MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile’s Judges apologize for their passive complicity with the Pinochet regime.

The Supreme Court at that time, failed in their roles as safeguards of basic human rights said the Chilean Judges Association

Chile's judges issued a long-awaited apology on Wednesday to relatives of those who sought missing loved ones under the military regime of Dictator Augusto Pinochet only to have courts shrug them off.

“To those who were victims of state abuse ...the time has come to ask for the forgiveness of victims ... and of Chilean society”, said the Chilean Judges' Association in a statement almost 40 years after the September 11, 1973, coup that toppled elected socialist Salvador Allende.

Pinochet then took the helm of Chile with an iron fist remaining there until 1990.

“It must be said and recognized clearly and completely: the court system and especially the Supreme Court at that time, failed in their roles as safeguards of basic human rights, and to protest those who were victims of state abuse,” the judges said.

Chilean courts rejected about 5.000 cases seeking help on locating missing loved ones abducted or killed by the regime, saying they had no information about their fate.

Authorities believe the Cold War-era Pinochet regime was responsible for at least 3.200 killings and 38.000 cases of torture.

President Sebastian Pinera said last month that the coup on 11 September 1973 was “a historical fact” and its 40th anniversary should be a time of “reflection”.

The announcement came after the conservative senator and former president of the Independent Democratic Union, UDI, Hernan Larrain, apologised for his party's actions.
“I ask for forgiveness,” he said. ”This is my voice for reconciliation”.