Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Laureate: "Chile is on the fringes of the law"

By Arnaldo Pérez Guerra

Source El Mercurio Digital

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, defender of human Rights and president of the honorary counsel in the Service of Peace and Justice, Latin America (Serpaj,) met in Chile with organizations of human Rights and participated in forums and talks. He shared impressions with Martín Almada, a Paraguayan lawyer, alternate Nobel laureate for Peace, in the International Forum on Demilitarization and Culture for Peace. He is the one who discovered and revealed the secret archives of the Condor Operation – and with Susana Pimiento –(Colombian and US citizen) who is part of the Fellowship of Reconciliation movement (FOR).

Pérez Esquivel also met with Lorena Fries, director of the National Institute of Human Rights (Indh), the director of the Corporation Three and Four Alamos and the Association of Families of Executed Political Prisoners (AFEP).

In the press conference he offered in Three and Four Alamos, he referred to this place where Pinochet and the DINA were installed – between 1974 and 1976 – that was the center of detention and torture. Today it is an institution of the National Service of Minors (Sename): “A jail that houses minors who have broken the law. He said that the State “should finance areas and museums of memory not subjected to changes of government”. Three and Four Alamos should be part of the budget of the nation – he said – such as former Nazi concentration camps in Germany. But not even today has it been recovered as a center for minors, administrated by Sename that is the legal representative and Gendarm. Not only is it absurd but criminal” he added.

- What do you think happened here in this jail for minors, the former concentration camp of Pinochet? What is your opinion of the silence, oblivion and indifference regarding human rights?

“I am glad to have been with Luisa Stagno, a combatant and survivor of all this. Three and Four Alamos that was a center of detention and torture of Pinochet and is today a youth center of temporary detention. It is absurd and a mockery of the victims … those of before and today. While walking along this site I thought what would happen if today the Alamos and the walls talked? How much pain would they tell about? What would they say that what was once a center of detention of the dictatorship continues to be a jail? It has different characteristics but it is still a jail, not during the dictatorship but “what would the Alamos and walls tell us. I believe that the memory is present but the memory is not to remain in the past but illuminate the present. Each one of us have different experiences in life, in struggle, in resistance, in values and what we try to do is recover human dignity. This is fundamental; recover the dignity of persons but also of the peoples. The authorities, including the democratic, try to hide this past, silence it and let it pass into oblivion. But the peoples who forget are peoples who will disappear. That is why it is so important to recover the places of memory, of suffering and of horror that are also areas of resistance and hope preventing oblivion. “Nothing is forgotten, no one is forgotten; neither forgotten nor pardoned” say the walls of Three and Four Alamos, because I don’t forget nor pardon? Because if this remains in oblivion then what is left is impunity that does not help to build a democratic society. This site should be one of memory, a museum, a center for gatherings, of reflection, for people to come. I call on the authorities to make this a site of memory to spread words of what happened here and what happens and can happen. We must plant Alamos again; recover life, resistance and memory of the Chilean people. This is what we are doing in Argentina and many other countries. The sociological, psychological and spiritual function is important because all peoples must recover their thoughts, their identity, their values, their sense of belonging, of pains and joys. It was a pleasure to meet you because I see that, in spite of all, you maintain your smiles. And if you don’t lose it is because there is hope to build a better world…A colleague told us – me and Martín Almada – with vehemence what was happening here. “Here there was a wall”. But this wall was never knocked down, it is still there. When showing us around he said: “This was a cell, here were the bathrooms, the torturers here relaxed and when they looked in the mirror did not recognize themselves because they had been so punished that it was difficult to recognize themselves”. Those of us who suffered torture know it. Here was pain, was a jail and locked up during the dictatorship. And today it is a place to lock up young people? How to accumulate pain? How can we rethink these places as places of life and not of death? I think that the authorities should respect these places of memory, give all possibilities, the necessary funds, not only for the generations of today but generations after us?

- 40 years have passed since the military coup and the victims and families demand that those who violated human right be jailed here in a general jail, to close the U.S. base in Con cón, not militarize the Mapuche territories and not apply the Anti terrorist Law against that people, not apply the Hinzpeter law that criminalizes demonstrations of the social movement…

“It seems incredible that these things occur in Chile in full view and with the patience of international human rights institutions. Chile continues to be a country with the military boot… the militarism that we know. The doctrine of national security did not end in Latin America. Soldiers continue to be trained in the School of the Americas and the same is done with the forces of security. What kind of democracy do we have? Pinochet’s military coup was 40 years ago and throughout Latin America there were military coups. Our governments must consider the role of the armed forces in the construction of a democracy; this is the challenge. I see that political leaders deal with this issue in the election campaigns, in daily life, of the role of the armed forces. What are the hypotheses of these conflicts? That is the other problem. Because in the hypothesis of today, the enemy is an internal enemy, the people. Then we see the anti terrorist law applied against the Mapuche when they demand their rights to the land. Then they are punished, social protests are punished, wanting to use the Hinzpeter law. What happens with the armed forces? Isn’t it a force separated from the people; it must be at the service of the people. But they end up being a force of occupation of their own people. This is serious. I don’t see that the political parties have this as a priority. The armed forces do not allow the politicians to be involved “in their affairs”. It seems that they are a different country. When we begin to see what happens, we want to demilitarize Latin America. There are serious factors such as U.S. bases installed throughout the continent; the Plan Puebla-Panama, the Plan Colombia, the Triple border, the military base in the Malvinas (Falkland) islands, the reactivation of the 4th U.S. Fleet and what happens in the armed forces of each country that continues to train soldiers in the School of the Americas in a doctrine of national security and internal repression. Then, what we have is a “conditioned” and “restricted” democracy? They are not participation democracies.

