The Pinochet Dictatorship: The Destruction of Society and the Construction of Impunity

Abstract

This chapter contains an analysis of the goals and ideology of the Pinochet dictatorship and a summary discussion of the abuses, the abusers, and their collaborators. A brief analysis of the main human rights organizations formed during the dictatorship is also included. The goal of the chapter is not to provide an exhaustive description of the massive human rights abuses that took place between 1973 and 1989, but to provide a background to the human rights policies enacted between 1990 and 2013, and to highlight some of the worst atrocities committed by the regime The chapter concludes that human rights abuses involved the actions and omissions of many participants including General Pinochet who ordered the crimes, the military personnel under his control and by the all-powerful Directorate of National Intelligence and Central Nacional de Informaciones whose members bragged about torturing and killing other human beings and terrorizing the society. The venerable Chilean Courts made a mockery of justice, served as accomplices to the crimes of the dictatorship, and failed in their basic mission of administering justice and protecting the citizens against government abuse. The right-wing politicians and Chile’s business class who unabatedly provided economic, intellectual, and political support to the dictatorship were also accomplices.