MEMORY OF NATIONS Democratic Transition Guide [ The Chilean Experience ] Chile, specialising in issues of memory and public policy on CONTENTS human rights. Previously, he served as a researcher and testi- mony-taker for both iterations of Chile’s second Truth Com- mission, the “Valech Commission”, which documented cases of dictatorship-era political imprisonment and torture. Currently TRANSFORMATION OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM . 3 he teaches on a range of human rights related courses at Chile’s Alberto Hurtado University DISMANTLING THE STATE SECURITY APPARATUS ........................... 8 MARÍA LUISA ORTIZ ROJAS Head of the Collections and Research Department of the Mu- ARCHIVES OF THE REGIME ................ 16 seum of Memory and Human Rights of Chile (MMDH), since January 2010. From 1985 to 2001 she worked at the Corporation LUSTRATION .......................... 24 for the Promotion and Defence of the People’s Rights (CODE- PU) in its Mental Health and Research and Documentation INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION Programs. From 2002 to 2006, she worked as a documentarist OF THE CRIMES OF THE REGIME ........... 28 in the Human Rights Program of the Ministry of the Interior. From 2006 to 2009 she was Advisor in Human Rights, Archives REHABILITATION OF VICTIMS .............. 31 and Information in the Presidential Commission for Human Rights Policies, of Michelle Bachelet’s government, joining in EDUCATION AND PRESERVATION OF SITES 2008, the Museum of Memory project team and responsible for OF CONSCIENCE ........................ 38 the formation of its Collections. TIMELINE OF THE MAJOR EVENTS .......... 46 DANIELA FUENTEALBA RUBIO Sociologist from the University of Arts and Social Sciences in SOURCES USED AND FURTHER READING . 49 Chile (ARCIS). She has been working on memory and human rights from 2004 to present. She is part of the organization Ciu- dad Elefante and has been working professionally for more than 10 years as an Archivist Researcher in the Collections and Re- search Department of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. Her current projects include the direction of the re- AUTHORS search program Archivos de la Memoria, dedicated to rescuing the history of the defence of human rights during the dictator- ship throughout the different regions of Chile, whose results are CATH COLLINS published every year and available in the Museum’s web page. Professor of Transitional Justice at Ulster University’s Transi- tional Justice Institute since March 2013. Previously, Associate OMAR SAGREDO M Professor of Politics at the Universidad Diego Portales, Chile, Professor at the School of Political Science at the University where she founded and still directs the Transitional Justice Ob- Academia de Humanismo Cristiano. Previously, he was Pro- servatory. Currently, she is involved in research and exchange fessor of Human Rights, Humanitarian Law and Transitions between Northern Ireland and Latin America about the search to Democracy at the University Academia de Humanismo for victims of disappearance. She teaches and supervises in Cristiano, University of Santiago, and the University Alberto Northern Ireland and Chile on Latin American politics, inter- Hurtado. Currently, he works at the site of memory Parque por national criminal justice, human rights, and transitional justice. la Paz Villa Grimaldi. MIREYA DÁVILA RODOLFO IBARRA SOTO Professor of History at the University of Chile. Social Worker and Researcher. Between 2010 and 2011 he worked in the “Presidential Advisory Commission for the Qual- CLAUDIO FUENTES ification of Disappeared Detainees, Political Executed and Vic- Professor at the School of Political Science at the Universidad tims of Political Prisoners and Torture”. Since 2011 he joined Diego Portales, in Santiago, Chile. He is an Associated Researcher the Collections and Research Department of the Museum of at the Centre for Intercultural and Indigenous Rights, and coor- Memory and Human Rights. During the years 2015 and 2016, as dinates the Constitutional Laboratory at the Universidad Diego part of the organization Colectivo Piso Piloto, he is a researcher Portales. Among other books, he is the author of La Erosión de for the Project Memorial of the Cuartel Lautaro, one of the dic- la Democracia (Catalonia, 2019), Cuándo se Jodió Chile (Cata- tatorship’s extermination centre located in the commune of lonia 2016), and El Pacto (Universidad Diego Portales, 2013). As La Reina, Santiago. well as being a Luksic Fellow at Harvard University (2011). BORIS HAU CEVRO would like to express its gratitude to the Museum Chilean lawyer and Senior Research Associate at the Transi- of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago de Chile for its sup- tional Justice Observatory of the Universidad Diego Portales, port