35 Former Military Personnel Would Fulfill Conditions for Bicentennial Pardon

Minister of Defense, Jaime Ravinet

Defense Minister Jaime Ravinet’s criteria for a Bicentennial Pardon would fit at least 35 of former member of the military convicted for Human Rights violations during Pinochet dictatorship.  While the suggestion stirs an uneasy debate amongst Chileans, families of some of the infamous “desaparecidos” made their discomfort with such an idea known to President Sebastián Piñera.

The Ministry of Defense has been considering 95 cases where Human Rights violations were committed during the military regime. The convictions that could possible be revised for Pardon would be for those without life sentences, whose convictions fall under specific conditions laid down by the government Institution. Even if not convicted to perpetuity imprisonment, some of the military personnel found guilty were sentenced to as many as 60 years behind bars.

The Association of Families of Disappeared Detainees expressed its worries about a similar Bicentennial Pardon plan that the Catholic Church intends to propose and which, if accepted, would go through as a legislation bill to be submitted the government.

Among the potential beneficiaries would be former National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) director Odlanier Mena Salinas, found guilty in the Death Squad case and serving a 6-year conviction, as well as Ramsés Álvarez Scoglia, sentenced to 10-years under charges of murdering the union leader Tucapel Jiménez.

In the wake of such a controversial debate, on July 14^th at Palacio La Moneda, President Piñera met with the three daughters of late General Carlos Prats, who was murdered on September 30^th 1974 while in exile in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The daughters of the deceased General met with the President during a one-hour-long meeting in his office, where they expressed to him the resons of why they consider such a Pardon to be harmful for Chile.

“The country undoubtedly couldn’t bear the burden of a Pardon of such people who committed Crimes Against Humanity,” said Cecilia Prats to the media after her meeting with the Head of State.

Her sister Sofía added that “they must not pardon to anyone who violated Human Rights for a series of motives, especially not under the grave crimes that occur in the international environment.  For Chile it would be detrimental to forgive such crimes.”

The question arose in the public sphere some two weeks after the Supreme Court pronounced the  sentences for the perpetrators of the execution of the former Commander in Chief of the Army and his wife in Buenos Aires after they fled the country following the Septembre 11^th, 1973 coup d’état.

Under the People’s Unity government, Prats also achieved the position of Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Defence, and Vice-President of the Republic.

Short URL: http://www.ilovechile.cl/?p=9597

Posted by yanick.touchette on 5:13 PM. Filed under NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry