Comité de la Paz

(COPACHI)

   / Committee for Peace.

   Also known as the Committee of Cooperation for Peace. A humanrights nongovernmental organization in Chile. COPACHI, established in October 1973 under the leadership of the Chilean Catholic Church, is an example of the strong role that the church played in opposition to the military government of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. Although some members of the church hierarchy supported military intervention as a solution to restoring government order before and during the coup, the church denounced the severe repression and human-rights abuses that followed, organizing support for the victims. As a humanitarian organization, COPACHI started with basic programs such as food distribution and medical services but later expanded its scope to include legal services for detainees and sanctuary to those being persecuted. In 1975 COPACHI’s practice of providing sanctuary brought the organization under the scrutiny of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA, Directorate of National Intelligence), a newly formed state intelligence agency. After the forced exile of some of COPACHI’s strongest activists, the organization finally acceded to Pinochet Ugarte’s constant demands for formal dissolution. Work on behalf of victims of the state was continued by a new religious organization created by one of COPACHI’s founders, Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez. The Vicaría de la Solidaridad (Vicariate of Solidarity) opened its offices in 1976 under the protection of the Catholic Church.