be given a special “forcibly disappeared” status, as is the case in neighbouring Argentina.”

“a special “forcibly disappeared” status, as is the case in neighbouring Argentina.”

“as is the case in neighbouring Argentina.”

Still “Wanderin”?
What a Turnip!
5 ManRod (#) May 30th, 2012 - 02:54 pm Report abuse
Guzz: “Argentina jailed the junta leaders, Chile has done very little.”

Don't talk crap... the chilean military who were proven to be guilty are also in jail, while alot/most of Argentinian Military are still free or have received amnesty from former argentine president Menem. But also the terrorist, who commited attrocities like killing civilians are in jail in Chile, while Argentina does protect them or offer them asylum.

Like Galvarino Apablaza, who murdered several political oposers to his leftist ideas, kidnapped, bombed public places killing civilians, all even after return of democracy in Chile in 91, but is now protected by the Argentine government and even ...works for the Casa Rosada! (His argentinian wife, Paula Chain, is no less then the personal counselour of Cristina Kirchner's Press office!)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvarino_Apablaza

Guzz, Argentina is the last country in the southern cone to have it as any kind of moral example or comparison... it is, including all it's “institutions” at the bottom of filth and corruption, and you KNOW it.

I consider it an insult to have any kind of comparison with Chile, or even your homecountry Uruguay (in case you would really be an Uruguayan, which i am not very sure about)
6 Guzz (#) May 30th, 2012 - 05:45 pm Report abuse
ManRod

Argentina:
www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/Argentina-s-junta-leaders-face-trial-over-Dirty-1602682.php

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_the_Juntas

Chile:
*Post your proof here*

If you can't, stop spreading lies
7 Sergio Vega (#) Jun 01st, 2012 - 05:39 am Report abuse
Guzz, first of all, were you living here when that facts have ocurred ??? I was and I know the truth....What was the primarily cause of all those years of hate, violence and society destruction? It was the intolerance from the leftist that having won the office just for no more than 30.000 votes, with about only a 30% of the total voting account, intented to change the values, moral of a society from over a hundred years of constitutional history from its roots forgeting the rights of the majority which didn´nt want those ultra changes and didn´t respecting their word given to the leaders of the Christian Democratic Party leaded by Patricio Aylwyn and Eduardo Frei through a list of 100 measrures to ensure a peaceful Gvt. signed by the evil liar Allende to be elected and confirmed at the Congress Plenary Session between the two first majorities.
from that day on they, the leftist parties coalition Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) launched a hughe campaign to break the Chilean society and its economic basis to re-built it as a branch of the then USSR, PRC and Cuba....becoming our coutry as an almost civilian war society economically broken....plenty of foreign and national killer terrorist, disrespecting our Constitution and laws leading the Senate President, Mr. Aylwyn spoken about it as unconstitutional and asking to Allende to resign the Office to finally after he didn't calling the Army Forces to act defending the Chilean Constitution and laws.....that was the root cause of the of the next years of military Gvt. were those killer terrorist were pursued to clean the national enviroment and allow the country to be a safe and develoing one....so those “forced disappeared” were no nurses children but dangerous killers lamb-like disguised. The most of them were died on the early military Gvt. days and some others were those that run away from Chile hidding and changing his names cowardly like cowardly his mentor Allende killed himself to avoid his responsability.

Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!

Advertisement

Get Email News Reports!

Get our news right on your inbox.
Subscribe Now!

Advertisement