CHILE-DICTATORSHIP/QUINTANA-TRIAL Chilean survivor of dictatorship-era burning demands justice

Record ID: 145795

  • Title: CHILE-DICTATORSHIP/QUINTANA-TRIAL Chilean survivor of dictatorship-era burning demands justice
  • Date: 29th July 2015
  • Summary: SANTIAGO, CHILE (JULY 29, 2015) (REUTERS) JOURNALISTS WAITING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BURNING SURVIVOR, CARMEN GLORIA QUINTANA, SAYING: "Through the (Chilean government's) Human Rights law, we are going to draw together all the background information in order to indict all those who were spokespersons, ministers, or those who held v
  • Embargoed: 13th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Chile
  • Country: Chile
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3AAK4WSHR1S0BMPZ6ZHAY2XKL
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A Chilean woman who was smothered in gasoline and set alight by soldiers in 1986 during a Pinochet dictatorship-era labour strike continues to pursue justice as an ongoing investigation into the crime has led to over ten arrests and several charges in recent weeks.
    Carmen Gloria Quintana, who was an 18-year-old student at the time, survived the incident which killed photographer and U.S. resident Rodrigo Rojas.
    Six former military officers were charged with murder on Friday (July 24), with four more interrogated the following Monday.
    Judge Mario Carroza did not rule out the possibility of more arrests being made, and Quintana has called for all those involved to be investigated and punished accordingly.
    "I am filing my complaint with the Federations of Santiago University Students (FEUSACH) against all those responsible for the homicide of Rodrigo Rojas and the attempted homicide against me, whether they acted as perpetrators, accomplices, or those who covered up the truth. It will go as far as it goes," Quintana told reporters in Santiago on Wednesday (July 29).
    Chilean Judge Mario Carroza reopened the case in 2013 and ordered the arrests of the ex-officers after a military conscript, Fernando Guzman, changed his previous testimony.
    Official accounts of the incident held that the two victims accidentally set themselves ablaze when constructing a flaming barricade to repel law enforcement, and soldiers were reportedly made to hold pacts of secrecy.
    Guzman said he had met with other military personnel to agree on their versions of the incident and that until last year he had been too afraid of what might be done against his family should he speak out.
    Guzman said the officers intentionally set the two teenagers ablaze before abandoning them in a ditch in the outskirts of the capital.
    Rojas died four days later in the company of his exiled mother, and Quintana remained severely disfigured, undergoing 40 operations and many years of medical treatment and therapy.
    Quintana went on to study a psychology degree and was appointed by President Michelle Bachelet last year as scientific attache of the Chilean Embassy in Ottawa.
    Quintana said earlier in the week that Guzman's testimony had given her renewed hope, adding on Wednesday that no one should be able to escape the law.
    "Through the (Chilean government's) Human Rights law, we are going to draw together all the background information in order to indict all those who were spokespersons, ministers, or those who held various different positions, and if Lucia Hiriart (Pinochet's widow) falls amongst them, then she must fall too. Here nobody escapes the law, we are all equal before the law," said Quintana.
    Chilean President Michelle Bachelet called on Monday for secrecy to be broken down in order to advance justice for crimes committed under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The plea was reiterated by President of the Senate, Patricio Walker.
    Executive Secretary for the Ministry of the Interior's Human Rights programme, Francisco Ugas, said the government would promote investigation as part of a global system of protection.
    "The Human Rights programme forms part of the state apparatus, which in turn is part of an Inter-American system and a universal system for Human Rights protection. We have to promote investigation and the sanctioning of those responsible and any individual who has intervened, whether as perpetrator, accomplice, or someone covering up the truth, must be charged in the case currently led by Minister Mario Carroza," Ugas told reporters.
    Although support for Pinochet in Chile has declined in recent years, the country still remains deeply divided by the events of the 1973 coup, centralised rule and the repression that followed.
    Pinochet left office in 1990, but arrests and prosecutions of former government officials remain commonplace.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register