(May 31, 2006) Chile’s National Institute of Statistics released unemployment figures for the past three months Monday placing the nation’s unemp[loyment rate at 8.3 percent. The figure is up 0.1 percent over the same time period in 2005 and up 5.45 percent since the last report at the end of March.
The figures coincide with business sector expectations which estimated the unemployment rate at somewhere between 8 and 8.3 percent. According to the report the increase in unemployed workers is due to the admission of 94,470 new workers, representing a 6.84 percent increase in the labor pool since the INE released figures in March.
The report also detailed unemployment rates between sexes, showing a 0.5 percent increase in female unemployment and a 0.1 percent decrease in male unemployment. The overall figures for these two groups are 6.7 percent unemployment for men and 11.2 percent for women.
SOURCE: EL MERCURIO
May 31, 2006
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE INCREASES IN CHILE
BERRIÓS CASE: JUDGE INVESTIGATES PINOCHET’S SON
(May 31, 2006) The investigation into the murder of Eugenio Berríos has uncovered links between Augusto Pinochet Hiriart, the eldest son of the former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, and various military organizations in Chile and Uruguay suspected of taking part in the 1993 homicide of the former secret police chemist.
Investigative Judge Alejandro Madrid released previously undisclosed information relating to the 1991 “Pinocheques” incident that caused Pinochet Jr. to flee Chile rather than testify why the Commander in Chief – his father Gen. Pinochet – paid him $971,000,000 pesos (approximately US$1.8 million) to act as the intermediary between the Chilean military and a then bankrupt weapons factory.
The case was closed after government administrators pressured the State Defense Council (CDE) to dismiss the charges saying that the case threatened the democratic stability of the government. At the time Chile was beginning the transition to democracy after 17 years of military dictatorship.
According to Pinochet Jr.’s testimony, he first tried to go to Argentina in late 1991 on an Air Force mail flight under a false name. He was forced to wait overnight when he learned from Gustavo González, an officer with Chile’s Investigations Police, that the owner of the I.D. he was going to use was wanted in Chile.
Pinochet Jr. left the next day for Buenos Aires under his real name accompanied by the then Chief of the Special Units of the Directorate of Army Intelligence (DINE) Arturo Silva Valdés. Once in Buenos Aires Pinochet Jr. traveled to Brazil and Spain using fake documents made for him by an Argentinean secret service agent named Carlos Narea González.
Judge Madrid is interested in the story because of its similarities to the Eugenio Berriós case. Berriós was also wanted for questioning in 1991 for his role in several high profile murder cases. He was snuck out of the country by the army and later murdered in Uruguay in 1993 (ST, May 17).
It now appears that in April 1993 Pinochet Jr. was in contact with Col. Tomás Casella, one of the three Uruguayan military officials extradited to Chile who is accused of murdering Berríos. Autopsies of Berríos’ body show that he was shot sometime between April and June of 1993.
Government officials are now investigating what links González has to the Pinochet family due to the inside information he provided in 1991 as well as his signature on the 2001 police report detailing the entries and exits of both Pinochet Jr. and his younger brother Marco Antonio that was requested by Judge Madrid in the Berríos case.
González is currently the Public Relations spokesman for the Circle of Retired Police Officers.
SOURCE: LA NACIÓN
BACHELET ADMINISTRATION REACTS TO REPORTS OF U.S. THREATS
(May 31, 2006) Government spokespeople downplayed U.S. Department of State threats against Chile in the event that Chile supports Venezuela’s bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Ricardo Lagos Weber, Chile’s government spokesman, indicated that Chile would not be pressured by the U.S., but instead seek regional consensus on the issue before indicating which way Chile will vote on the issue.
“These are distinct issues that have nothing to do with each other,” said Lagos Weber. “I do not see how a country could be penalized for exercising its international rights.”
According to a story that was published in La Tercera on May 28th, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick told Chile’s Minister of the Exterior Alejandro Foxely that Chilean support for Venezuela as a member of the U.N. security council in October’s elections would “decisively damage” bilateral relations between Chile and the U.S. The report went on to quote Zoellick as saying that, in the event that Chile did support Venezuela, it would lose its status as a “major non-NATO ally of the U.S.” and suffer economic penalties in the form of reduced commercial exchange between Chile and the U.S. (ST, May 30).
In a statement that seemed to dismiss the threats, Foxely said that Chile would consult with the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States (GRUPAC) to arrive at a consensus as to which way the region would vote.
“We are in a phase of consultations in which we are going to evaluate and appreciate the opinions of friendly countries and then, later, we will make a decision,” said Foxely.
In the 2003 build-up to the invasion of Iraq, Chile cast a deciding vote against the U.S.-led resolution to overthrow Saddam Hussein without any noticeable affect on bilateral relations with the U.S.
SOURCE: LA NACIÓN, EL MERCURIO, LA TERCERA, RADIO COOPERATIVA
BERRIÓS CASE: JUDGE INVESTIGATES PINOCHET’S SON
(May 31, 2006) The investigation into the murder of Eugenio Berríos has uncovered links between Augusto Pinochet Hiriart, the eldest son of the former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, and various military organizations in Chile and Uruguay suspected of taking part in the 1993 homicide of the former secret police chemist.