We believe that we are free, that what occurred 40 years ago cannot happen again, but we are not free. The events are clear: the coup in Honduras, in Paraguay, the attempted coups in Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela”.

- How can we advances towards the integration of the armed forces with civilian society?

“There are several roads. We must rely on the new generations of the armed forces; they did not live what we lived through. Then, their thoughts should also change, their ideological concept. For this education is very important, opening up spaces and that institutions of human right enter the armed forces to teach, inform, create a memory of what happened…We are doing it in Argentina. We must change the mentality of the high level armed forces officials and of the aviation, navy as well as security forces, if the mentality, thought, is not changed it is impossible to integrate them into society. The others are political decisions, of the political parties, of the government to think and discuss the role of the armed forces in the construction of democracy. What must be done is see how the armed forces are integrated into a project of the country. There are ways of doing it, roads to take. It will not be easy at the beginning but completely possible. I have written quite a bit about this. And I have also made talks and courses for the high level officials of the navy of my country as well as the police forces.”

- What is your opinion of the use of the Anti terrorist law against the Mapuche?

“It is a violation of human rights and an odious discrimination against a people that only fight for their rights, to recover their lands, their culture.

I think that this has been imposed from Washington, from the United States. It seems that the master gives orders to the governments and most Latin American countries apply the anti terrorist law on orders of the United States. Here it is applied against the Mapuche. The Mapuche have the right to their lands, they have the right to reclaim their cultural identity, their values, their belongings. What occurs is proof of this, as with many other democracies that are “conditioned” and “restricted” democracies. The authorities, judges, police, mass media consider the Mapuche citizens with full rights. They are repressed, hidden, deprived of expressing themselves, jailed and killed. This is an “instructed democracy”, not a democracy. We have to go to a delegational democracy, a participative democracy.”

- What is your opinion of what happens in Chile, in the field of human rights?

“I think that Chile must strengthen democracy. But it is not about putting it to a vote and say we want to live in a democracy, and be satisfied with this. But it is false. Voting is an exercise of democratic action but it is not democracy.

Democracy means rights and equality for all. It does not exist. Today there are tortures, violations of human rights; there are problems and violations of human rights in the jails. Still the families of victims of Pinochet are seeking the truth and justice, the reparation for the damages done; that still does not happen. Then it is still a road to traverse. There is no truth or full justice; still what happened must be reconstructed, recover the thousands of sites of memory. To honor life and resistance is to fight against horror…And also about the border conflict Chile has with Bolivia that demands for an outlet to the sea. When are we going to be integrated like sister countries. Doors and windows are necessary to integrate the continent. Not cause wars such as the case between Ecuador and Peru…Between Bolivia and Chile? Bolivia has to turn to the Hague Tribunal to see if their rights to the sea is solved when it could have been solved through a good political will of both peoples, to cooperate and integrate as a peoples. We must think that we can move towards a continental integration.”

GUANTÁNAMO AND OBAMA

- What is your opinion of what is happening in the United States base in Guantanamo?

“Obama is a slave of the system; he is a man totally submitted to the military industrial complex – to those who have real power – of the United States. He wanted to close the Guantanamo jail but could not; close Abu Ghraib but could not; wanted to avoid war but could not. Now Obama is submitted but he does not have the courage to speak out clearly to the people of the United States and the world of this situation. He promised things he could not fulfill, he is not allowed to fulfill. He is worse than Bush; what happens with the selective murders with drones? He is a slave of the system of domination. He has to break free. In Guantanamo torture is a daily occurrence. The prisoners are force fed; they are kept in prison without trials, no formal charges. Can Obama do nothing? He does not decide? Chile and the countries of South America can play a fundamental role in the defense of human rights. Guantanamo is not only one of the jails of the United States; there are many others, secret jails. The United States has 37 prison ships and we saw how Special Forces kidnapped a person in Libya, took him to this jail and are interrogating him. They have no rights to a lawyer have no rights, none is respected, and no State has its rights respected. The United States is also a campaign of assassinations. Once a week president Obama checks a list and decides the selective murders to be done with his drones, his automatic plans, systems of death by remote control… We cannot keep quiet against these illegal executions and decided by an Empire of death; secret jails, indefinite detentions, tortures, spying in the entire world. We all know it.”

REFORM OF THE CONSTITUTION

- What is your opinion over a call for a Constituent Assembly in our country?

“Regarding a reform of the Constitution or a Constituent Assembly, I don’t think today’s politicians have the will to make a reform and a democratic constitution… I am not thinking only of Chile, but also of Argentina, in Paraguay and other countries. There is no political will. It is an unfulfilled promise. But awareness has to be created over the need for changes of constitutions and, particularly in Chile, so that the countries are no longer on the fringes of the law. The most powerful weapon against the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. I want to suggest to the Chileans to pay homage to the constutionalist military who were also victims of the horror and dictatorship of Pinochet. Not all military were assassins. We must recover these moral values and pay them homage. A change of the Constitution of Pinochet is fundamental, it is the beginning of a new Chile We must not forget the military base of the United States in Con Cón; it is a threat for the entire region. We thought that after the dictatorship things would change; and we see that in some places, although they talk of democracy, they continue to violate human rights, allow foreign military bases, the original people are plundered and repressed. No one stays in the house of another without their consent or if they are breaking in breaking doors and windows. How can the governments allow foreign military bases without the consent of the peoples? It is very serious.”

Tweet