Comisión Nacional sobre Prisión Política y Tortura

   / National Commission on Political Prisoners and Torture

   A commission created in November 2003 by President Ricardo Lagos of Chile. Its charge was to investigate the use of torture under the military regime of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. Led by Bishop Sergio Valech, it consisted of eight civilians, who put together a team of 60 people. The team, which included lawyers, psychologists, and social workers, spent a year interviewing 35,000 victims from 40 countries. About mid-November 2004 the commission handed President Lagos its 1,200-page report, which was published at the end of the month. Covering the period from 11 September 1973 to 1989, it verified 27,255 torture victims and concluded that the regime tortured detainees as a matter of policy. The report identified 1,200 torture centers (including the navy’s training ship the Esmeralda) and 14 methods of torture, both physical and psychological. Physical methods included beating, burning, extracting fingernails, immersing in water, and using dogs to perform sexual abuse—almost all the 3,400 women who gave testimony reported being sexually abused. Psychological methods included staging mock executions, keeping prisoners in solitary confinement for long periods, and forcing prisoners to watch family members being tortured. The report also listed the military, police, and intelligence units involved, though not the names of alleged torturers. Based on anonymous testimony, it was never intended to provide evidence for the courts. It was intended to serve historical memory.

   The commission recommended that victims be compensated. Lagos accepted the recommendation, and in mid-December 2004 Congress approved a lifetime pension of 112,000 Chilean pesos a month, about half the minimum monthly salary. Lagos admitted that the amount was symbolic, calling it a moral recognition.