Lea aquí el artículo original en español
Published February 16, 2010
- READ MORE: Overview: The secret laws of Pinochet
- DOCUMENTS: The secret laws of the dictatorship Part One
- DOCUMENTS: The secret laws of the dictatorship Part Two
A report that appeared yesterday in La Nación Domingo of February 15, 2010 reveals an unprecedented 150 secret laws issued by the military junta and Augusto Pinochet. During the last 20 years, the Concertación governments kept the secrecy of the reserved laws of the military regime, without using their authority to declassify them. The documents known to researchers at ArchivosChile and La Nación contain unprecedented revelations such as huge increases in military personnel and financial transfers for the benefit of military institutions and their members. However, according to the experts consulted, most of these laws are already outdated now and there would appear to be no need or justification for continued secrecy.
Among other issues, the documents reveal:
- Systematic increases in Armed Forces infrastructure;
- Modifications to the Copper Law to guarantee a high flow of money for military use, even above the publicly known 10%;
- The existence of overpayments for military personnel, at least in the Navy;
- Loans from the Central Bank in the name of Pinochet himself;
- Details on the powers of the DINA and CNI.
ArchivosChile and La Nación newspaper had access to these secret laws, which at the time appeared “published” in restricted editions of the Official Gazette and have been hidden from the public until today.
ArchivosChile will publish for the first time copies of the documents in PDF format on its website www.archivoschile.com, to make them accessible to the general public.
ArchivosChile has officially requested a declassification of all secret laws, using the Access to Information Law.
This article is the second investigation by ArchivosChile and La Nación into the secret laws. On January 24, 2010, it was revealed that the military junta used secret laws to order transfers of US$442 million dollars to military institutions, including loans in the name of Pinochet himself. Both investigations were conducted by Jorge Escalante and John Dinges.
ArchivosChile is a journalistic research project involving the Institute of Communication and Image (ICEI) at the University of Chile, the Center for Research and Information (CIINFO) in Washington, DC, and the newspaper La Nación.
