"And Justice, When?"
Klubock, Thomas
When General Augusto Pinoehet arrived in Valparaiso last March to hand over power to Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin and a coalition of opposition parties, crowds lining the streets...
...The Commission received testimony for more than 4,000 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 6sense of abandonment and betrayal toward those who left...
...Indeed, with the fate of the remaining prisoners and other human rights injustices still unresolved, Chileans have a great deal yet to reconcile...
...The majority of the returnees have not been so fortunate...
...After 16 years of dictatorship, people feel a mixture of "apathy, fatigue and bitterness," according to a member of the AFDD...
...While the systematic repression of the dictatorship has ended, human rights violations continue to be a problem...
...Then one day in an organizing meeting I began to explain how our solidarity group in Stockholm carried out a particular task, and a woman shouted at me: 'We've had it up to here with your talk of how everything is done in Sweden...
...What action the courts will take on Commission's final report-presented to Aylwin on February 9, but not expected to be made public until March-remains the critical, and still unanswered, question...
...The relatives of the disappeared fear that as time passes, popular may be there, the money to implement needed programs is not...
...The government's principal human rights initiative has been the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission, created last April in the wake of a series of discoveries of clandestine mass graves...
...On the other hand, political activists who remained often harbor anger, a Senate...
...For over a year I worked practically every day with the group, doing everything from stuffing envelopes to rallying against the dictatorship...
...Reinsertion into Chilean society and culture has been slow and uncertain...
...In September, two journalists-Juan Pablo Crdenas, editor of the leftist weekly Andlisis, and Andr6s Lagos, editor of the Communist Party's El Siglo--were jailed for several weeks by a military court for printing "subversive" articles critical of the armed forces...
...Recently, groups of political prisoners engaged in hunger strikes and their family members occupied a public jail to protest the government's policy and demand the immediate release of all political prisoners...
...When General Augusto Pinoehet arrived in Valparaiso last March to hand over power to Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin and a coalition of opposition parties, crowds lining the streets screamed "Murderer...
...for the first time...an organization of the state listened to us with respect...
...as well as impressive international contacts...
...The Golden Exile" There is a certain lack of sympathy and even resentment for returnees, implied in such expressions as "el exilio dorado" ("golden exile"), or "la marrequeta debajo del brazo" ("loaf of bread under one arm," an old saying which now refers to those who return with financial support from abroad...
...A number of obstacles left in place by the Pinochet regime, including nine senators "designated" by Pinochet and a Supreme Court fiercely loyal to the policies of the former military government, have imposed severe limitations on the Aylwin administration in this arena...
...The Commission's report will document the most serious human rights violations of the dictatorship, those that resulted in death, but it is not empowered to establish responsibility or to implement its recommendations...
...After taking office, President Aylwin pardoned a number of prisoners detained for "acts of conscience," but did not extend the pardons to those accused of "acts of blood," whom the government plans to retry in civilian courts...
...They generally praise Esponda's efforts, but worry that while the will conciliation within the structure left by the dictatorship, and is unlikely...
...The Commission is expected to recommend some form of formal public recognition of the victims of the dictatorship and government reparations for their family members...
...Not one person ever asked me about my life in Sweden...
...After ten years in Stockholm I returned to Chile and began working with a local human rights committee," one former exile recounted...
...The word "justice" is notably absent from its title...
...and threw eggs and tomatoes...
...The critical moment, everyone agrees, will arrive when the president makes public the Commission's final report...
...pressure will fade and the impunity of the guilty will remain unchallenged...
...The protests that followed the first discoveries of clandestine graves have slowly dwindled, as reports of mass executions and disappearances have become almost routine...
...I was completely silent about my experiences...
...Though the Aylwin administration has sought repatriation support from these same sources, Esponda and others recognize that aid for returnees does not rank high on the administration's list of budgetary priorities...
...These reforms have been blocked by the right-wing-dominated No doubt many former exiles do bring personal savings, short-term grants, and other resources, particularly those who come from Western Europe and North America...
...He is currently conducting research in Chile...
...Though it will contain no surprises, it will provide an opportunity for human rights activists to rekindle the movement, which, in turn, may allow Aylwin to push through his package of judicial reforms...
...Since the fall of the dictatorship, the country's human rights groups have lost much of their funding, particularly from the European governments that formerly housed exiles...
