HUMAN RIGHTS REACHES A LOW FOR CHILE

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP90-00965R000705900003-1
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date: 
December 8, 2011
Sequence Number: 
3
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
September 10, 1985
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
File: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00965R000705900003-1.pdf74.23 KB
Body: 
STnT Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000705900003-1 ICLE APPEARED ON OPT PAGE -*.# - SECTtoil I CHICAGO TRIBUNE 10 September 1985 Human rights reaches a low for Chile By. Vincent J. Schodoleld CHcpo Tribune SANTIAGO, Chile-Mareela Pradenas Toro, an 18-year`old lave student at the University of Chile, remembers the black-gloved hand that slammed into her stomach. Alejandro Herrera, a 19-yeardd who is studying theology, says he will never forget the cold steel knife as it traced a line across his throat. Though their "detentions" lasted only a few hours, the memories linger. The two students are among hundreds of Chileans who have encountered nameless men who move about in cars without license es of antd he ptails private ivesof those they seek. Officials of human-rights organ Giza rgymen are con- -vinced that men nameless men are in s m service& And with rev men have carried out two years of torture and rea ago govem- ment o onents. o human rights situation at this moment is the worst it has ever been in the last 12 years," said Andres Dominguez Vial, coor- dinator of Chile's Human Rights Commission,, referring to the dozen years of Pinochet's military rule. Dominguez and officials of a human-rights group sponsored by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago, say the most sinister as- pect of the situation is the govern- ment's regular use of extralegal means to intimidate its opponents. The laws set up by the country's military junta enable the govern- ment to arrest and hold citizens without charge, to deport those suspected of antigovernment ao- tivities and to sentence people to internal ode in one of eight re- mote areas. Though there are many similari- ties to the systematic violation of human in other countries, including rights neighboring Argentina during the former military junta's 1976-79 campaign against op- ponents, the situation in Chile has several unique aspects, experts say. For one, the number of people involved is quite small. Accordint to Human Rights Commission statistics, only 18 peo- ple ? are in internal exile. These include a former official of the commission, the vicof the nation's construction workers union and the leader of a youth group. Dominguez said his organization has 631 confirmed cases of "disap- peared" people, who vanish, without trace and are assumed to be in government custody or dead. By comparison, more than 9,000 people disappeared in Argentina's; "dirty war" after the military takeover. Human rights organizations say there are. 1,000 political prisoners in Chile, fewer than in some other Latin American countries. However, the methods used here to suppress dissidents are almost identical to those used elsewhere. Opposition groups and their members are spied upon. People identified as activists are followed; some are kidnaped and threatened or tortured. The church's human-rights group recently compiled case his- tories on 31 people who were de- tained and tortured by unidentified men believed to be government agents. The government has not re- sponded. officially, it says it has' no knowledge of such activities. But the diligent work of an a Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000705900003-1