Chilean President to push for repeal of amnesty for human rights violations committed during dictatorship

Chilean President Gabriel Boric said Wednesday that he will push for a bill to repeal the amnesty law for crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship from 1973 to 1990.

“We will give utmost urgency to the processing of the bill that was presented by President (Michelle) Bachelet in 2014, which seeks to exclude the application of amnesty, pardon and prescription with respect to crimes against humanity committed by agents of the State or with its authorization,” said the president during a speech at the La Moneda Palace in the framework of the celebration of the 51st anniversary of the coup d’état that gave way to the de facto regime.

The project was introduced during Bachelet’s second term (2006-2010 and 2014-2018) and left the debate and decision to annul or repeal the amnesty law in the hands of Congress. Discussions have been at a standstill since then.

“We renew our commitment to democracy and human rights always, in our country and everywhere in the world,” Boric concluded.

According to official data, 3,216 people were killed or forcibly disappeared during the bloody dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. It is estimated that to date there are more than 1,400 people detained whose remains have never been found, while the official Human Rights Program indicates that the total number of victims exceeds 40,000 people, including those executed, disappeared, and victims of political imprisonment and torture.

Chile will commemorate on Wednesday the 51st anniversary of the coup d’état that overthrew the democratic government of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973. Throughout the day, various events will be held in memory of the victims.

At La Moneda Palace, the scene of the violent events that occurred that year, dozens of people participated in a ceremony in memory of the dead and missing, which included the participation of various authorities, including the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, human rights groups and relatives of the missing.

Boric recalled that “these walls witnessed how betrayal and infamy were imposed by blood and fire over the dignity of a people” and stressed that “death, disappearance, the extermination of compatriots for thinking differently, the end of democracy and the bombing of La Moneda are never the only alternatives.”

Today’s date is “a day that moves us, that invites us to remember and also to take action,” said the leftist president, who has promoted a strong social and memory agenda since coming to power in March 2022.

The amnesty law, also known as Decree Law 2191, was issued by the military junta in April 1978 and granted amnesty to all persons implicated in criminal acts as perpetrators, accomplices or concealers committed between September 11, 1973 and March 10, 1978, when the country was under a state of siege.

Without making a distinction between common crimes and those with political motivation, the regulations have been one of the main obstacles to the investigation of crimes committed during the dictatorship.

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