Flash: Pinochet Indicted on Operation Condor Crimes

Just got the phone call from Santiago:

Judge Juan Guzman Tapia has deemed former Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet fit for trial and has indicted him this morning on multiple counts of kidnapping and murder. This set of crimes stem from so-called Operation Condor, the move by Pinochet to export his terror outside the borders of Chile. This means that Pinochet could now face trial for the 1974 car-bomb murder of his predecessor, General Carlos Prats and his wife Sofia who were living in Argentina. This is good news about the ability to punish international terrorism.

Judge Guzman

Here's the report from the Associated Press which just came in:

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Gen. Augusto Pinochet was indicted Monday for the kidnapping of nine dissidents and the killing of one of them during his 1973-90 regime, and the former dictator was placed under house arrest.

Judge Juan Guzman made the announcement nearly three months after questioning the 89-year-old former ruler and having him examined by doctors to determine whether he can stand trial.

Guzman said he made the decision to try Pinochet after carefully reviewing an interview Pinochet gave to a Spanish language television station in Miami.

He said he is convinced Pinochet is healthy enough to stand trial.

The trial of Pinochet is part of Guzman's investigation of the so-called ``Operation Condor,'' a joint plan by the dictatorships that ruled several South American nations in the 1970s and '80s to suppers dissidence.

``This a historic decision that must be celebrated by all democrats,'' said Viviana Diaz, member of an organization of dissidents who disappeared under Pinochet. ``This is great news for all those Chileans who do not accept impunity in the violations of human rights.''

Pinochet's lawyers are expected to appeal Guzman's decision to the Supreme Court.

It's the second time Pinochet faces trial for the abuses during his long reign. In 2001, he was indicted for the killings by the Caravan of Death, a military patrol that toured the country a few weeks after the 1973 coup, leaving 75 political prisoners killed.

Eventually, however, the Supreme Court ruled he was physically and mentally unfit to stand trial - a condition Pinochet's lawyers argue not only still exists but has worsened.

Pinochet has been diagnosed a mild case of dementia. He also has diabetes and uses a pacemaker.

But Guzman said reports he received from three doctors that examined Pinochet on his orders convinced him that the retired general can stand trial.

Guzman also said Pinochet's answers to a Miami TV interviewer indicated he was mentally alert.

Earlier this month, an appeals court stripped Pinochet of immunity from prosecution for a 1974 car bombing that killed an exiled Chilean general and the man's wife.

The 14-9 decision by justices on Santiago's Court of Appeals opened the possibility Pinochet could stand trial for the bombing that killed former army chief Gen. Carlos Prats and his wife, Sofia Cuthbert, in Buenos Aires.

Prats, a former chief of the Chilean army, had opposed the 1973 coup that put fellow general Pinochet in power, and was among the first of an estimated several thousand people killed during Pinochet's rule.

Comments

[jim hitchcock]

Even though it's safe to say that`revenge is a dish served cold' doesn't at all apply in this case, I hope the sense of loss suffered by you, your wife, and the families of all of those who went `missing' is somehow made more bearable seeing this animal put on trial.

[Randy Paul]

A round of pisco sours for everyone!

[rosedog]

The beginning of accountability. Finally.

You're the only person I know who went through the horrors in Chile under this monster. But I do have a treasured friend who was disappeared in Argentina in 1977 when she was in college, then beaten, starved, electrocuted, raped…over the next two years. She was one of the few of all she knew who made it out alive.

[rosedog]

May all those who perpetrated those and like atrocities in Chile, Argentina and elsewhere rot in hell.

[Marc Cooper]

Pisco sours! Chin chin!

[steve]

"May all those who perpetrated those and like atrocities in Chile, Argentina and elsewhere rot in hell."

Even today's news changes nothing in that regard, in fact they shall live in states of luxury that surpass 99.99999 percent of the world. Pinochet included.

[TR]

"...In these days of evil presidentes
Working for the clampdown
But lately one or two has fully paid their due
For working for the clampdown..."

[Josh Legere]

Is Kissinger the least bit nervous right now?

Too bad the pesky War In Iraq will trump the gravity of this news.

[steve]

Kissinger has absolutely nothing to worry about. Neither, for that matter does Pinochet. He was and is on our side.