translated from Spanish: Burning of files in the army: again CAT watching the carnage

in a decision that constit will a major setback, more typical of other times, on 3 September judge Mario Carroza presented research on the burning of files in the Directorate of intelligence of the DINÉ to second prosecution military Santiago, due to the gathered antecedents to this fact they don’t shape the offence of concealment of crimes against humanity.
The investigation began in December 2017, then that carriage received a trade of the then Minister of defence, José Antonio Gómez, which reported that in the year 2015 had ordered the Commander in Chief of the army conduct a summary investigation about the fate of the documentation related to the former President Eduardo Frei Montalva. Research showed that the files had been incinerated.
With that information, the judge ordered form an administrative notebook to investigate responsibilities and consecutively, London 38 space of memory filed a complaint for the crime of child abduction and removal of documents and cover-up of killings and kidnappings qualified. Legal action was also based on the information revealed by the New York Times newspaper about the burning of microfilms and files related to the actions of army intelligence agencies, during the military dictatorship.
The destruction of files of the DINÉ in 2000 corresponded to rolls of microfilm archives of the CNI, said the former head of the Archives Department II of the DINÉ counterintelligence. Interestingly, the destruction occurred at the moment in which the “table of dialogue” was being developed and Pinochet returned to the country after his arrest in England. Also, it was revealed in the research that in 1989 it had burned – in an alleged bombing of army physical education school – information on the Councils of Guerra made after the coup of 1973 along Chile which was in the custody of the Secretariat for Guerra.
And most curious, the DINÉ reported that documentation of that body before the year 2001 there is no. There are no records of incineration, there are no records of what became of those files, nothing, simply don’t exist… do disappeared? Clearly, everything indicates that we are facing an investigation related to a pattern of cover-up, used by the armed forces to hide crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship.

Therefore, it does not explain that the Minister instructor has been designated as an argument to send the inquiry to military justice that, in accordance with the Act 81-2010 of the Supreme Court, it only has jurisdiction to investigate the crimes of death and disappearance of people committed between 11 September 1973 and 10 March 1990, ignoring that it is clear from the process, the destruction of documentation sought precisely to conceal such offences. Following the judge’s reasoning we would have to conclude, then, that the cover-ups of crimes against humanity are not punishable or objects of sanction, which exceeds all logic legal criminal.
In accordance with international law, the State has the duty to investigate crimes against humanity in their various fields of criminal responsibility, but also all those offences related to the disappearance and death of the victims, such as torture, burials and exhumations, or in this case, child abduction and suppression of evidence related to the crimes committed.
In addition, the Minister float resolution mentions that “alleged alleged wrongful acts” investigated personnel involved in them corresponds exclusively to soldiers of the army of Chile, assets at the time of the incident, for which reason the investigating judge decides to refer the investigation to the military justice system. This decision brings back steps to leaps and bounds in investigating this type of crime, violating the Inter-American and international law of human rights in the matter, recoiling at the jurisprudence of our Court to earlier time to 1998 as it has already stated on numerous occasions, military jurisdiction must have a scope of restrictive and exceptional, being used only for active military judge at the time of trial, for the Commission of crimes attempting against legal property the military order (Court H.R., case Palamara vs. Chile, para. 124), and that serious violations of human rights should always be judged by the ordinary courts.
It is hoped that the Court of appeals reversed that decision and decide to investigate the crimes of destruction of documents for links to serious violations of human rights, because it is the only way to advance in the truth of what happened and to establish the responsibilities of those who ordered the destruction of evidence to evade the action of Justice.

Poured in this op-ed content is the sole responsibility d and its author, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial line nor the counter position.

Original source in Spanish