(New York, February 21, 2000) -- Human Rights Watch today condemned a
proposed constitutional reform in Chile that would give permanent immunity
from prosecution to all former heads of state. The Chilean parliament is
expected to pass the new measure by the end of March.
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"This law would make it virtually impossible to prosecute Augusto Pinochet
back home in Chile. The Chilean government should be
trying to strengthen, not weaken, the country's democratic institutions."
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José Miguel Vivanco
Executive director of the
Americas Division of Human Rights Watch
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"This law would make it virtually impossible to prosecute Augusto Pinochet
back home in Chile," said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the
Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. "The Chilean government should be
trying to strengthen, not weaken, the country's democratic institutions."
In the coming weeks, U.K. Home Secretary Jack Straw may allow Gen. Pinochet
to leave England, where he was arrested in October 1998.
Gen. Pinochet arranged "senator-for-life" status for himself, when he left
power in 1990, thereby ensuring his immunity from prosecution. But since
the former dictator was arrested in London, the Chilean judiciary has
proved more willing to consider lawsuits against him.
If Pinochet returned from London and if he were not exempted from
prosecution on the grounds of ill health, Chilean lawyers and human rights
activists had hoped to sue for the outright revocation of his immunity. The
proposed constitutional reform would vastly complicate that undertaking.
Most countries in Latin America grant their legislators and/or public
officials immunity from criminal prosecution, but in most cases it ends
when they retire, and it covers only the period when the person is actually
in office. Chile's new law would give its public officials the most
extensive immunity on the continent.
"The proposal would give blanket immunity not only to Pinochet, but to any
other dictator who might come after him," said Vivanco. "It would set them
completely above the law, no matter how brutal or corrupt their regimes may
be."
On January 19, with the country in the midst of its annual summer holidays,
President Eduardo Frei gave the proposal "high urgency" status, and the
Chamber of Deputies approved it without modification on January 25. The
matter has received strikingly little debate in the Chilean press. By law,
the bill must be approved by both chambers of parliament, meeting in
plenary, within sixty days. It could therefore become law in the last week
of March.
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For Further Information, Contact:
In London, Wilder Tayler, + 171 713 1995
In Washington, José Miguel Vivanco, + 1-202-612-4330
In Brussels, Jean-Paul Marthoz, +32 2-736 7838
In Santiago, Sebastian Brett, +562-226-7714
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