Comisión Nacional de Verdad y Reconciliación

   / National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation

   Also known as the Rettig commission. A truth commission established in 1990 by President Patricio Aylwin Azócar of Chile. It was charged with investigating and documenting human-rights violations committed in Chile between 11 September 1973 and 11 March 1990. Judge Raúl Rettig headed the commission, which was composed of six lawyers, a historian, and a civil-rights worker, all representing different political affiliations. The commission reviewed more than 3,000 cases of human-rights violations that resulted in death; more than 1,000 of the victims were among the desaparecidos (missing). The Commission’s charge stopped short of allocating responsibility to the members of the military, including Augusto Pinochet Ugarte and other high-ranking officials. The Supreme Court and the military publicly vilified the commission and its report. Despite the rancor, Aylwin Azócar established the Corporación Nacional por la Reconciliación y la Reparación (National Corporation for Reconciliation and Reparation) to complete the commission’s work, which included implementing a reparations program. Survivors of victims listed in the commission’s final report receive a symbolic monthly payment of a little more than the monthly minimum wage.