News on Pinochet

[bed_of_nails]

SANTIAGO, Chile - Chile's top court on Monday refused to drop charges against Gen. Augusto Pinochet in the disappearance of six dissidents during his military regime, and ruled that the former dictator must remain under house arrest.

A panel of the Supreme Court voted 3-2 to reject the appeal filed by the defense lawyers for the 90-year-old former ruler, said one of the judges, Alberto Chaigneau.

It was the latest in a string of legal setbacks for Pinochet in his long fight against human rights and corruption charges.

He has been under house arrest since Nov. 24, when he was indicted for the six disappearances.

Monday's ruling means that Pinochet will almost certainly have to spend New Year's Eve under arrest at his suburban Santiago mansion. But it remains unclear if he will ever go to trial.

Pinochet's lawyer, Pablo Rodriguez, is expected to file a new appeal asking that the ex-dictator be declared unfit for trial for health reasons — an argument the Supreme Court has accepted in four past cases.

In his rejected appeal, Pinochet had argued that those behind the disappearances could not be prosecuted because of law providing amnesty for crimes committed between 1973 and 1978.

The Supreme Court did not explain its ruling Monday, but it has previously argued the amnesty law does not cover unresolved disappearances.

The six dissidents were among 119 people who were either killed or declared missing in 1975 offensive known as "Operation Colombo," two years after Pinochet seized power in a bloody coup.

Pinochet has also been charged in the disappearances of three other victims of the offensive. A ruling is expected later this week on an appeal against those charges.

The military regime had claimed the victims were killed in clashes between rival opposition groups.

Pinochet, who ruled from 1973-1990, also faces tax evasion charges related to secret overseas bank accounts, estimated by a judicial investigation to hold $28 million.

He has avoided trial in four previous cases when the charges of human rights abuses were dropped on health grounds.

However, a team of court-appointed doctors recently indicated that, while Pinochet has mild dementia, diabetes, arthritis and a pacemaker, he is fit to stand trial.

What the fuck is with his charges being dropped "on health grounds"? You dont do the shit he did and get off because you have dementia and arthritis!

[anomaly]

I'm glad to see he's on trial now though (or rather, has been deemed fit to 'stand trial'). In my opinion, the bastard should be shot.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Two former U.S. sponsored dictators arrested
Two former U.S.-sponsored Latin American dictators, Augusto Pinochet of Chile and Alberto Fujimori of Peru, were arrested in November. Pinochet was stripped of immunity by a Chilean court and charged with human rights violations while Fujimori was detained by Chilean authorities and awaits extradition to Peru.

Pinochet
General Augusto Pinochet came to power in Chile in a U.S. orchestrated military coup on September 11, 1973, in which the democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende was deposed and killed.

The U.S. opposed Allende because he acted in the interests of the oppressed, as opposed to the interests of the capitalist class. Under Allende, U.S.-owned copper mines were nationalized and friendly relations were established with Cuba and the USSR.

When Allende was elected, U.S. Ambassador Edward M. Korry proclaimed, "Not a nut or bolt shall reach Chile under Allende. Once Allende comes to power we shall do all within our power to condemn Chile and all Chileans to utmost deprivation and poverty."

Recently declassified documents have shed additional light on the U.S. Government's role in the coup. A CIA communique issued in October of 1970 read, "It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup. It would be much preferable to have this transpire prior to 24 October but efforts in this regard will continue vigorously beyond this date. We are to continue to generate maximum pressure toward this end, utilizing every appropriate resource. It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG and American hand be well hidden..."

Indeed, the U.S. Government had no plans to let something like "democracy" get in the way of their interests. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger himself said, "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves."

Once in power, Pinochet moved quickly to consolidate his rule. He proclaimed himself president and moved to crush all opposition, arresting and murdering hundreds of people. Over the next three years tens of thousands were arrested and tortured, and more than 3,000 were killed. Around the world, Pinochet's dictatorship was known for human rights abuses and frequent "disappearances".

Lucía Pinochet Hiriart, Augusto Pinochet's eldest daughter, would later say that the use of torture under his regime was "barbaric and without justification".

