The General, who had previously refused to comment on the issue, said that Chile had to look to the future and could not go on looking into the pain of the past, and that the fissures in society caused by the abuses were not good for the country. He claimed that military was not split but that clearly there were problems in the country at large and these could only be healed by truth and justice.
Cheyre went on to say that he had seen the suffering of soldiers who had been prosecuted and that of their victims.
His intervention comes at a sensitive time. Recently, the Chilean armed forces have been penalising people involved in human rights abuses: the air force set the precedent when it stripped retired officers, who previously had been granted immunity for what they did in 1973, of their membership of clubs and pensions.
The army and the navy have since followed suit.
The supreme court has ruled in favour of one of the 13 mid-ranking public works ministry employees accused of accepting extra salary payments. Chile's highest court said no crime had been committed.
Just 24-hours before the supreme court decision was handed down, an appeals court had ruled against an injunction filed by a complainant, Manuel Castañeda.
Castañeda and the other 12 Seremis (regional secretaries from the public works ministry) allegedly received Ch$9.2m (US$12,940) in extra payments from a Universidad de Chile research department.
The government's argument all along has been that the top-up salaries paid to the workers do not constitute bribery.
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