Conservatives seek to reduce sentences of people convicted of human rights violations.
On Friday, the National Coordinator of Human Rights and Social Organizations published a letter addressed to Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast expressing categorical opposition to initiatives to grant pardons to those responsible for crimes against humanity committed during the military dictatorship.
RELATED:
5 Critical Reasons Behind Chile Embassy Closure in Tehran
The document comes as Chile marks the 53rd anniversary of the September 1973 coup, when the armed forces, with support from the United States and big corporations, disrupted the democratic order and ushered in 17 years of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.
The organizations emphasized the lasting impact of human rights violations committed during that period, noting that thousands of citizens suffered extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearance, political imprisonment, and torture at the hands of state agents.
Against this backdrop, human rights defenders announced that the traditional pilgrimage to the General Cemetery, scheduled for Sept. 6, will take place under the slogan: “No to Pardons!”
The social protest comes as Congress considers a bill promoted by the Chilean right to grant freedom or reduce the sentences of people convicted of human rights violations and other serious crimes committed between 1973 and 1990.
Operación Alfa Carbón. Hace 42 años, la CNI llevó a cabo una operación de exterminio en contra del MIR. Hoy los familiares y organismos de DDHH están en alerta. Uno de los criminales intentó cumplir la pena en su hogar. @codepuchile https://t.co/SxqjZRSwHH pic.twitter.com/PZJQ0pmxhp
— CODEPU (@codepuchile) August 23, 2026
The text reads, “Operation Alpha Carbon. Forty-two years ago, the National Information Center carried out an extermination operation against the Revolutionary Left Movement. Today, family members and human rights organizations are on alert. One of the perpetrators attempted to serve his sentence under house arrest.”
Previously approved by the Senate, the bill would benefit more than 700 inmates, 370 of whom were sentenced for crimes against humanity and 365 for homicide, rape, and sexual abuse.
Alongside this debate, lawmakers from the governing coalition have promoted requests for Kast to apply pardons to members of Carabineros and soldiers who are imprisoned for abuses committed during the repression of the 2019 social protests.
During the delivery of the letter, Sen. Fabiola Campillai strongly criticized the criminal benefits granted to human rights violators. Among them is former Carabineros Capt. Patricio Maturana, who was convicted of shooting Campillai with a tear gas canister that caused her irreversible loss of sight. However, the prisoner currently has permission to leave prison daily.
“What message does the state send to victims when the person who was convicted of destroying their lives begins to progressively regain his freedom, while victims must live forever with the consequences of these crimes?” the senator said.
Alicia Lira, winner of the National Human Rights Award, criticized the slow pace at which the Kast administration is implementing the “National Search Plan for the Detained and Disappeared,” which was launched under the previous government.
She also supported social organizations’ demand that the search for the disappeared be made into law so that the Chilean state assumes permanent responsibility for locating and identifying victims.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: teleSUR
From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.