Investigative Judge Alejandro Madrid released previously undisclosed information relating to the 1991 “Pinocheques” incident that caused Pinochet Jr. to flee Chile rather than testify why the Commander in Chief – his father Gen. Pinochet – paid him $971,000,000 pesos (approximately US$1.8 million) to act as the intermediary between the Chilean military and a then bankrupt weapons factory.
The case was closed after government administrators pressured the State Defense Council (CDE) to dismiss the charges saying that the case threatened the democratic stability of the government. At the time Chile was beginning the transition to democracy after 17 years of military dictatorship.
According to Pinochet Jr.’s testimony, he first tried to go to Argentina in late 1991 on an Air Force mail flight under a false name. He was forced to wait overnight when he learned from Gustavo González, an officer with Chile’s Investigations Police, that the owner of the I.D. he was going to use was wanted in Chile.
Pinochet Jr. left the next day for Buenos Aires under his real name accompanied by the then Chief of the Special Units of the Directorate of Army Intelligence (DINE) Arturo Silva Valdés. Once in Buenos Aires Pinochet Jr. traveled to Brazil and Spain using fake documents made for him by an Argentinean secret service agent named Carlos Narea González.
Judge Madrid is interested in the story because of its similarities to the Eugenio Berriós case. Berriós was also wanted for questioning in 1991 for his role in several high profile murder cases. He was snuck out of the country by the army and later murdered in Uruguay in 1993 (ST, May 17).
It now appears that in April 1993 Pinochet Jr. was in contact with Col. Tomás Casella, one of the three Uruguayan military officials extradited to Chile who is accused of murdering Berríos. Autopsies of Berríos’ body show that he was shot sometime between April and June of 1993.
Government officials are now investigating what links González has to the Pinochet family due to the inside information he provided in 1991 as well as his signature on the 2001 police report detailing the entries and exits of both Pinochet Jr. and his younger brother Marco Antonio that was requested by Judge Madrid in the Berríos case.
González is currently the Public Relations spokesman for the Circle of Retired Police Officers.
SOURCE: LA NACIÓN
May 29, 2006
PRESIDENT OF CHILE MEETS WITH HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
(May 29, 2006) President Michelle Bachelet made a historic visit to the headquarters of the Families of Disappeared Detainees (AFDD) on Friday to speak with leaders of the group about human rights issues. The visit was the first time since the transition to Democracy in 1990 that a Chilean president has personally visited the organization dedicated to discovering what happened to the thousands of people who were disappeared by Chile’s military dictatorship.
At the meeting, Lorena Pizarro, director of AFDD, gave the president a detailed review of human rights cases currently in litigation as well as a 22-point list of demands for Chile’s new government.
“I would like to highlight the disposition of the President to analyze our demands with experts and those versed in these issues,” said Pizarro. “This is not an issue she takes lightly and, at least we hope and felt today, that this (meeting) translates into concrete decisions on the government’s part to advance justice, remembrance, and reparation.”
The list presented to the president included demands that the government create an Institute of Human Rights; a proposal for a law that would make forced disappearance a crime against humanity; a demand that the government ratify the inter-American convention on forced disappearances and the Treaty of Rome issued by the International Criminal Court.
The AFDD also demanded the repeal of a decision that made the list of those tortured by the military regime secret for 50 years and asked that the military remove itself from all human rights investigations.
“The important thing,” said Pizarro, “is that the president met with us to accomplish something, and not just to say ‘I am in a hurry and need to leave.’ She told us very clearly that this would not be the last meeting and that we are going to continue to work together to develop definitive and concrete demands over the next four years.”
President Bachelet’s father was among those tortured by the military regime. He died in prison in 1974.
SOURCES: LA NACIÓN, RADIO COOPERATIVA
MAPUCHES END HUNGER STRIKE
(May 29, 2006) Senator Alejandro Navarro convinced four Mapuche prisoners on a hunger strike to end their protest last Friday after the group resumed the strike on May 15th. All four prisoners are under medical supervision at the intensive care unit of the Temuco Regional Hospital because of organ damage due to the prolonged fast.
Juan and Jaime Marileo, Juan Carlos Huenulao and Patricia Troncoso resumed the hunger strike last Saturday (ST, May XX) claiming that Chile’s government had failed to uphold a bargain that ended the first hunger strike on May 15. The agreement, negotiated by Senators and clergy from the Catholic Church, promised that the Congress would review their cases and decide on a resolution, proposed by Sen. Navarro, within 10 days.
The group initially agreed to the compromise but unexpectedly resumed the strike five days before the agreed upon deadline. In addition, the group protested the government’s demand that they renounce violence as a political tool using the demand as a justification for reinitiating the strike.
Doctors at the hospital described the prisoners’ condition as critical. All have lost at nearly 20 kilos (44 lbs.) and are experiencing frequent fainting spells.
