LatinNews Daily Report - 07 March 2014

POLITICS | Bachelet defends controversial appointment. On 6 March President-Elect Michelle Bachelet defended her appointment of Carolina Echeverría as deputy secretary of the armed forces (FFAA). The appointment of Echeverría to the incoming government, which takes office on 11 March, was announced last month. It is been controversial because she is the daughter of a retired army colonel, Víctor Echeverría, accused by various individuals of torture and abuse during the military dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). Today (7 March), a local human rights lawyer, Roberto Celedón, will present a complaint against Víctor Echeverría for acts of torture and unlawful coercion against Mercedes Bulnes Nuñez.  On 12 February, Bulnes penned an open letter in local media claiming that Víctor Echeverría was in charge of a regiment that on 23 October 1973 interrogated and tortured her and her husband, Roberto Celedón Fernández. According to the letter, these incidents were denounced before the United Nations (UN) and the national commission on political imprisonment and torture (Comisión Valech). Both instances recognised that the couple were victims of torture. According to the local press, next week Celedón is also due to also file a second case against Víctor Echeverría on behalf of the family of a conscript, Mario Gho Alarcón, who was killed on 16 October 1976.

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