ABSTRACT
This chapter examines remembering and forgetting 21 years after the 1973 military coup and 4 years after the transition to civilian government in Chile. The Chilean dictatorship, which ruled over the country from 1973 to 1990, was accused of human rights abuses throughout this period. One of the first measures of the transition government regarding human rights abuses was the creadon of a national commission. The Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation (1993) confirmed the responsibility of state agents or people in its service in these crimes. Some victims identified by the truth commission were sentenced to death (59) by wartime court martials (Consejos de Guerra). Other people (101) were shot while supposedly trying to escape imprisonment (ley de fuga). Other situations (93) that ended in death, justified under the “state of war” or “state of siege,” were also included.