SOURCES: LA NACIÓN, EL MERCURIO, RADIOCOOPERATIVA
PRESIDENT OF CHILE MEETS WITH HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
(May 29, 2006) President Michelle Bachelet made a historic visit to the headquarters of the Families of Disappeared Detainees (AFDD) on Friday to speak with leaders of the group about human rights issues. The visit was the first time since the transition to Democracy in 1990 that a Chilean president has personally visited the organization dedicated to discovering what happened to the thousands of people who were disappeared by Chile’s military dictatorship.
At the meeting, Lorena Pizarro, director of AFDD, gave the president a detailed review of human rights cases currently in litigation as well as a 22-point list of demands for Chile’s new government.
“I would like to highlight the disposition of the President to analyze our demands with experts and those versed in these issues,” said Pizarro. “This is not an issue she takes lightly and, at least we hope and felt today, that this (meeting) translates into concrete decisions on the government’s part to advance justice, remembrance, and reparation.”
The list presented to the president included demands that the government create an Institute of Human Rights; a proposal for a law that would make forced disappearance a crime against humanity; a demand that the government ratify the inter-American convention on forced disappearances and the Treaty of Rome issued by the International Criminal Court.
The AFDD also demanded the repeal of a decision that made the list of those tortured by the military regime secret for 50 years and asked that the military remove itself from all human rights investigations.
“The important thing,” said Pizarro, “is that the president met with us to accomplish something, and not just to say ‘I am in a hurry and need to leave.’ She told us very clearly that this would not be the last meeting and that we are going to continue to work together to develop definitive and concrete demands over the next four years.”
President Bachelet’s father was among those tortured by the military regime. He died in prison in 1974.
SOURCES: LA NACIÓN, RADIO COOPERATIVA
May 27, 2006
Barrick Gold Backs Out Of Cerro Casale Project
(May 27, 2006) Representatives from Barrick Gold, a Canadian owned gold mining company announced that they were backing out of the Cerro Casale project and leaving the way open for two other mining companies interested in the project.
The Cerro Casale project is a series of open-pit gold and copper mines located in Region III of northern Chile. The project was initially run by Placer Dome, another Canadian mining company, until Placer was bought out by Barrick Gold.
Barrick Gold decided to leave control of the project with two minority investors who were previously working with Placer Dome, Bema Gold and Arizona Star.
“We think that, during the acquisition process, the best thing to do is respect the contracts of the company we bought, said Igor González, President of Sudamérica de Barrick.
Barrick is also involved in the controversial Pascua Lama project, a planned open-pit gold mine located on the border between Argentina and Chile (ST, May 18). Barrick is currently trying to negotiate a tax agreement with both countries to avoid paying double taxes on material produced at the mine.
Both projects have generated criticism because of expected damage to the respective areas’ water systems. The Pascua Lama project would require the relocation of three glaciers and cause disruption of river systems in the glacial watershed area while the industrial waste waters of the Cerro Casale mine cross two national parks.
May 26, 2006
FUJIMORI: PERU REQUESTS GAG ORDER
(May 26, 2006) President Michelle Bachelet requested that Chile’s Supreme Court keep ex-Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori quiet after a series of comments on Peru’s upcoming elections provoked an outcry from government officials in Lima. Since being released on bail, Fujimori has generated a whirlwind of controversy between the two countries as well as confrontations with a group of high school students in central Chile.
The ex-dictator, wanted in Peru on corruption and human rights charges, was detained in Chile after arriving in Santiago unexpectedly on Nov. 7, 2005. Fujimori’s arrival in Chile marked his first return to South America after he fled Peru in 2000 and resigned from the presidency by fax from a Japanese Hotel. (ST, Nov. 8).
Since being released from prison on May 18, Fujimori has given several interviews with national and foreign news agencies. In the interviews Fujimori spoke at length about Peru’s upcoming June 4 run-off elections between Alan García and Ollanta Humala as well as the possibility he would return to Japan where his Japanese citizenship grants him immunity from extradition.
Fujimori’s comments caused outrage in Peru and an official request from Peru’s government on Monday that Fujimori be prohibited from giving any more interviews.
“The Fujimori case is damaging our interests as a country,” said Jorge Tarud, the president of the international commission of Chile’s lower chamber of deputies.
When asked about the controversy, President Bachelet said, “there is one thing that is very clear, the fundamental task of the president of Chile is to protect the interests of Chile. It is clear that the actions of Sr. Fujimori in the last few days caused situations that are undesirable in our relationship with our neighboring country Peru.”
The President of Peru’s Supreme Court, Walter Vásquez announced that President Bachelet’s comments were, “healthy and positive.”
In Chile, Judge Orlando Alvarez, the judge presiding over the Fujimori case, claimed that the situation “has been taken care” because Fujimori has agreed to cancel all interviews with the press and refrain from discussing Peru’s political situation.
