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Money-laundering
scandal involving former Chilean dictator unfolds
Chile's
traditionally conservative media and politicians support investigations
By
Elizabeth Baier
SANTIAGO-
A U.S. Senate Subcommittee report released in July linking
former Gen. Augusto Pinochet to suspected money-laundering
activities at the Washington-based Riggs Bank has roused Chileans
of various political factions, as well as the country's traditionally
conservative media and up-and-coming centrist and liberal
publications.
Most agree
with the need for the government here to investigate the source
of the former dictator's wealth.
"The
potential political scandal surrounding this case is significant,
especially because we are close to election time," the
leading conservative daily El Mercurio said in a July
18 editorial. "This is all the more reason why the facts
relating to the case should be carefully and speedily determined."
La
Tercera, Chile's second-largest newspaper, also with a
traditional, conservative editorial line, said of the scandal
(July 18): "Given the seriousness of the report, authorities
and a wide segment of our population have been correct in
calling for an investigation. This is the correct response:
our justice system should determine where this money came
from, if there are other deposits and if they originated from
some kind of illegal action."
President
Ricardo Lagos ordered an internal investigation into the secret
bank accounts within a week of the U.S. Senate report's release.
The Supreme Court assigned Judge Sergio Muñoz, who
is also investigating a high-profile pedophilia case, to investigate
the former general's wealth.
According
to the report, Pinochet hid between $4 and $8 million in at
least six different accounts at Riggs. He opened his first
account at the bank in 1994.
Pinochet,
who was known for his financial and political austerity during
the country's 17-year military regime, is largely credited
with putting Chile on track to becoming South America's most
stable and successful country. But now, even the country's
ultra-conservative factions are demanding an explanation to
the Pinochet family wealth.
"This
would be the end of his efforts to be remembered as a man
of integrity, who gave his body and soul to serve his country,"
said an Aug. 2 editorial in the conservative magazine Ercilla.
"If there is not a plausible explanation for the origin
of the millions of dollars, Pinochet will go into history
as the president who broke with the tradition of honor of
all those who at one point or another have passed through
the presidential palace (La Moneda)."
"Morally,
his image will be buried," added the weekly publication.
Following
the same posture on the need for an investigation, the state-run
newspaper La Nación said in a July 27 editorial:
"The case of Pinochet's bank accounts is a new test for
our institutionalism, in particular with the administration
of the justice system. What's important is the truth and that
the courts meet their responsibility.
"Given
the negative aspect (of the accusations), the case has forced
some sectors that until today have defended the figure of
Pinochet, to step back," La Nación said.
Meanwhile,
El Mercurio published a controversial column on July
21 by Hermógenes Pérez de Arce-- a well-known
Pinochet supporter-- in which Pérez suggested there
are strong political undertones in the money-laundering investigation
and compared it to similar cases that have never been investigated.
He cites the use of the presidential reserve funds during
the Salvador Allende administration as an example and says
that unlike other cases, "the four million dollars that,
according to a North American accusation, Augusto Pinochet
maintained in a bank over there are investigable," Pérez
said. "The government uses a leftist lawyer to chase
after him. Now, the National Defense Council decides to mobilize."
La
Nación responded in an editorial saying: "In
Pérez de Arce's column, he highlights the idea that
if something was not investigated in the past, then its better
not to investigate it in the present. That is not exactly
what the country needs. On the contrary, what it's about is
that Chileans don't convert cynicism into a doctrine and that
we do whatever possible not to be ashamed of ourselves in
the future."
"[The
column] was reproduced as a Sunday insert by ex-officials
of the Pinochet regime," La Nación said.
The money-laundering
case continues to overlap with other investigations involving
the former general, including the recent Supreme Court decision
to uphold a lower court's order to strip the general of his
immunity in 'Operation Condor', a brutal intelligence-gathering
system conducted by the military dictatorships of six South
American countries in the mid-1970s.
"When
the general's defense and his family allowed Judge Muñoz
to interrogate him on his hidden fortune, they knew it could
provoke the removal of the general's immunity in the Operation
Condor case: the act would reveal that he is indeed capable
of facing a trial," said El Mercurio in an Aug.
29 special report.
Pinochet,
88, was diagnosed with a mild case of dementia that has led
courts in the past to deem him unfit to stand trial.
Elizabeth
Baier is a journalist on an Inter-American Press Association
fellowship in Santiago, Chile.
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