El Ciudadano
Original article: ¿Y el perdón a los condenados por violaciones a los Derechos Humanos?
Amid the apparent public freeze on the pardon benefit, human rights groups warn of potential legal maneuvers to circumvent existing treaties.
Although the announcement was formally made last March to benefit 102 uniformed personnel, the administration of José Kast has yet to show concrete progress in the legal evaluation process for applying pardons to members of the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement convicted of crimes committed between October 2019 and March 2020. The original plan involves reviewing the cases of state agents currently serving time for serious crimes such as torture, attempted homicide, and severe injuries, but the measure is now steeped in uncertainty.
This presidential initiative emerges in a context where actual convictions are a minority compared to the thousands of reported abuses during the protests. According to the Statistical Report on Social Outburst from the Prosecutor’s Office, out of a total of 12,002 recorded institutional violence crimes during this period, most concluded through non-judicial means — such as provisional archiving or decisions not to pursue due to lack of identification of perpetrators — with only 219 convictions achieved.
The International Regulatory Halt
Upon taking office, the President justified the measure by appealing to the need for pardon in what he described as a context of extreme violence. «In some cases, I will use the power of pardon for those who defended the homeland,» stated José Kast, adding that his duty is to correct situations where, in his view, justice has been replaced by ideological bias. This stance immediately fractured relations with opposition sectors and human rights organizations.
In response to this announcement, the National Human Rights Institute (INDH) warned that the power of pardon is not absolute and cannot be exercised in violation of Chile’s international obligations. The agency emphasized that granting benefits before serving a substantial part of the sentence in cases involving torture or cruel treatment would send a message of impunity to society and could expose the State to sanctions from foreign courts.
This warning was echoed by Juana Aguilera Jaramillo, president of the Ethical Commission Against Torture, who sharply questioned the legality of the measure, stating that “according to international human rights law, crimes against humanity are imprescriptible and inadmissible, thus I believe that the figure of pardon does not correspond,» adding that she sees the current administration as «a deceptive government.»
For Aguilera, in light of the international halt, the Executive could seek alternative paths of impunity for those convicted through covert prison benefits. «They have talked about creating a special provision for the elderly and those who are ill to serve the remainder of their sentences at home; this is a veiled form of pardon, for example,» she emphasized, adding that she does not believe they could implement a proper pardon.
Figures, Victims, and Duty
From the parliamentary side, Senator Fabiola Campillai, a victim of aggression during the Social Outburst, vehemently rejected the government’s initiative. The senator stated that this agenda represents a setback for democracy and justice in the country, affirming that «once again it has become evident that Kast and his government have arrived with a pro-criminal agenda,» reminding that the courts have already established the responsibility of agents in cases of extreme violence.
Among the names being evaluated by the Ministry of Justice are cases of significant public notoriety, such as that of former Carabineros captain Patricio Maturana, convicted for the attack that blinded senator Campillai, and cases involving assaults on minors, like that of a 14-year-old girl who lost vision in one eye in La Cisterna. The severity of these cases underscores the impact of repression during the protests, with the Public Ministry formally quantifying that a total of «464 victims suffered some type of ocular trauma,» noting that in 132 of these cases, individuals «suffered total loss of vision in one eye.»
The extent of the criminal actions committed by the officials whom the Executive intends to pardon becomes evident when reviewing the official classification by the Prosecutor’s Office for the months of the Outburst. Institutional statistics determine that the most frequent complaint against law enforcement was for «illegal coercion by public employees,» which represented 24% of all crimes committed and concentrated 70.4% of the crimes categorized under Institutional Violence.
Parliamentary criticisms were also supported by Senator and President of the Socialist Party (PS), Paulina Vodanovic, who harshly questioned Kast’s justification based on duty fulfillment. The congresswoman emphasized that these officials violated their constitutional obligation, stating that «the duty was to monitor and safeguard public order while respecting the existing legislation,» and stressed that it was the courts themselves who established the crimes.
Institutional Codes of Silence
This systemic impunity, according to Juana Aguilera, stems from deeper historical factors of concealment inherited from the military dictatorship. «All these condemned genocidal agents did not provide any information that could establish the final fate of the victims,» she denounced, pointing out that those involved from that era «have a code of silence that practically prevents establishing the entire truth as we would like.»
Regarding this, the leader of the Ethical Commission recalled that in Chile, only the final fate of 307 victims of enforced disappearance and political execution under the Pinochet regime has been established, accusing the current government of Kast of «preparing to lift them from just convictions» and continue «abusing the people through economic measures and measures that deny their rights.»
Additionally, she warned about the current landscape of Chilean courts, asserting that it is «a system that shows daily that it serves the interests of large financial powers, a classist and racist justice,» exemplifying with the case of Julia Chuñil Catricura, who has been missing for over a year. She also cautioned that the President could bypass legislative resistance and advance his agenda due to institutional weaknesses, thus «succeeding in this regressive push against the little that has been achieved in justice,» Aguilera concluded.
While the parliamentary opposition highlighted their resistance to what they consider an unacceptable signal of impunity, the ruling party defends the measure as a reparative act for those who «risked their lives.» However, Justice Minister Fernando Rabat dismissed any mass executions of these decrees in the short term, insisting that the review will be «thorough» and strictly individual for each selected case, representing a complex technical and political filter that leaves in doubt whether José Kast’s administration can fulfill the promise of 102 pardons for uniformed personnel.
El Ciudadano.
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