SOURCE: LA NACIÓN, RADIO COOPERATIVO, EL MERCURIO
May 25, 2006
FUJIMORI: PERU REQUESTS GAG ORDER
(May 25, 2006) President Michelle Bachelet requested that
May 24, 2006
OPERATION COLOMBO: CONTRERAS RESPONDS TO ALLEGATIONS
(May 24, 2006) Gen. Manuel Contreras, former director of Chile’s secret police, will appear before Santiago’s Constitutional Tribunal Thursday to appeal the 258 human rights violations currently filed against him. Gen. Contreras’ lawyer, Fidel Reyes, is expected to argue that the charges against his client are inapplicable because of due process violations arising from the use of both Chile’s old (1980) and new (2005) constitutions.
“We cannot have uniformed citizens indicted under a system that does not guarantee due process,” said Reyes.
While ironic given the accusations that Gen. Contreras took part in the summary executions of left-wing dissidents during his tenure as chief of the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA), the court is expected to hear the new appeal before taking action on the charges against the retired general.
Contreras is currently serving 12 years and one day in prison for the “disappearance” of Miguel Ángel Sandoval, a left-wing activist of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) who disappeared in 1975. He is also being investigated for his role in Operation Colombo, a joint operation between southern hemisphere military regimes to execute left-wing activist in exile.
Operation Colombo was one part of the larger Operation Condor that carried out a number of assassinations around the world, including the 1976 car bombing in Washington, D.C. that killed Orlando Letelier. Gen. Contreras was dismissed as chief of DINA in 1977 after U.S. investigations in Letelier’s murder implicated the general. The DINA was dissolved in 1977 and replaced by the National Intelligence Center (CNI) after repeated criticisms of its human rights record forced Gen. Pinochet to close the agency down.
Judge Víctor Montiglio, lead investigator in the Operation Colombo case, interviewed Gen. Pinochet last week to help determine what role he might have played in the operation that led to the deaths of 119 MIR activists in 1975.
“I think that Gen. Contreras is a liar,” said Gen. Pinochet. “He changed around everyone’s roles, his, mine, everyone’s, so that it looks like he’s innocent.”
Contreras attributes Pinochet’s claims to his advanced age (90) and has told members of Pinochet’s family that he does not resent the accusations.
SOURCE: LA NACIÓN, EL MERCURIO
GOVERNMENT PERPLEXED BY MAPUCHE HUNGER STRIKE
(May 24, 2006) Senator Alejandro Navarro will travel to Araucanía in southern Chile on Thursday to figure out what went wrong with a government negotiated agreement that ended a 63-day hunger strike of four Mapuche prisoners. The strikers resumed their protest last Saturday criticizing the government for failing to hold up their end of the bargain (ST, May 21).
“We are in a very critical situation and I want to know who has given [the strikers] their information about these events,” said Navarro. “What we have done…is exactly what we said we would do, we have kept our side of the agreement to the letter.”
All four strikers are currently under medical supervision and their condition is considered critical because of the prolonged fast. Wednesday marks their 67th day without food.
SOURCE: LA TERCERA
ESCONDIDA MINE ANNONCES NEW WATER PLANT IN ANTOFOGASTA
(May 24, 2006) Escondida mine, one of Chile’s state owned cooper mines, announced it will open the nation’s largest water desalination plant in the city of Antofogasta in August, 2006. The water plant will generate 525 liters of industrial quality water per second and cost approximately US$160 million.
The project includes the installation of 170km of pipes to push water from Antofogasta up to the Escondida mine 3,000 meters (9,800 ft.) above sea level. The water will be used in a process called lixiviation where water is mixed with sulfuric acid to extract copper from oxidized minerals.
Scarce water supplies in Chile’s northern desert where the Escondida mine is located have forced mining executives to look for new sources of water to supply the mine’s needs. “This is a complementary solution, not a substitute,” said Pedro Correa, a manager at the mine. Correa said that the water from the new plant will “only be used for the lixiviation process” as it is much more expensive to pump water such a long distance.
Copper prices remain high on the London Metals exchange but have decreased by US$0.15 since last Friday. The decrease brings the monthly average price of copper to US$3.62 compared to last year’s then 16-year record high of US$1.58 per pound.
SOURCE: EL MERCURIO
May 22, 2006
NEW DOCUMENTS SHED LIGHT ON RIGGS BANK CASE
(May 22, 2006) An unknown man delivered a series of bank statements and personal letters to Chile’s police last December that detail the involvement of Gen. Ricardo Izurieta, Chile’s former commander in chief, in the Riggs Bank case. The letters were made public for the first time in El Mercurio on Sunday and suggest that Gen. Izurieta served as a go-between for former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet and the President of the Riggs Bank in Washington, Joseph L. Allbritton.
According to Sunday’s El Mercurio, Chile’s Investigations Police received an anonymous phone call in December claiming to have information about the Riggs Bank case. Police officials set up a meeting in Santiago’s Apumanque Mall where an unidentified man handed a police representative a manila envelope then disappeared before he could be identified.
Inside the manila envelope was a 1995 bank statement from the Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C. sent by the then military attaché in Washington, D.C. Gen. Izurieta advising Gen. Pinochet on the state of his bank accounts. Also included in the package were two personal letters between the Riggs Bank President Allbritton and Izurieta that demonstrate the close relationship between the two men.
