ESSAY - The Chilean Dictatorship and the Judiciary

California Western International Law Journal, Dec 2014

By Juan Guzmán, Published on 01/01/14

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ESSAY - The Chilean Dictatorship and the Judiciary

California Western International Law Journal THE CHILEAN DICTATORSHIP AND THE JUDICIARY JUDGE JUAN GUzM I. THE CHILEAN DICTATORSHIP A. What had the Political Economic Social Situation been after Allende's Election? Socialist President Salvador Allende was elected in Chile on September 4, 1970, with a little over 30 percent of the vote; therefore, the Senate, according to the Chilean Constitution, was called to decide who the Chilean President would be between the two candidates that had obtained the highest majorities. The Senate then elected Dr. Salvador Allende to be President of Chile from 1970 to 1976, but he only ruled in that position until September 11, 1973, when a violent military coup d'6tat withdrew him from office. - 208 [Vol. 44 B. Preparingfor the Coup The hard right wing never accepted the idea of having a socialist as president of the country. Parts of the hard right wing and the armed forces began to prepare this coup many months before it was perpetrated. Extreme right wing activists exploded bombs, destroyed electric posts and other objects, producing panic. Meanwhile, the United States government was collaborating with Chilean armed forces in order to reinstate the president and to sabotage industry and commerce, increasing the economic and social chaos. C. Chile'sForm and Characteristics Chile's geography makes it vulnerable to paralysis. If its main bridges are cut or bombed; the main high roads would be interrupted, and that would cut the country into many pieces. As all the rivers flow from the Andes Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, cutting the country into many pieces would be a very easy task to undertake. With that strategy, the truck owners and drivers, important allies of the military, blocked the most important bridges, which paralyzed the roads and the country. A few days before the coup, U.S. vessels were spread in front of some important ports, ready to support the coup d'6tat. But once the coup had begun, in a matter of three days all the country was under military control and all resistance activity was useless. A military junta was created, and that junta declared a "state of war," applied court martial, and established a very strict curfew. D. THE MAIN PURPOSE OF THE COUP The main purpose of the coup was to get President Allende out of the way, because he was considered to be a permanent threat to democracy. On the other hand, he presided over a government that was incompetent, and increased the growing economic, political and social chaos. The military junta that was appointed would put order in the country and reestablish social security. Meanwhile, the National Congress was suspended and the junta would rule through decreelaws. 2014] 209 A. DuringAllende's Government (from 1970-1973) The government interfered with the jurisdictional decisions, impeding them from being enforced. A new requirement was established when President Allende's government considered that certain decisions would produce harmful social consequences, and in these cases, the government impeded their effects. For example, if a tenant would not pay his rent and was judicially dispossessed from the property he rented, the government would not permit this dispossession because of the social harm that it would produce. This factor provoked great animosity between the judiciary and the government, and newspaper headlines helped enormously to encourage the verbal combat that was generated between these authorities. It is important to remember that in a dictatorship, all or most of the state power is concentrated in the hands of one person or one group. In Chile, the military junta performed the tasks of both the executive and legislative powers, and the judicial power ruled according to the interests of the military system. Thus, it is absolutely fair to consider that the power was concentrated in the hands of only one group of people. This way, Pinochet, the military junta, and the judiciary gave form to a totalitarian government. During the dictatorship, some groups that belonged to the armed forces, as well as other state agents, committed more than 3,100 assassinations, more than 1,200 forced disappearances, the torturing of an undetermined number of people, and numerous other sorts of civil rights violations. The assassinations took all sorts of forms: by shooting the victims with a firing squad, by killing them during torture, and by utilizing lethal injection. The disappearances were utilized to conceal the different forms of torture that were applied or to systematically produce state terrorism. It was common to use lethal injection. The bodies were then put in aircrafts and thrown into the ocean. Torture was systematically 210 [Vol. 44 employed by utilizing methods imported from the United States, Brazil, France, and other places. 1. How Didthe JudiciaryCollaboratein the Perpetrationof These Crimes? During the first five years after the coup, tens of thousands of people were ta (...truncated)


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Juan Guzmán. ESSAY - The Chilean Dictatorship and the Judiciary, California Western International Law Journal, 2014, Volume 44, Issue 2,