Chile begins search for missing victims of the dictatorship

The Chilean government approved a “national search plan” to clarify the disappearances and deaths of the dictator Augusto Pinochet.

According to The New York Times, Chilean President Gabriel Boric approved a “national search plan” shortly before the 50th anniversary of the Pinochet-led coup, which ushered in a dictatorship in which thousands of people disappeared and were murdered across the country. .

After pointing out that “justice took so long” in the act in which he signed the presidential decree that launched the plan, Boric stated that “this is not a favor to families, but rather a duty to society to give the answers that the country deserves and needs.” saying.

In an interview with The New York Times, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Luis Cordero Vega said: “Because the state kidnapped these people, it is the state that should be responsible for continuing reparations, justice and search efforts.

A FIRST IN THE HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY

Within the framework of the “national search plan”, work will be done at the government level to find the disappeared for the first time since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship. The plan aims to gather and digitize case files, archives, and information scattered among government agencies and human rights organizations using specialized software.

Funds will also be allocated to research areas where victims may be buried or where excavations have been delayed for years due to lack of funding.

Congresswoman Lorena Pizarro, daughter of a man kidnapped in 1976, pointed out that the plan must translate into information about the perpetrators: “It is time to face the fact that the Armed Forces have this information and stop saying that this information does not exist.” She used the phrases.

Although the armed forces did not hand over the files of the dictatorship, claiming that they are “no longer available”, some files that were turned into microfilm in the 1970s were burned in 2000.

It is argued that the military only provides certain data to the courts when requested, but the courts did not take any steps to obtain all the records. Even with government involvement in the lawsuits, the plan is expected to take many years to find the victims’ remains and identify them.

General Pinochet seized power, who overthrew the socialist president Salvador Allende with a military coup on September 11, 1973 in Chile. During Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship, approximately 3,000 civilians were killed or disappeared, tens of thousands were tortured, and 200,000 people were killed and believed to have lived in exile. (AA)