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Amnesty International Report 2005 - Chile

Covering events from January - December 2004

Progress in ending impunity for past human rights violations continued to be slow, despite some positive developments. Torture and ill-treatment remained matters of concern. Indigenous Mapuche activists were subjected to human rights violations.

Past human rights violations

In January, in the first case of a conviction for "disappearance", the Santiago Appeals Court confirmed the prison sentences imposed on former secret police chief Manuel Contreras and four others in the case of Miguel Angel Sandoval Rodríguez who "disappeared" in 1975. In September another court hearing to decide whether the five should benefit from the 1978 Amnesty Law upheld the sentences.

In November the Supreme Court ruled that the Amnesty Law did not apply. The lawyer representing the State Defence Council had argued that cases of "disappearance" from the era of the military government (1973-1990) should be treated as murder rather than "permanent kidnapping". Treating "disappearance" as murder would have allowed the Amnesty Law to be applied. The proposal brought sharp condemnation from human rights groups.

During the judicial investigation into the "disappearance" of 10 members of the Chilean Communist Party in 1976, known as the Conference Street case, several train rails were found in the sea off the Chilean coast. The discovery supported allegations that the 10 had been tied to rails and dropped into the sea from helicopters by the secret police.

In August, the Supreme Court voted to lift former President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte's immunity from prosecution. This allowed proceedings to be opened against him for human rights violations committed under "Operation Cóndor", a joint plan by military governments in the Southern Cone to eliminate opponents during the 1970s and 1980s. On 13 December a judge ordered the indictment and house arrest of Augusto Pinochet on nine counts of kidnapping and one of murder. On 20 December the Santiago Appeals Court upheld the order. The lawyers representing Augusto Pinochet appealed to the Supreme Court, which had not ruled by the end of 2004.

Torture and ill-treatment

Chile submitted its third periodic report on the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture. In response, the UN Committee against Torture, while noting a number of positive developments, expressed concern that certain legislation, including the Amnesty Law, jeopardized the full exercise of fundamental human rights and entrenched impunity. It also criticized the definition of torture used in Chilean legislation and several aspects of the mandate of the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, set up by the government in 2003 to identify victims of torture under the military government and propose reparation measures.

The National Commission's own report was published in November. Containing testimonies from nearly 28,000 torture victims, the report acknowledged that political detention and torture had been institutional state practices, and recommended reparation levels for the victims. However, no measures were proposed for obtaining justice.

Indigenous people

Human rights violations continued to occur in the context of land ownership disputes, affecting the Mapuche community especially.

• Throughout the year Mapuche community leader Juana Calfunao Paillalef and her family suffered repeated intimidation, including death threats and an apparent arson attack on Juana Calfunao's home, in the context of their community's dispute with local landowners. Numerous complaints about the incidents had been made to the authorities since 2000, but there was no official information on the progress of the investigations and no action appeared to have been taken to provide the family with adequate protection.