Chile: Pinochet and Kissinger crimes to be exposed for the first time

Socialist President Ricardo Lagos is reviewing an official report containing over 35,000 testimonials of tortures

Shortly after Chile's army acknowledged that tortures and political assassinations during Augusto Pinochet's right-wing dictatorship were institutional, not excesses of a few individuals, country's Socialist President Ricardo Lagos received on Wednesday a massive official report containing 35,000 testimonials of abuses providing details of such crimes. It is the first ever government-sponsored recounting of the crimes against humanity in Chile between 1973 and 1990.

Lagos said his country could bear the soul-searching that is likely to be sparked by testimony from Chileans tortured during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 17-year rule. Human-rights groups criticized Lagos for not making the findings public immediately, as Lagos said he wanted to review them first and find ways to compensate the victims.

As in other South American countries at that time, political prisoners in Chile were held disappeared, tortured, drugged, deprived from sleep and frequently killed, in what has been known as "Operation Condor", a plan of intelligence cooperation coordinated by Washington"s Henry Kissinger aimed to crackdown on leftist opposition.

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