The Riggs Bank case is an investigation into the approximately US$27 million that Gen. Pinochet laundered while dictator and commander in chief of Chile between 1973 and 1998. Gen. Pinochet was indicted on Nov. 22, 2005 on charges of money laundering, tax evasion, and falsifying documents, his wife and five children have also been indicted in the case.
Gen. Pinochet was forced to step down in 1998 after he was detained in London on charges of human rights abuse. Gen. Izurieta was named to replace Pinochet as commander in chief of the military. Included in the package given to the police is a fax sent by Allbritton congratulating Izurieta on his promotion.
Investigators in the Riggs Bank case have already questioned Gen. Izurieta about his knowledge of the illegal bank accounts but no charges have been filed against him.
SOURCE: EL MERCURIO
MAPUCHES PROTEST AGAINST DISCRIMINATION
(May 22, 2006) The Mapuche hunger strikers renewed their protest against Chile’s anti-terrorist law Saturday after accusing government officials of failing to uphold their side of the agreement that ended a 63 day hunger strike on May 14. The four prisoners refused meals Saturday and called for a general Mapuche strike throughout the country.
The group went without food for over two months to raise awareness about the unequal treatment of Mapuches under Chilean law. The group was sentenced under Chile’s anti-terrorist law in 2005 to 10 years and one day in prison and a fine of $400 million pesos (US$765,000) each for starting a fire that burned 100 hectares of timber in southern Chile.
Indigenous rights activists claim that the application of the anti-terrorist law in this case is discriminatory and reflects a broader government bias against Chile’s indigenous communities, a claim that is supported at the highest levels of the government.
“If a youth threw a Molotov Cocktail at a police car in Santiago there is no way the courts could apply the arms control law against him, it would be too severe,” said Antonio Leal, president of Chile’s Chamber of Deputies. “But when a Mapuche does the same thing in Region IX, he is charged under the anti-terrorist law.”
This inequality is exactly what the Mapuche community is protesting. On Saturday over 200 supporters of the hunger strike marched through the center of Santiago to demand that the government take their situation seriously and hold up their side of the agreement to pass legislation on the issue by Wednesday.
“Congress is supposed to vote on the law this Wednesday, but it has so far only made been seen by the Human Rights committee,” said Cristina Painemal, spokeswoman for the hunger strikers. “(The strikers) are not willing to wait forever.”
SOURCE: LA NACIÓN, EL MERCURIO, LA TERCERA
MAPUCHES PROTEST AGAINST DISCRIMINATION
(May 22, 2006) The Mapuche hunger strikers renewed their protest against Chile’s anti-terrorist law Saturday after accusing government officials of failing to uphold their side of the agreement that ended a 63 day hunger strike on May 14. The four prisoners refused meals Saturday and called for a general Mapuche strike throughout the country.
The group went without food for over two months to raise awareness about the unequal treatment of Mapuches under Chilean law. The group was sentenced under Chile’s anti-terrorist law in 2005 to 10 years and one day in prison and a fine of $400 million pesos (US$765,000) each for starting a fire that burned 100 hectares of timber in southern Chile.
Indigenous rights activists claim that the application of the anti-terrorist law in this case is discriminatory and reflects a broader government bias against Chile’s indigenous communities, a claim that is supported at the highest levels of the government.
“If a youth threw a Molotov Cocktail at a police car in Santiago there is no way the courts could apply the arms control law against him, it would be too severe,” said Antonio Leal, president of Chile’s Chamber of Deputies. “But when a Mapuche does the same thing in Region IX, he is charged under the anti-terrorist law.”
This inequality is exactly what the Mapuche community is protesting. On Saturday over 200 supporters of the hunger strike marched through the center of Santiago to demand that the government take their situation seriously and hold up their side of the agreement to pass legislation on the issue by Wednesday.
“Congress is supposed to vote on the law this Wednesday, but it has so far only made been seen by the Human Rights committee,” said Cristina Painemal, spokeswoman for the hunger strikers. “(The strikers) are not willing to wait forever.”
SOURCE: LA NACIÓN, EL MERCURIO, LA TERCERA
May 19, 2006
PINOCHET INTERRORGATED IN OPERATION COLOMBO CASE
(May 19, 2006) Former Dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was questioned in his Santiago mansion Tuesday for the third time about his role in the murders of a group of left-wing political activists. The former dictator is being investigated for the murders of 47 people who were killed in Operation Colombo, a joint operation between the military regimes of Chile, Argentina, and Brazil to eliminate left-wing dissidents in 1975.
Judge Víctor Montiglio conducted the interview with the 90-year old general after Chile’s Supreme Court approved the addition of 32 victims to list of crimes Gen. Pinochet could be tried for. The general has already been indicted on nine of the 47 counts of “disappearing” dissidents.
