How Much Longer Can Impunity Last? Chile’s Historic Debt to the Victims of Dictatorship

By Rodolfo Varela

More than 52 years after the beginning of Pinochet’s dictatorship, Chile still carries an open wound: a historic debt to its victims that no populist government has truly addressed.

Members of the former socialist president Salvador Allende after the coup d'état of General Augusto Pinochet on September 11.

Despite endless speeches about “justice,” “human rights” and “historical memory,” political elites have prioritized their own interests while turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed between 1973 and 1990.

Let us not forget the illegal fortunes amassed during that era by intelligence agents, politicians, businessmen, artists, judges, and religious leaders who benefited from the suffering of thousands.

The recent arrest of former DINA agent José Zara in Santiago is a step forward, thanks to Magistrate Alejandro Aguilar and Judge Paola Plaza, who ruled that Zara and Raúl Iturriaga must stand trial for the assassination of U.S. citizen Roni Moffitt in 1976, alongside former foreign minister Orlando Letelier.

Yet many culprits remain at large—among them Michael Townley and Armando Fernández, currently living in the United States—while Chilean authorities move at a frustratingly slow pace to demand their extradition.

Chile must assume the "moral duty" to find the disappeared of the Pinochet dictatorship.

Political calculations and institutional fear have hindered full justice. Too many names from that dark period still circulate within Chile’s elite.

Zara’s arrest should remind us that justice must not depend on political cycles or diplomatic convenience. Chile owes its victims more than symbolic gestures—it owes them truth, reparation, and the guarantee that impunity will never again be the norm.

#Chile #Dictatorship #Justice #HumanRights