when preparing the Chilean case study. This case study is a part of the publication “Memory of Nations: Democratic Transition Guide” (ISBN 978-80-86816-39-5). This publication is available to download at www.cevro.cz/guide. [ 2 ] MEMORY OF NATIONS: DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION GUIDE – ThE CHILEAN EXPERIENCE TRANSFORMATION OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM MIREYA DÁVILA INTRODUCTION embraced attempts to create historical legitimacy by deploying anti-Marxist and anti-Communist discourse to condemn the de- This chapter deals with the main transformations of the Chilean posed socialist government of Salvador Allende (1970–73).4 It political system during the transition from dictatorship to de- also sought legal and constitutional legitimization by imposing mocracy at the beginning of the 1990s. The military dictatorship a vision of an authoritarian and protected democracy, and pur- that ruled Chile for 17 years (1973–1990) introduced deep trans- sued economic legitimization based on the success of a new, formations in Chilean society that impacted on the transition neo-liberal, economic model.5 process itself, as well as on the political system inaugurated in New rules of the political game were a fundamental part of March 1990. The main changes introduced by the dictatorship the changes introduced during the dictatorship. The new insti- included a new political Constitution and the introduction of tutional design was enshrined in the new, 1980, Constitution, pro-market reforms in the economic sphere, a change in the ter- which began to be implemented in 1981.6 ritorial organization of the country (with the creation of new ad- A set of institutions established in this 1980 Constitution gave ministrative), a new binominal electoral system, reduced powers the Armed Forces an important role in the political order, and for Congress and therefore, a hyper-presidential system. These placed them in a privileged situation relative to other state or- changes constituted the framework within which the political ganizations. Dispositions included dissolving civilian authorities’ system has had to process subsequent political dynamics and power to remove commanders-in-chief of the Armed Forces or conflicts over social, economic, and political change. internal security agencies; plus the creation of a National Security Council, an advisory body of the President of the Republic on national security matters, in whose decisionmaking the Armed INITIAL CONDITIONS Forces were to play an important role. In addition, the Consti- tution established a set of rules that favored a concept of so- The initial conditions of the transition process in Chile were in- called “protected democracy”. This involved the creation of non- fluenced by the particular characteristics of the Chilean military elected (designated) Senators, whose number was to include dictatorship, including the nature of military rule, its long dura- former commanders-in-chief of the armed forces and security tion, and the transformations it introduced. services.7 Other aspects included the introduction of high quo- The Chilean military dictatorship began on September 11, rums, designed to make any future reform of this Constitution 1973 with a coup. All three branches of the Armed Forces, plus and associated constitutional organic laws more difficult. A new, the Carabineros (uniformed police) participated in the coup. binominal, electoral system was also introduced. This tended, at The ensuing dictatorship, led by the Army, and its Commander- least in the early years of its operation, to favor the political Right, in-Chief, General Augusto Pinochet, was characterized by mas- who were political allies of the military and the dictatorship. sive political and social repression. This included violation of the human rights of the population in general, and members of 1 The Dictatorship had two agencies responsible for repression: the National 1 left-wing political parties in particular. Anew political order was Intelligence Directorate (Dirección Nacional de Inteligencia, DINA), cre- centered on Pinochet, and founded on deep neo-liberal econom- ated de facto in 1973 but formalized in 1974, and the National Information ic reforms.2 Although the first militaryjunta had four members Center (Centro Nacional de Información, CNI), created in 1977 to replace (the heads of each of the three Armed Forces, plus the uniformed the DINA. 2 Carlos Huneeus, Carlos Huneeus, The Pinochet Regime. Boulder: Lynne police) de facto powers of government soon came to be concen- Reinner, 2007. trated in the hands of Pinochet and the Army High Command. 3 Outgoing parties that had formed part of the deposed Popular Unity govern- Economic management was meanwhile delegated to neo-liberal ment (Unidad Popular) were banned: Decree Law 77 of