He Was Fully Aware of the Human Rights Abuses

The decision by the Chilean court that Augusto Pinochet could be stripped of his immunity and prosecuted for crimes committed while he was dictator has had its full text released:

Although the court's decision to strip Gen. Pinochet of his immunity was immediately made public May 28, the full text of the decision wasn't released until yesterday.

Gen. Pinochet "knew perfectly well" what the security service was doing, "and was in a position to prevent the abuses, given its high authority," the ruling said.

The ruling increased the possibility that the 88-year-old former strongman will be tried for abuses committed during his reign from 1973 to 1990. Gen. Pinochet has blamed subordinates for the abuses.

The security service was commanded by Gen. Manuel Contreras, a close associate of Gen. Pinochet. Gen. Contreras, now retired, has served prison terms in various human-rights cases, including the 1976 assassination in Washington of Orlando Letelier, a prominent Pinochet foe.

This to me has been the hallmark of the sophsitry continually espoused by the Pinochet supporters: that Pinochet did not know that the human rights abuses were being committed by his subordinates. The commander of La DINA, Manuel Contreras had breakfast with Pinochet every day. The Chilean military was probably one of the most professional in South America at the time. It was trained by Prussians and was known for its esprit de corps and its command structure. It defies logic that in a military such as this that rogue elements would be undertaking operations such as the Letelier-Moffitt murders without Pinochet's approval. One hopes this craven defense has been consigned to the fiction section where it belongs.

Comments

[akaky]

i have to agree with you here, randy; i know a little about the history of chile and the chilean army and the idea that those guys would have done anything like the moffat-letelier assassination without orders coming directly from the top is just too silly to be believed. chile is not argentina or el salvador.