Brazil & Southern Cone - 28 September 2004
CHILE: Cheyre demands politicians take responsibility
On 19 September the head of the Chilean army, General Juan Emilio Cheyre, gave two interviews demanding that the politicians involved in the 1973 coup take their share of the responsibility for the human rights' abuses committed in the aftermath. Undermining his previous plea to 'keep the army out of politics', Cheyre also used the occasion of the 'day of the glories of the army' to lend his support to the 384 military officers
currently facing legal action because of their roles in human rights violations in the Pinochet era.
Speaking in an interview with the conservative daily newspaper El Mercurio and the state-owned Televisión Nacional (TVN), Cheyre said the politicians have a debt pending with the military, who are the only ones accused of the crimes committed during the dictatorship. 'No one has worked as much as we have to assume responsibilities that really aren't all ours […] The debt politicians have with the military has not been cancelled. Those who provoked the conditions that led to the collapse of our democratic institutions, those who called upon the Armed Services to act, those who remained indifferent and silent. All of them have reintegrated into society, but this hasn't been possible for the army,' he said.
President Ricardo Lagos was quick to agree with Cheyre, perhaps unsurprisingly given that many of the current opposition Alianza por Chile politicians worked hand-in-glove with Pinochet's military regime. Lagos's comments, however, were somewhat more subtle than those of his political allies and concentrated on backing up the army chief's comments on speeding up the trials of military officials. 'I think Cheyre is right, because we have tended to say, well this happened during a military regime, and a military regime was the result of the military, and that's not the case. This is why I think we have to move on, these judicial cases cannot remain pending forever,' he said in an interview with TVN on 20 September.
Lagos explained that current legal delays are mainly due to the old legal system, under which the military are being tried, and that following full implementation of criminal-justice reforms (see previous page), such problems will not arise in the future. Starting in June 2005, all human rights cases will be heard under the new justice system and trials should last no longer than one year.
The president's political allies meanwhile, used the opportunity to fire a few pot-shots at the opposition. The interior minister, José Miguel Insulza, said that Chile's rightwing politicians needed to take responsibility for their part in the September 1973 coup that overthrew the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende. 'I suppose that Cheyre was talking about other politicians, not about us […] If there is anyone who still has to cancel a debt with the army, it certainly isn't us, we who were persecuted and imprisoned for 16 years. […] While some of us assumed responsibility for what happened, we still haven't heard any self-critique from the other side,' Insulza said.
Joaquin Lavín, the leader of the rightwing Alianza por Chile coalition, expressed an eagerness to move on. 'These are event from the past, let's try to find a reconcilitation.' Unfortunately for Chile's right, however, with Pinochet in the dock, stripped of his immunity from prosecution and facing prosecution for both human rights abuses and financial misdemeanours, the country's media, certainly, is unwilling to move on.
- A Chilean judge, Jenny Book, ordered the state to pay compensation of 300m pesos (US$488,000) to the family of a communist leader disappeared in 1974. José Flores Rojas was arrested by a military patrol on 23 August 1974. He was taken to the prison and torture camp 'Villa Grimaldi' in Santiago. There has been no trace of him since. Judge Book also ordered the state to pay 150m (US$244,000) pesos in compensation to the family of murdered student, Alejandro Parada González who was killed in the torture centre 'Londres 38' by agents from the DINA, the military regime's secret police.
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ECONOMIC OVERVIEW: CHILE
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The Chilean economy is going over the points. Some indicators show that the economy is faltering, others that it is booming. Retail sales are a case in point. Car sales in August were the highest for five years, yet retail sales overall were the poorest for 14 months in August, largely because of poor clothes' sales. Despite the patchiness of demand in the domestic economy, the central bank has changed its monetary policy stance. In early September it raised interest rates for the first time in four years. Politicians were unhappy at the central bank's action, the more so when some bleak unemployment figures for May to June were published. These showed unemployment at 9.7% which was the worst for that three month period for more than three years. The rate in May to June 2004 was 0.1 of a percentage point up on the previous quarter and 0.6 of a percentage point up on the same quarter of 2003. Outlook The central bank is forecasting that in 2005, the growth rate will be
back down to between 4.5% and 5.5%. The central bank is concerned by the
rise in oil prices: it reckons that the annual inflation rate for 2004
will be 2.9%. Currently the lagging 12 month rate is 2.4%. the bank is
forecasting that inflation in 2005 will run between 3% and 3.5% but fall
to around 2.8% (annual rate) by the end of the year. The central bank
is bullish about copper prices, which provide 40% of the country's export
revenues and investment. It expects copper prices to average US$1.15 a
per pound in 2005. The average copper price so far this year has been
US$1.26 per pound. The bank is forecasting that investment in 2005 will
hit 24% of GDP. This will be the highest rate for five years. |