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US Praises Chile's Decision on Detention of Pinochet
The United States on Monday, December 4, praised Chile's decision to place former President Augusto Pinochet under house arrest, saying it was key to helping Chile move away from its past.
"Chile is addressing the Pinochet issue within its national context in a manner that promotes justice and national reconciliation," White House spokesman Jake Siewert said.
"The Chilean justice system has made important advances in its treatment of cases of human rights abuses committed during the military government," he added.
Pinochet, 85, was placed under house arrest last Friday by an order from Chilean Judge Juan Guzman, who will also decide whether to go on with a trial after medical examinations of Pinochet.
Pinochet took power in 1973 after ousting socialist President Salvador Allende in a bloody coup.
During his presidency, Pinochet rewrote Chile's constitution, which gives any past president who had served at least six years the right to become "senator for life" with lifetime immunity. In August, Chile's Supreme court stripped Pinochet of his immunity from legal prosecution, leaving him at the mercy of numerous criminal charges pending against him.
The release of tens of thousands of declassified US intelligence documents shows Washington's role in unseating Allende and CIA's ties to Pinochet's secret police during and after the 1973 coup.
Upon releasing the final batch of declassified papers in November, the United States had to acknowledge its role in destabilizing Chile's constitutional regime under the leadership of late President Allende in 1973.
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