MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bachelet leads bipartisan delegation to Big Apple

President Michelle Bachelet on Sunday will lead a delegation of high-profile Chilean politicians to the United Nations headquarters in New York City. While the purpose of the trip is ostensibly to participate in the U.N.'s 62nd General Assembly, the journey also gives Chile an opportunity to shore up support in its bid for a seat on the international body's Human Rights Council (UNHCR).

Joining Bachelet on her trip north are leaders from a broad spectrum of Chile's political parties. Among those expected to accompany her are the heads of the four Concertación coalition parties – Soledad Alvear of the Christian Democratic party, Camilo Escalona of the Socialist Party, Sergio Bitar of the Party for Democracy and José Antonio Gómez of the Radical Party – as well as the presidents of the two conservative Alliance for Chile parties: Carlos Larraín of the National Renovation party and Hernán Larraín of the Independent Democratic Union party. By extending the invitation to such a bipartisan delegation, analysts say President Bachelet is looking to project an image of political unity and thus strengthen Chile's chances for a UNHCR seat. "We still have a long way to go. It's the job of our (permanent) mission in New York to seek support, but the presence of top authorities always helps," Chilean U.N. Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz told the daily La Nación. "We're working intensely toward the goal of being chosen for the Council in elections set to take place next May," he added. "The votes are beginning to come in, but we still don't have enoughâ€Ã‚¦This is a long process, but we hope that Chile's record on human rights issues is a factor that will help us win a seat on the Council." According to Muñoz, Chile has a particularly strong record on human rights – examples being the landmark Rettig and Valech Commissions, which President Bachelet recently reopened. In 1991 the Rettig Commission confirmed more than 1,200 disappearances and deaths that occurred during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. Fifteen years later, the Valech Commission documented more than 27,000 torture cases during the 17-year military regime (ST, Sept. 4). The Chilean government also announced recently it will convert a Pinochet-era prison into the country's first Human Rights Institute (ST, Aug. 16). This is not the first time Bachelet has taken the international stage to seek support for Chile's UNHCR ambitions. The president recently visited Japan, where in exchange for Japanese support in next year's UNHCR vote, Bachelet promised to back Japan's hopes of winning a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. While there, the Chilean leader visited Hiroshima, where in August 1945 U.S. forces dropped an atomic bomb that killed some 70,000 people. An estimated 60,000 more people died in the following months due to injuries and radiation Days later Bachelet continued her lobbying efforts while attending an APEC summit in Australia. During the summit President Alan García of Peru promised to support Chile's UNHCR efforts. Critics of this and past Chilean governments, however, say Chile's human rights record is far from perfect. Last December Augusto Pinochet, whose regime was responsible for countless human rights abuses, passed away without ever being convicted of a single crime. Parallels have been drawn between unresolved legal proceedings against Pinochet and the ongoing extradition case involving former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, currently under house arrest in Chile. Peruvian authorities want the ex-president sent home to face charges of corruption and human rights violations. In June, Supreme Court prosecutor Mónica Maldonado, in making an official recommendation on the case, found there to be enough evidence in most of the 12 cases originally presented against Fujimori to warrant the extradition request. But exactly one month later, Chile's Supreme Court made a complete about-face. On July 11 Judge Orlando Álvarez dismissed all 12 of the cases presented against Fujimori The drawn-out case has been followed closely by international human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International (AI), which eagerly await a final ruling. The appeals branch of Chile's Supreme Court, which has reportedly voted on the mater already, is expected to announced its decision as early as today. Another unresolved human rights issue in Chile has to do with the country's estimated 1.5 million indigenous people. Just last week Chile joined 142 other nations in voting for the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People. The Declaration, nearly 25 years in the making, outlines the rights of the world's estimated 370 million indigenous people. Among other provisions, the Declaration grants indigenous peoples the right to self-determination and self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs. It remains to be seen, however, what practical affect the government's support for the Declaration will have in Chile, where indigenous peoples are routinely discriminated against. In its most recent global report, AI noted harsh police treatment as just one of the problems plaguing Chile's indigenous groups. In July 2006, the AI report noted, police raided a Mapuche community in Malleco Province (Region IX) and then fired tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition on unarmed community members. As a pretext for the raid, police said they were seeking stolen animals. AI also noted that in December of that year, police fired on Mapuche workers collecting their salaries in the city of Ercilla, also in Region IX. The attack left six people injured. The Santiago Times