Human Rights in Chile

When the military junta in Chile seized power 13 months ago, its most outstanding characteristic was the complete repression of human rights. Arbitrary arrest, systematic brutality, and execution without trial were commonplace. Constitutional law became a mockery as democratic process was replaced by totalitarian control.

The most convincing evidence at that time of the systematic violation of human rights and lives came from a three-man international commission on human rights. After interviewing eyewitnesses, released prisoners, and Chilean clergy, they reported to the United Nations that “we send 30 to 40 missions around the world yearly and we have not seen in recent years a situation so grave as that in Chile.”

During the past year, world pressure has forced the junta to allow more international investigation teams (including Amnesty International, The Chicago Commission of Inquiry into the Status of Human Rights in Chile and the World Council of Churches Emergency Task Force on the Chilean Situation) to scrutinize the conditions in Chile. Their reports testified to the fact of continued systematic repression.

Two of the most recent reports come from former high-ranking U.S. government officials. In April 1974, Ralph A. Dungan and John N. Plank conducted a study of human rights violations in a week-long visit to Chile in which they interviewed some 400 political prisoners. They were sent as an official study mission on behalf of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s subcommittee on refugees. Dungan is a former ambassador to Chile and Plank is the State Department’s former chief of intelligence for Latin America. In his opening statement on the hearings, Kennedy revealed that the full report “unfortunately demonstrated … that a continuing and systematic disregard for human rights existed in Chile.”

In May 1974, Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General, and Judge William Booth of the Criminal Court of New York City attended trials of military personnel, conferred with legal ministers of the junta, met with prisoners awaiting trial, inspected prison facilities, and discussed the law and specific cases with Chilean defense attorneys. Following are excerpts for Ramsey’s testimony before the International Organizations and Movements Subcommittee and the Inter-American Affairs Subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (as reported in Christianity and Crisis, 22 July 1974).

Your concern is human rights. What nobler purpose can foreign or domestic policy pursue than the fulfillment of human rights? There are no human rights in Chile today in the only sense rights have value. The military government of Chile can transgress any human right with impunity, for any reason it chooses or no reason at all. Rights are unenforceable. Arbitrary, uncontrolled will governs ....

The denial of human rights in Chile on and since September 11, 1973, is widespread and continuing. Life is the first right of every human being. We do not know how many people have lost their lives to lawless acts of the military. We know that one of the first was the constitutional President, Salvador Allende. We know that the deaths must be measured in the thousands. Tens of thousands have lost their liberty. Thousands remain in detention today. Thousands more have been tortured.

Among the fundamental human rights protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights ratified by Chile that have been flagrantly violated are the following:

(1) Right not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention.

(2) Right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

3) Right to a fair and public trial with all the guarantees necessary for one’s defense before an impartial and independent tribunal. Respect for the principle of nonretroactivity.

(4) Right to life, liberty and the security of person.

(5) Right not to be subjected to arbitrary interference with one’s privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks on one’s honor and reputation.

(6) Right to freedom of movement and of residence within the borders of a state. Right to leave any country including one’s own and to return to one’s country.

(7) Freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of opinion and expression and freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

(8) Right to work and to a just and fair remuneration and to protection against unemployment. Right to form and join trade unions.

Military juntas like the one in Chile can remain powerful only with considerable foreign financial assistance. The freedom-loving administration of Richard Nixon supported the human rights of Chileans by proposing a doubling of military assistance to Chile in FY '75—raising the aid level to $20.5 million. Unfortunately Nixon’s removal from office will not change this situation, for Gerald Ford has promised to maintain the Nixon/Kissinger foreign policy. We pray and exhort Christians in and out of public life to do whatever is possible to completely curtail military aid to Chile. Pray for the people of Chile.

Joe Roos was an associate editor of the Post American when this article appeared.