MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Bachelet government seek to repeal dictator Pinochet's Amnesty Law
Justice Minister Gomez said the government will press for Congress to debate the annulment of the law, for which allegedly it has the sufficient votes As Chileans commemorated the 41 st anniversary of the 1973 military coup, Justice Minister José Antonio Gomez announced that the government of Michelle Bachelet will seek to repeal the Amnesty Law, a legacy of the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
The law covers the period from September 1973 to April 1978. Although Pinochet remained in power until 1990, the period covered by the law was the most brutal in terms of human right violations.
The law allows human rights abusers to avoid prison even when crimes against humanity are not subject to statute of limitations.
Gómez said the government will press for Congress to debate the annulment of the law, on the basis of a bill that Senator Guido Girardi introduced in 2006.
The repeal is likely to pass easily, considering that the ruling coalition has a simple majority in both chambers. A relatively large number of members of the Chilean military have been tried and convicted for abuses, most of which happened after 1978.
However the complex structures that Pinochet created to protect human rights violators have been falling. About 700 military officials face trial for the forced disappearance of dissidents, and about 70 have been jailed for crimes against humanity.
Still, Chileans remain divided over Pinochet’s 1973-90 dictatorship, and the coup anniversary is often marked by violence, as happened on this latest event.
During the 11 September 1973 coup, fighter jets attacked La Moneda, and tanks and soldiers surrounded the building as it burst into flames. Salvador Allende, a self declared Marxist who had been elected in 1970, killed himself rather than surrender to coup plotters led by Pinochet.
The coup was initially supported by many Chileans fed up with hyperinflation, food shortages and factory takeovers. But it destroyed a political and economic system they had proudly described as Latin America’s most solid democracy.
Pinochet cut short Allende’s reforms. He privatized pension and water systems, slashed trade barriers and encouraged exports, building a free-market model. He also shut down Congress, outlawed political parties and sent thousands of dissidents into exile.
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Read all commentsWhen the moment arrives that this stupid woman understand all the irreversible damage she & her crazy ganag is doing to our country....???
Sep 13th, 2014 - 11:41 pm 0Why, in a complicated economic world status, she decided to pass the backhoe over all that Chile developed in the last four years after 20 years of missmanagement with the almost same coalition that is destroting the country now...???
Was necessary to make, at the same time and without any deep discusion and studies, very sensitives reforms like the tax system, constitutional system, educational system, labour system, etc.....????
People needs jobs, security, good expectations about its future and what they have gotten is the contrary.....low growth, low investiment, higher inflation, higher unemployement rate, higher taxes, and LOWER PERSONAL SAFETY....while the Gvt. lost its time hiding their wrong actions (and its severes consequences) under social divider policies about facts ocurred 40 years ago instead give the necessary econmic stimulus to recover the good growts rates from last 4 years and fight the left extremist actions we are seeing day after day......
I made my concerned and sad forecast about what we can expect from this coalition if they won the election long before......but, and this is the worst, I was short on my predictions.......With just 6 month at the office the Nueva Pilleria coalition has reached the top of the inability and failure as leaders of the country.....
Sorry, but as I can see the future.......R.I.P. Chile, my dear home.....!!!
http://en.mercopress.com/2014/09/13/bachelet-government-seek-to-repeal-dictator-pinochet-s-amnesty-law#comment350958: The reason that the Congress is debating these bills is easy to understand. They were elected to debate them by a majority of Chilean voters. I say this because I do know that democracy is a novel concept to the supporters of the Junta.
Sep 14th, 2014 - 02:17 am 0I congratulate the Chilean government on their efforts to overturn the illegitimate acts of the murderous thugs that oppressed the Chilean people in a previous time.
Hepatia you are so full of that excremental discharge from the male sex of the bovine species...
Sep 14th, 2014 - 05:02 am 0Key political figures of the Christian Democrats celebrated the overthrow a long with the MAJORITY of the Chilean populace in 1973.
...I really wish you'd made the list...
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