...The government has chosen to pursue a cautious strategy of negotiation and conciliation with the armed forces and the right wing in Congress, to the frustration of Thomas Klubock is a doctoral candidate in history at Yale University...
...Two hundred and seventy political prisoners still remain in Chile's jails...
...Government action in this area has been "extremely cautious and timid," according to one human rights group...
...While statistics are unavailable, it is clear based on several accounts that a fair number of former exiles who ventured home to Chile chose not to remain...
...While the question is admittedly absurd, it underlies much of the tension inherent in society's reckoning with the phenomenon of exile and return...
...For the moment, the question written all over Santiago's walls, "And justice, when...
...many human rights activists...
...A constitutional reform expanding President Aylwin's power of pardon and amending the dictatorship's "AntiTerrorist" law, now being negotiated in Congress, could also lead to the eventual freedom of many prisoners...
...One AFDD member noted that "the people who have gone [to testify] have felt that in one way or another they have begun to vindicate their family member...
...According to head of the Christian Social Aid Foundation (FASIC), Claudio Gonzilez, many former exiles "keep one foot in the door of the country they're coming from...
...After almost a year of democratic government, however, that exaltation has faded, as the fundamental problems of human rights violations remain unresolved...
...Many laws currently discriminate against the vast majority of former exiles and their families...
...Pinochet's 1978 amnesty decree, upheld in a widely assailed Supreme Court decision in August, is a fundamental obstacle in trying cases of human rights abuse...
...Headed by human rights lawyer Jaime Esponda and assisted by a staff of 18, it will also attempt to mitigate legal headaches for foreign-born spouses and children...
...On the one hand, former exiles tend to feel guilt for having "escaped" the day-to-day repression...
...According to its secretary, Jorge Correa, the Commission's report by itself "will not be sufficient to produce national reconciliation, but it will establish the truth to make possible future political solutions...
...But for the relatives of the disappeared the "result of the work of the Commission is not going to be what we demand....Those responsible for human rights violations will not be named...and will not be brought to justice...
...Last August 14, the Chilean Senate established an Office of Returnees as part of the Ministry of Justice to oversee revision of these laws...
...The Office of Returnees plans to coordinate job reinsertion programs, scholarships, and psychological counseling...
...Human rights groups face another problem: diminishing popular concern...
...remains unanswered...
...Frankly," says Claudio Gonzalez of the Churchbased FASIC, "given our limited resources, our work will focus on the problems of those who stayed in Chile, primarily the political prisoners...
...These include high tariffs on household possessions accumulated over the years in exile and brought back to Chile, refusal to recognize educational degrees and profescases of executions and disappearances...
...For many, its most important function has been to provide victims and family members the opportunity to come forward and testify...
...In addition to tensions generated from the perception that former exiles are economically better off is the more profound question of "Who suffered more: those in exile or those who remained in Chile through the years of dictatorship...
...Aylwin put forth a series of judicial reforms, known as "leyes Cumplido" (named for the justice minister), which would eliminate the death penalty, restrict the reach of military justice, modify the system of classifying crimes, and reduce sentences...
...And in October, human rights groups revealed 20 cases of torture since March, most committed by carabineros, a public security force over which the government exercises little control...
...Esponda has sought guidance from the 15-member national coordinating body of institutions already engaged in assisting returning exiles, including the Committee for the Return of Exiles (established in 1979), the Chilean mission of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, the national committee of World University Service, FASIC, PIDEE and others...
...Far greater, however, are the number of returnees from Eastern Europe and other countries of Latin America, who arrive with few possessions and must rely on family networks in Chile for assistance, placing an acute strain on many families...
...Currently human rights activists and the parties of the governing coalition are considering taking legal steps in Congress (a "constitutional accusation") against the Supreme Court, but have thus far failed to gain the administration's support...
...Sixteen years of dictatorship left a bitter legacy...
...The experience of returned exiles thus far suggests that rooting it out will not be easy...
...For relatives of victims of human rights abuses, that moment was "like a liberation," according to one member of the Organization of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared (AFDD...
...Another option, a plebiscite, falls outside the Aylwin administration's stated parameters of working by negotiation and sional experience gained abroad, and denial of conventional access to education, housing and health care...
Vol. 24 • February 1991 • No. 5