The investigation deals with the “disappearing” of 119 members of Chile’s Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), the armed wing of Chile’s Communist party, which fought an internal war with Chile’s military regime during the dictatorship. Operation Colombo was part of the “Dirty Wars” fought between Latin American military regimes and left-wing militants throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Today, the Operation Colombo case is emblematic of Chile’s efforts to investigate human rights abuses that occurred during the Pinochet dictatorship because of the many difficulties investigators have faced just to bring the case to trial.
To begin with, because of a 1978 military decree, anyone accused of human rights violations between 1973 and 1978 – the period when most of abuses occurred - was granted amnesty under Chilean law. Although many question the legality of the decree, it is still upheld in Chilean courts today. Human rights prosecutors have worked around this law by arguing that because the bodies of many of the “disappeared” were never found, their cases extend beyond 1978 making those found responsible for the crimes ineligible for amnesty.
It is even more difficult to prosecute Gen. Pinochet because he enjoys legal immunity under the constitution that was written and approved while he was in power. Even though former President Ricardo Lagos (2000 - 2005) ratified a new constitution in August of 2005, prosecutors must still request that the Supreme Court Strip Gen. Pinochet’s legal immunity every time a new charge is brought against him.
After prosecutors overcame these legal hurdles, Pinochet’s lawyers argued that their defendant’s advanced age (90-years-old) and various age related health conditions made him mentally and physically unfit for trial. This last hurdle was removed in October of 2005 when government physicians declared him fit for trial, finally allowing investigators to ask the former dictator directly about the crimes committed while he governed Chile.
Judge Montiglio interview lasted approximately two hours and is not expected to add much to the investigation because Gen. Pinochet has repeatedly claimed that he does not remember the events in question.
SOURCES: LA NACIÓN, RADIO COOPERATIVO
May 18, 2006
VENEZUELA EXPLORES ENERGY MARKETS IN CHILE
(May 18, 2006) Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Venezuela’s state oil company plans to open new offices in Chile in 2006. The oil company would like to supply Chile with crude oil and natural gas as well as use Chile as a regional base to distribute diesel.
The announcement follows on the heels of Argentina’s statement that they will not be able to continue supplying Chile with the natural gas it needs to generate electricity. The possibility of reaching an agreement with PDVSA would help solve many Chile’s mid and long-term energy problems.
PDVSA is the fourth largest oil producer in the world. In 2005 the company grossed US$85.6 billion and recorded net profits of US$4.7 billion. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has used his country’s wealth to promote his political agenda in Latin America. His plan uses “petro-diplomacy” to provide Latin American countries with low-cost oil, attempting to shift the region’s traditional balance of power away from the United States.
Examples of this petro-diplomacy include preferential loans to poor countries like Haiti that was granted a 20-year loan at 1 percent interest for the sale of Venezuelan oil. President Chavez also subsidizes oil sales to Cuba and offered several low-income neighborhoods in Massachusetts and New York a 40 percent discount on oil last year.
President Chavez is also trying to gather support for the construction of an 8,000 km gas duct that would supply South American companies with natural gas from Venezuela. The project is estimated to require investments of at least US$10 billion.
Venezuela currently possesses the largest petroleum and gas reserves in South America, nearly tripling Bolivia’s proven natural gas reserves. The company estimates that it will be able to produce 5,847,000 barrels of crude oil daily by 2012.
SOURCE: EL MERCURIO
INTERVIEW WITH FIRST MOTHER OF CHILE
El Mercurio: About to turn 80 years old, but she looks a lot younger. Agile, sharp, those that know her use adjectives like: intelligent discreet, humble, reserved and a lot of personality as well.
Straightforward and sure of herself, we asked her for an enterview for Mother’s Day, she responded:
Ángela Jeria de Bachelet: ¡Me carga el Día de la Madre!
EM: Later in her home, she explained why.
AJ: I feels it has become a commercial holiday, I commemorate what used to be a very important day. .
EM: In the foreign press you are referred to as the First Lady:
AJ: I never have been nor ever will be the first lady of Chile. A this stage of my life, it is not for me to take up these responsibilities,
EM: She prefers to focus herself “on the internal front: that’s where Michelle needs me.” And, without douby, she is the greatest support in the life of her daughter, the President of Chile.
A suprising thing about her is composure and serenity, even though she has gone through more than any person should have to. The death of her son Alberto of a heart attack and the dramatic end of her husband, General Bachelet, imprisoned and “unjustly accused of treason and tortured by his own comrades.” All of this on top of being imprisoned herself, tortured and sent into exile with her daughter.
On the wall of her living room there is a copper etching of her husband en prison. His two hands gripping the bars of his cell with the inscription: For fighting for liberty, equality and fraternity. Public Prison, January 1974. General Bachelet, prisoner of war.
En el muro de su living-comedor hay un trabajo en cobre hecho por su marido en la cárcel. Dos manos aferradas a los barrotes y la lectura: "Por luchar por la libertad, la igualdad y la fraternidad. Cárcel Pública, enero 1974. General Bachelet, prisionero de guerra".
