“The Army will not refuse to provide any information. This is not a request; the Chilean government has decided that this will be done,” stated the Defense Minister.
In order to address issues related to human rights violations, last Friday at 10 a.m. Carmen Quintana and her husband, Juan Enrique Campos, visited the office of Chile’s Defense Minister, José Antonio Gómez. During their one-hour meeting, the couple spoke with the Minister, Defense Undersecretary Marcos Robledo, and the Undersecretary for the Armed Forces, Gabriel Gaspar. This follows the recent reopening of the case into an incident involving a military patrol in 1986, in which Carmen Quintana and another civil rights protester, Rodrigo Rojas, both suffered severe burns, resulting in Rojas’ death.
Following the meeting, the Defense Minister stated that, “The Army will collaborate by providing all of the information necessary, not only in this case, but in all cases involving violations of human rights, as will the other branches of the Armed Forces.”
The Minister explained the information that has been provided to date in the Judicial Branch and noted that he has met with the inspecting judge from the Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza. “I have been in direct contact with Judge Carroza. If more information is needed, we will provide it. The Army will not refuse to provide any information. This is not a request; the Chilean government through the Defense Ministry has decided that this will be done.”
Mr Gómez stated that the work that the courts are doing requires everyone’s support, adding that, “the Defense Ministry will do everything possible to provide absolutely all of the information required so truth and justice can finally be reached.”
In regard to the press release issued yesterday by the Army, the Minister explained, “the Army immediately removed the people who were charged, that is, a judicial decision was taken to remove them from the ranks or at least from the work that they were conducting in the Command of the southern region.” He added, “we have asked the Army to provide complete information on all of the individuals who are employed at the various levels through different types of contract. The goal is to ascertain whether or not they have a connection to human rights violations. Once this information is in hand, decisions must be made regarding whether any of those people have been charged or convicted.”
The Minister then referred to the Valech Report, issued in 2004 by the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, which documented civil rights abuses and politically motivated torture that took place between September 11, 1973 and March 10, 1990 by agents of Augusto Pinochet’s military regime. Minister Gómez stated that the report’s secrecy policy was established “to benefit the victims, not the victimizers.” Lifting this policy “would be possible through a bill,” he added. He explained that “one option is for a bill to establish formulas for maintaining the secrecy should the affected party so decide, but this is being analyzed and we will have to find the form to be set out in the bill.”
“All of the allegations regarding the existence of pacts of silence refer to a situation that was experienced during a period of dictatorship, during the development of a Chilean State in which human rights and freedoms did not exist. When there are pacts of silence, they are pacts of silence among criminals who committed horrific crimes. Those criminals are no longer in the Army,” the Minister said.