NID CABLE: GROSS VIOATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHILE, ON THE RISE AGAIN.

Created: 5/20/1977

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

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CHILE: Repression

iat th* Pinoohatsusiitnp to pratjeopardised its international etanding sinoe the3 coup,

m^^WB This backsliding comesarticularly bad time ChTTeT

Haportt of gross violation! of human rights in Chili,ad nearly eeaegd thiB year* art again on th* Pile.

for Chile,unbar of West Europaan covernments were beginning to acknowledge improvement in tha Chilean human rights situation. Critics will now have additional assaunition for their attacks on tho Chilean regime and their appeals to boycott lt.

Chile's National Intelligence Directorate isbehind the recent upsurge in torture, illegal detentions, and unexplainedhe Directorate's chief, Colonel Manuel Contreras,lose confidant of Pinochet, who acclaimed tho organisationecent press interview for its "decisive role" in bringing extremism under control. Controras answers directly to the President, and it is unlikely that ho would act without tho knowledge and approval of his superior.

Host of the targets now appear to be socialists, butcommunists and Christian Democrats are alsoampaign against Coaununist Party leaders lest year largely immobilized that organisation, and the security services are apparently turning to other opponents. Reportedly, theDirectorate la disregarding government decrees intended to protect individual rights.

The Directorate's detention facility at Cuatro Alamos is saidto be in operation again. This oite was largely abandonedecree in Januarympowered the Supreme Court

president and the interior minister to inspect-without prior notice-areas suspected of being used for maltreatment. Neither official appears to have exercised this authority since last year.

Pinochet stated this week that the emergency measures in effecT; under the state of siege will be enforced as long as necessary "to repress drastically any attempt that mighthreat to internal security or domesticollowing his recent crackdown on former president Frei's Christian Democratic Party and on outspoken democratic labor leaders, Pinochet has made clear that he will move harshly against anyone who runs afoul of his government.

ly also be 's economic

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The President may believe that the cutoff in US aid humanead issue in Chile and that Washington

lit

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