Talquina de cuna, perdió a su madre cuando tenía 9 años. "Me criaron mi padre, un hombre muy libertario, y mi hermana mayor", cuenta. Licenciada en Arqueología en la U. de Chile, tras cinco años de exilio en Australia primero (donde vivía su hijo) y Alemania luego.
CARAVAN OF DEATH: JUDGES SENTENCE DRAWS CRITICISM
(May 18 2006) Judge Víctor Montiglio closed the case against six retired military member in the Caravan of Death case Wednesday deciding to apply Chile’s controversial 1978 Amnesty law instead of prosecuting. The ruling goes against the stated policy of the Chile’s Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court as well as the Geneva conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war and is expected to be appealed.
In court papers filed in the case, Judge Montiglio absolved retired Generals Gabriel del Río and Sergio Arellano Stark as well as Brig. Carlos Romero Muñoz, Col. Mario Cazenave Pontanilla, Pvt. José Parada Muñoz, and Pvt. Julio Barros Espinace of the murders of Teófilo Arce, Leopoldo González, Segundo Sandoval and José Sepúlveda on Oct. 2, 1973.
The decision recognized the defendants’ guilt in the homicides but still granted all of the men amnesty because in the judge’s opinion, crimes committed during the dictatorship are not human rights crimes and therefore are not regulated by international treaties.
The investigation concluded that “during Gen. Arellano’s visit to the Linares Artillery School on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, 1973, as a delegate of the President of the governing coalition and Commander in Chief of the Army, sentenced Teófilo Arce Tolosa, José Sepúlveda Baeza, Segundo Sandoval Gómez and Leopoldo González Norambuena…to execution for having been involved in an armed conflict with police forces in the city of San Javier on Sept. 11, 1973. The execution was meant to be an example to the people and, before leaving the city, [Gen. Stark] gave the order to (then) Col. Gabriel del Río who then transmitted the order to (then) Capt. Carlos Romero Muñoz, who carried it out.”
Gen. Arellano was in charge of the so called “Caravan of Death” that traveled through Chile by helicopter in the weeks after the 1973 military coup to “speed up war trials” of jailed supporters of deposed President Salvador Allende. The expedition led to the summary execution of more than 70 individuals.
Judge Montiglio’s decision rests on the legal definition of whether or not Chile was, at the time, engaged in internal warfare. While Montiglio does not think that Chile was in a state of internal war, the Criminal Chamber of Chile’s Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled the opposite maintaining that Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war should be applied in cases such as this one. The Supreme Court’s decision is based on international definitions of internal war as well as the military junta’s 1973 decrees declaring a “state of internal war.”
SOURCE: LA NACIÓN
May 17, 2006
NEW INDICTMENTS LINK TWO CHILEAN HUMAN RIGHTS CASES
(May 17, 2006) Investigators have accused Gen. Ramírez Rurange with giving the order to take Col. Gerardo Huber out of the country in 1992 shortly after Huber was called to testify about an illegal arms sale to Croatia. The investigative Judge Claudio Pavez suspects that Col. Huber was shot when he refused to leave the country.
The announcement follows Gen. Rurange’s confession that he gave a similar order for the disappearance of Eugenio Berríos, a chemist working for Chile’s Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA), who was suspected of playing a role in the 1976 murder of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. as well as mysterious death of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva in 1982.
Judge Pavez has long suspected that Col. Huber, former army chief of acquisitions, was assassinated to keep him from testifying against military superiors in the Croatia Arms case. Huber initially testified in Jan. 1992 that he was ordered to prepare the necessary customs papers to export the arms to Croatia, then under a United Nations arms embargo. Shortly after the testifying, Huber’s body was found floating in the Maipo River just outside of Santiago.
Testimony from former military officials claim that in April of 1991, shortly after former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet stepped down from power, a group of military swore an oath to eliminate anyone that accused Gen. Pinochet of breaking the law during his 17 years as dictator. Numerous suspects in human rights investigations were sneaked across the Argentinean border in the years immediately following Chile’s transition to democracy.
Berríos was allegedly moved to Argentina in 1991 to prevent him from implicating Gen. Pinochet in two human rights cases and was later shot after surfacing in a Uruguayan police station 1995 requesting to be returned to Chile.
Gen. Rurange, then chief of the Directorate of Army Intelligence (DINE), testified in April that Gen. Pinochet gave him the order to remove Berríos leading Pavez to suspect that he was also responsible for Col. Huber’s disappearance.
Five military officials have already been indicted for helping plan the murder of Col. Huber. Judge Pavez is now trying to locate the gunman and the person that gave the order to shoot.
SOURCE: LA NACIÓN
RIGGS BANK CASE: JUDGE CERDA SENDS TEAM TO U.S. TO TRACK BRIBES
(May 17, 2006) Judge Carlos Cerda has authorized a team of Chilean State prosecutors (CDE) to travel to the U.S. to investigate multiple bank accounts held by Chile’s former Dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet and his family at Barclays Bank PLC and Lehman Brothers. The authorization comes on the heels of new findings in the Riggs Bank case linking a number of military and civilians who worked with Gen. Pinochet in the 1990s to illegal payments for the sale of Chilean weaponry.