Economically, Pinochet immediately set about making "free market-oriented reforms" as prescribed by the University of Chicago trained capitalist economists. Publicly owned industries, banks, and the pension system were privatized, the minimum wage was abolished, trade union rights were rescinded, and taxes on the wealthy were drastically reduced.

Unemployment, which was at 4.4% under Allende, skyrocketed to 30.4%. The price of exports fell, real wages dropped by 40%, infant mortality sharply increased, and poverty, homelessness, and malnutrition, all of which had been greatly reduced under Allende, became widespread.

With the assistance of the United States, Pinochet, along with the U.S. sponsored military dictatorships of Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and later, Argentina, formed a plan known as Operation Condor, in which one country's security forces would murder suspected Communist "subversives," guerrillas, and their sympathizers in the allied countries.

According to the so-called "terror archives" discovered in Paraguay in December 1992, at least 50,000 people were murdered, with another 30,000 "disappeared", and some 400,000 incarcerated.

Pinochet’s reign of terror lasted until 1990, when, years of demonstrations, workers strikes, and revolutionary struggle against his rule finally forced a plebiscite in 1988. In the plebiscite the Chilean people rejected any extension of his rule and open president elections were held in 1989. Pinochet left the presidency on March 11, 1990.

Pinochet still remained Commander-in-Chief of the Army until March of 1998. He was then sworn in as a senator-for-life, a privilege granted to him because of provisions in the 1980 constitution created under his rule. His senatorship provided him with immunity from prosecution, but that all began to change when he was arrested in Britain in 1998.

Pinochet was arrested in London, England, under an international arrest warrant for the charges of 94 counts of torture of Spanish citizens, and one count of conspiracy to commit torture.

After a 16-month legal battle, English Home Secretary Jack Straw ruled, despite the protests of legal and medical experts around the world, that Pinochet was not fit to be extradited, and on March 2, 2000, he returned to Chile.

Over the next few years the courts of Chile wrangled over the validity of Pinochet's immunity and wether or not his health prevented him from being prosecuted. While his doctors claimed he suffered from dementia and was "mentally incapacitated", even though in May of 2004 he appeared perfectly fine during a lengthy interview with a Miami-based television station.

He was finally deemed fir to stand trial by the Chilean Supreme Court in late November of 2005, and was indicted on human rights charges for the disappearance of six dissidents arrested by his security services in late 1974 as well as several charges stemming from an estimated $27 million he stole from the Chilean people and hid in foreign bank accounts. He was placed under house arrest on the eve of his 90th birthday.

In December, he was charged with another set of human rights violations for the disappearances of another 29 people.

Fujimori
Although Fujimori was originally elected in 1990, he carried out an "autocoup" -- that is, a coup d'état against his own government -- in 1992, dissolving Congress and replacing it with a body of his own supporters. The U.S. fully supported the move and President George Bush I recognized Fujimori as "the legitimate leader of Peru".

He also set about co-opting the judiciary and curtailing constitutional rights, frequently calling states-of-emergency and curfews, as well as proclaiming periods of de facto marshall law by enacting "severe emergency laws".

Through a serious of fixed elections and an unconstitutional third term in office, he remained in power until the year 2000, when he was ruled "morally unfit" to govern by the Peruvian Congress while in Japan.

Under Fujimori's dictatorship -- which was propped by the United States, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank -- countless human rights violations were carried out. Thousands of innocent Peruvians were tried by hooded military tribunals under draconian anti-terrorism laws and condemned to long prison sentences, a program was launched that carried out extensive forced sterilizations as health workers were given monthly quotas of procedures to perform, and Peruvian armed forces destroyed numerous villages and murdered thousands of men, women, and children.

Fujimori's rule was also permeated by a network of corruption organized by his close associate Montesinos, who is currently on trial for dozens of charges that range from embezzlement to drug trafficking to murder.

After losing the presidency, Fujimori spent the next five years in Japan, where he was protected from extradition by his Japanese citizenship.

In November of this year he returned to South America in an attempt to run for president of Peru in the upcoming elections, even though he is wanted there on several crimes -- including the -- and is banned from public office.

Hours after his private jet landed in Santiago, Chile, he was taken into custody, where he remains today awaiting extradition to Peru.

Fujimori faces charges that include mass murder, kidnaping, and crimes against humanity.

http://freepeoplesmovement.org/fp16q.html