El Ciudadano
Judicial Workers Denounce Supreme Court President’s Meeting with Families of Convicted Human Rights Violators
One of many comments left on the Judicial Power’s Instagram account reflects the sentiments surrounding the controversial meeting between Supreme Court President Gloria Ana Chevesich and the «Group of Sons and Grandchildren of Prisoners of the Past,» which consists of relatives of convicted human rights violators responsible for crimes against humanity: «My grandmother died looking for her son, filed for protection, and was never received by a minister. It is revictimizing to see this.»
This meeting has faced widespread political and social criticism, notably from the Organization of Judicial Workers (OTJ), which issued a public statement rejecting the gathering. They questioned whether Chevesich would be willing to meet with families of those guilty of crimes such as murder, rape, enforced disappearance, and illegal burial and exhumation of bodies, in order to cover up their crimes.
The response is clear: no. However, these are precisely the crimes for which the currently incarcerated individuals have been convicted, who acted under the power of the state during a context marked by the complicit silence and inaction of the Judicial Power itself during the dictatorship, the OTJ’s statement adds.
For this reason, Judicial Workers emphasized that «giving public visibility to the families of these convicts is a deeply misguided signal and an affront to the victims and their families.»
«Gestures like this create an unacceptable halo of legitimacy around individuals convicted by the courts, undermine public trust in the impartiality of the judicial system, and weaken Chile’s commitment to the principles of transitional justice,» the officials stressed.
In light of this, the OTJ called on the Supreme Court «to reaffirm, without ambiguities, its institutional commitment to victims, memory, and non-repetition. Justice cannot send mixed messages in the face of crimes against humanity.»
Questionable Video
Two days after the meeting, and despite numerous critiques, the Judicial Power has kept the video of the gathering on its social media, where astonishingly, only Jeannette Reyes, wife of former Army officer Julio Castañer—who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for having burned alive Rodrigo Rojas de Negri and Carmen Gloria Quintana in 1986—is given the floor.
This sentence against Castañer was definitively upheld by the same Supreme Court in January 2024. During the trial, several testimonies about his actions on the day of the crime emerged. One of them, given by a former conscript present at the scene, claimed that Castañer intimidated Carmen Gloria Quintana—who remained detained and lying on the ground—by saying, «Do you want me to burn you, motherf*****, for doing stupid things?»
The same former conscript asserted that then-Lieutenant Castañer was known for his cruelty and encouraged his subordinates to beat detained individuals. Read Julio Castañer’s record HERE
El Ciudadano
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