MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean Army says 1973 coup is “a closed matter”

Chilean Army Commander in chief General Juan Emilio Cheyre said that as far as the Army was concerned “the matter of September 11 is closed” referring to the September 11, 1973 bloody coup which installed the military regime of General Augusto Pinochet.

"For history, for historians, it might be open, but for us it is absolutely closed because that is the constitutional mandate and we have worked to add positively", said General Cheyre in a Sunday interview published in El Mercurio.

History "is not going to change, but I've already said that on the subject of human rights, we have already given our ... opinions, and the best thing we can do now is live normally", added the top ranking officer.

General Cheyre has been a key figure in pushing the military to overcome their identification with the Pinochet past, clearly subordinating the Armed Forces to civilian rule and collaborating with the courts on a number of trials concerning the abuse of human rights during the 17 year long dictatorship.

With regard to public opinion of the Army, General Cheyre emphatically declared "I'm not interested in popularity polls; the Army is interested in being respected and supported because it empowers and strengthens Chile".

The Army commemorated the day with a private Mass Sunday morning honouring the soldiers killed in the coup that overthrew Socialist President Salvador Allende and brought Pinochet to power. However the elderly former dictator, who is suffering from a variety of health problems and is facing trial for several human rights cases and acts of corruption, was not present.

The Mass was celebrated in the Military Academy in eastern Santiago and was attended by General Cheyre and some seventy other people, with journalists and unauthorized parties strictly barred from the ceremony.

Meanwhile 10,000 policemen were displayed in Santiago to prevent disorders as usually happens when the anniversary of the coup. However, on this occasion disruptions were limited and "very focalized" according to police reports with a toll of thirteen arrests and three Carabineros injured with stones.

Apparently the peaceful march of approximately 3.000 human rights militants was allegedly "infiltrated" by anarchists. After having deposited a flower wreath at the foot of a statue which remembers former President Allende next to Government House, the marchers headed for the main Cemetery to honour the many thousands killed, tortured, exiled and disappeared during the Pinochet years.

But incidents broke out when some of the "infiltrators" began insulting and attacking the police. A considerable number of marchers who came along with their families abandoned the scene when the clashes.

However the police acted rapidly and the human rights procession was able to proceed. According to official figures, the Pinochet regime's persecution of real or imagined political enemies left more than 3,000 dead, 1,197 of whom were detained and then "disappeared." Human rights groups contend that during that period at least 800,000 Chileans were jailed, tortured or exiled.