Chile: Death of Pinochet (pub. Dec. 15, 2006)

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Event

The former dictator of Chile, Gen. (retd) Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-90) died at a military hospital in Santiago, the capital, on Dec. 10, 2006, aged 91. Pinochet, who died one week after suffering a heart attack, had spent the last 16 years of his life fighting against a series of human rights, fraud, and corruption charges in connection with crimes committed during the period of his dictatorship.

Immediate context

Human rights groups and victims’ representatives, encouraged by the return to democracy in Chile and developments in international law, in May 2000 launched the first legal action against Pinochet in Chile itself. In a series of rulings the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals considered the question of the former dictator’s mental and physical fitness to stand trial. In September 2005 the Supreme Court ruled that Pinochet should be stripped of his immunity from prosecution in a case which related to "Operation Colombo" (the alleged killings in 1975 of some 119 opponents of the Pinochet regime, whose bodies were discovered in Argentina and Brazil) but upheld a lower court decision that Pinochet was not mentally fit to stand trial on charges which related to "Operation Condor" (a reputed conspiracy by South American leaders in the 1970s and 1980s to crush leftist political elements by such tactics as abduction and assassination) . In January 2006 Pinochet was stripped of his immunity from prosecution in an ongoing investigation into 23 cases of torture and 36 disappearances, which were alleged to have taken place at Villa Grimaldi, a political detention centre used by the authorities during the dictatorship era. Chile’s Internal Revenue Service (SII) in September 2004 filed a lawsuit against Pinochet, alleging that he had repeatedly misled the treasury by declaring "maliciously incomplete and false" income statements to limit the amount of his taxable income. The Santiago Appeals Court in April 2006 dismissed charges of forging government documents and declaring false income statements but upheld two other charges of falsifying passports and tax fraud. Attempts to bring Pinochet to trial in Chile failed, however, as his lawyers argued that he was too ill to face charges.

Reaction and outlook

Former UK Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher on Dec. 10 said she was "greatly saddened" by the former dictator’s death, whilst the London-based human rights group Amnesty International said his death was a "wake-up call" for governments which must ensure "speedy justice for human rights crimes". President Michelle Bachelet , who had herself been a victim of torture at Villa Grimaldi before fleeing Chile in 1975 to live in exile in Australia and East Germany, did not attend Pinochet’s funeral, which took place on Dec. 12 at a ceremony held in a military college in Santiago. Bachelet’s government had denied Pinochet a full state funeral and announced that there would be no official mourning to commemorate the former dictator.

Historical context

In September 1973 Pinochet, the then commander of the army, led a successful military coup against the Marxist President, Salvador Allende, who had been elected in October 1970. Pinochet, who emerged as President of the new regime, pursued a policy of repression towards leftist elements in Chilean society such as trade unionists and socialists. Opponents were routinely tortured and in 1999 a commission estimated that at least 3,000 people had been murdered or "disappeared" by the military and security forces between 1973 and 1990. In October 1988 a plebiscite , which asked whether Pinochet should continue in office, produced a decisive "no". Presidential elections were held in 1989 and Pinochet stepped down in March 1990, although there was some evidence to suggest that he had considered launching a second coup to overturn the result of the 1988 plebiscite. Pinochet retained control of the armed forces until March 1998. In a dramatic development Pinochet was arrested in October 1998 by the UK authorities whilst he was in London receiving medical treatment. The UK acted on a request from a Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzón, who was investigating "crimes of genocide and terrorism" committed by the Pinochet regime including those committed against Spanish nationals. In a landmark ruling in March 1999 the UK House of Lords upheld an earlier ruling which found that Pinochet had no immunity from prosecution as a former head of state since the acts in question--such as torture and kidnapping--could not be considered functional acts of a head of state under international law. The ruling meant that extradition proceedings in the UK could be resumed. In March 2000, however, Pinochet returned to Chile from the UK soon after the UK Home Secretary, Jack Straw, announced his controversial decision to drop extradition proceedings against the former dictator on the grounds that Pinochet was in poor health.

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