A Chilean court has suspended the order to place former Augusto Pinochet under house arrest for crimes he committed during "Operation Condor",

Saturday, January 16, 2021

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A Chilean court has suspended the order to place former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet under house arrest for crimes he committed during "Operation Condor", aiming to remove his opponents in Latin America, between 1970 and 1980 at the request of his defense lawyers. Chilean Judge Juan Guzman said he has decided to put the 86-year-old Pinochet on trial. Pinochet has, among other things, been accused of holding nine people by force and killing a man during Operation Condor, reports Zaman Online. According to The Age, as Judge Guzman announced the decision at the main courts in Santiago, relatives of victims cheered and sang for joy. Later they marched in Santiago's main street to celebrate. Among the crowd was Miriam Tamayo Martinez, whose brother was one of the 10 victims named in the 52-page resolution. "I am much more content knowing that General Pinochet has been charged over the death of my brother," she said. "We have been waiting for so long for the justice system in Chile to do something." Her brother, Manuel Tamayo, was detained on April 3, 1976, with two Chilean friends in the Argentine city of Mendoza. They were arrested by Argentinian and Chilean officials and taken back to Santiago for questioning and torture. Like eight others named in the lawsuit, Mr Tamayo's body has never been recovered. "This time is different," said Viviana Diaz, a leader of the Association of Relatives of the Disappeared. "Guzman probably feels he is supported by other judges who are also advancing in human rights investigations and by the Supreme Court." Last month, the Supreme Court confirmed sentences against human rights violators in the military rather than allow an amnesty law to be applied. Operation Condor was a joint intelligence program set up by South America's rightist military dictatorships in the mid-1970s, primarily to kidnap and murder political dissidents from member countries who had gone into exile in other participating countries, informs International Herald Tribune.

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