The team of prosecutors is specifically interested in 23 off-shore bank accounts opened at Barclays Bank and Lehman Brothers. Judge Cerda wants all of the records of transactions made by Gen. Pinochet and his family through these accounts.
Among the accounts listed by La Nación, Chile’s government news service, are Ashburton Limited, Trilateral International Trading, G.L.P. Limited, Tasker Investment Limited, Abanda Finance, Belview International Inc., Belview S.A., Eastview Finance S.A., Santa Lucía Trust, Pinochet Joint Miami TD, Cornwall Overseas Corp., Inversiones Cornwall S.A. Monex, Monex Agencia de Valores, Banco Monex, Monex Chile Trade Finance, Berthier Investments Inc, Némesis Holding Ltd., Lego Corporation, Marchill Investment.
The Riggs Bank case is an investigation into the approximately US$27 million that Pinochet channeled into secret bank accounts over a period of 25 years while he led the nation and its army. Gen. Pinochet was indicted on Nov. 22, 2005 on charges of money laundering, tax evasion, and falsifying documents, his wife and five children and daughter-in-law have all been indicted on similar charges (ST, Nov. 22, 2005).
The list of those accused of accepting bribes or receiving payments from Gen. Pinochet includes active-duty and retired military officials, two ex-directors of Chile’s Army Weapons factory (FAMAE) and two of Gen. Pinochet’s secretaries.
SOURCE: LA NACIÓN
May 12, 2006
PINOCHET CHARGED IN CHILE FOR MURDER OF SECRET POLICE CHEMIST EUGENIO BERRIOS
Door May Open Revealing Dictator’s Complicity In Other Human Rights Violations, Including The Death Of President Frei Montalva
(May 12, 2006) The investigation into the death of former secret police chemist Eugenio Berríos has allegedly linked Chile’s former dictator General Augusto Pinochet to the murder as well as the mysterious death of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva in 1982. Prosecutors believe that the new findings may open a Pandora’s box of information into these and other related human rights investigations.
Alejandro Madrid, the investigating judge in the case, submitted a request to the Santiago Court of Appeals Wednesday requesting that Pinochet be stripped of his legal immunity so that he may be questioned and ultimately tried for any part he may have had in the murder.
“There are more than enough clues linking (Pinochet) to the kidnapping and homicide of Eugenio Berrios to justify stripping him of his legal immunity,” said Thomás Ehrenfeld, lawyer for the Berríos family.
Berríos is believed to have developed a lethal sarin gas for that was used to murder opponents of the military regime. Shortly before his death he had agreed to testify about his activities while working for the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA).
According to Gen. Hernán Ramírez Rurange, former Chief of the Directorate of Army Intelligence (DINE), Pinochet ordered him to take Berríos out of the country in 1991 to prevent him from testifying in the investigation of the 1976 car-bomb murder of Orlando Letelier in Washington D.C. (ST, April 21).
Following Pinochet’s orders, Berríos was first taken to Argentina and later fled to Uruguay where he tried to turn himself in to authorities requesting to be returned to Chile. Instead, Berríos was given to the Uruguay military, shot twice in the head and buried in the sands of El Pinar beach near Montevideo, Uruguay. Three former DINA members were convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Berríos’ (ST, Feb 16) and three former Uruguayan military officials were extradited to Chile in April to testify in the case.
The new accusations are generating widespread publicity in Chile because of Berríos’ connection to the death of former President Frei Montalva. Frei Montalva was the president of Chile between 1964 -1970 and father of Chilean President Eduardo Frei Riuz-Tagle, who governed the nation between 1994 and 2000 and who is now an elected senator and the President of Chile’s Senate.
President Frei Montalva checked into a health clinic in 1982 for a simple hernia operation and died shortly after from surgical complications. The Frei family has long maintained that he was poisoned with the sarin gas developed by Berríos.
Álvaro Varela, the Frei family attorney, alleged Thursday that Chile’s high Army command was fully informed of the role Pinochet played in the kidnapping and death of secret police chemist Eugenio Berríos in the early 1990s and that “there is a sequence of events…that indicates that Pinochet gave the order to kill Frei using products manufactured by Berríos and the next obvious and logical step in this sequence of criminal events was to eliminate Berríos.”
“The Army high command knows exactly what happened to Berrios, and most especially, the order that was given by Pinochet (for his death),” said Varela in an interview on Radio Cooperativa.
Chile’s Interior Minister Andrés Zaldívar indicated that the government and military were cooperating fully with the investigation and that any relevant information would be turned over to the appropriate authorities.
Because the crime was committed in the 1990s, after Chile’s transition to democracy, Gen. Pinochet would not be protected by the 1978 Amnesty law traditionally used to protect those accused of human rights violations. Authorities hope that by questioning Gen. Pinochet they can clear up charges relating to three men already convicted for the murder as well as what, if any, role the Uruguayan officials may have had in the crime.
SOURCES: DIARIO SIETE, RADIO COOPERATIVO
