BREAKING NEWS: Pinochet has been charged guilty of imprisonment but not on crimes against humanity
In the ICC v. Augustus Pinochet Case, on March 15th, at 1:00 PM, Augustus Pinochet was proven guilty of unlawfully prisoning people but not guilty for any other crimes against humanity due to there being insufficient evidence that Pinochet conducted any other crimes. This, mainly due to the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), Pinochet’s secret police force that conducted the human rights crimes towards the thousands of Chilean citizens who were connected to left-wing parties, was done by Manuel Contreras and not him.
Many believed otherwise, as an anonymous source has mentioned that Pinochet is not guilty since, though he was the dictator of Chile, he was not in charge of DINA, which was actually Manuel Contreras. Furthermore, they stated that if someone were to be accused it would be him as Augusto simply gave Contreras the role of being in charge of DINA. Additionally, this would mean that he was the one giving the directions and committing the crimes against humanity. Finally, they concluded that Pinochet was rarely associated with the DINA, only when Manuel would go to Pinochet for proof of what the DINA had done.
As the Leader of Chile, he has had minimal connection with the DINA and did not directly say to murder or torture a certain person or group of people however his negligence to stand up for the people of Chile allowed Manuel and DINA to carry out these crimes against innocent citizens of Chile as another anonymous source has also mentioned. According to CBC news, Augusto Pinochet took full responsibility for his actions on a Saturday which included the unlawful killings of millions and the illegal imprisonment in Chile. At age 91, he actually stated that “Today, near the end of my days, I want to say that I harbour no rancour against anybody, that I love my fatherland above all and that I take political responsibility for everything that was done which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration. I assume full political responsibility for what happened”.
The same anonymous source stated that, “a dictator, Pinochet, forcefully overtook the country of Chile using military force and inactive violence against Chile’s government.”
While Pinochet was not in charge and did not conduct the arrests, he did play a pivotal role in in authorizing and protecting the human rights abuses, however, the lack of evidence that he was truly in charge of it was minimal as it cannot be stated that he was truly the reason for murders and disappearances.