Chilean prosecutors brought multiple charges against Gen. Augusto Pinochet Monday in the Operation Colombo and Riggs Bank Cases, as well as a third request to reopen the investigation into the notorious Caravan of Death.
The move follows on the heels of an earlier Supreme Court decision to strip the former dictator of his legal immunity in the two cases and the subsequent ruling by Chile’s Legal Medical Service (SML) that Pinochet is mentally and physically fit to stand trial.
The charges against him include homicide, torture, kidnapping, money laundering, tax evasion, and falsifying documents. The 89 year old retired general had previously managed to evade numerous indictments for these and other crimes that occurred during his 17 year military dictatorship. Monday’s charges represent the first time prosecutors have successfully cleared all of the legal hurdles necessary to indict Gen. Pinochet.
The Operation Colombo charges relate to the 1975 murder of 119 activists from the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). Gen. Pinochet is formally charged with the disappearance of 15 of them.
The Riggs Bank case is an investigation into the US$27 million Pinochet channeled into secret bank accounts over a period of 25 years while he led the nation and its army. The investigation shocked Chileans and has caused many one time staunch supporters to lose their faith in the former dictator.
The request to reopen the Caravan of Death investigation comes after a 2002 Supreme Court decision to close the investigation into the 1973 murder of 57 people and the kidnapping of another 18, immediately after the Sept. 11, 1973 military coup.
The investigation was closed because doctors ruled that Gen. Pinochet was physically incapable of standing trial. Following the recent SML decision that Pinochet is in fact fit to be tried, prosecutors have asked that judges investigate the executions of two members of former President Salvador Allende’s guard who were not included in the earlier Caravan of Death indictment.
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