Chile shuts luxury jail for dictatorship criminals
Chile shuts luxury jail for dictatorship criminals
Sep 26, 5:42 PM EDT
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- Chile's president is announcing that he will close a luxury prison for dictatorship-era criminals.
Sebastian Pinera said Thursday that his government has decided to close the Cordillera prison taking into account "equality before law" and the security of the 10 inmates who will now serve time at another special prison.
Military officers imprisoned for killings and other abuses committed during the 1973-1990 dictatorship were held at the Cordillera prison at an army base and lived in far better conditions than those of the country's lockups for typical prisoners. Inmates sleep in small cabins and enjoy tennis courts, hot showers and natural light.
On Wednesday, supporters of one of the inmates even tried to organize a BBQ in his honor at the prison where he is serving a 144-year sentence.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_CHILE_HUMAN_RIGHTS_PRISON?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
(Short article, no more at link.)
= new reply since forum marked as read
Chile's prison tragedy
Dec 8th 2010, 23:03 by R.B. | SANTIAGO
THE rescue in October of 33 miners trapped underground by rockfall was an impressive display of the Chilean state's competence. Sadly, there was no happy ending following a fire that broke out on December 8th in the San Miguel jail in southern Santiago, the capital. So far 81 people have died, and around 20 more are injured, including three who are now in critical condition. Jaime Mañalich, the health minister, called the accident “probably the worst ever in Chile's prison system”. Clearly, not all parts of the state are as effective as its miner-rescue team.
Chilean prisons are extremely overcrowded even by Latin American standards, housing around 60% more inmates than they were designed for. Even Sebastián Piñera, who this year became Chile's first right-of-centre president since the country's return to democracy in 1990, calls the system “absolutely inhumane”. The country's largest jail, built in central Santiago in the mid-1800s, is operating at 300% of capacity.
The San Miguel prison was in similarly poor shape. It was intended for 700 inmates, but according to a court report in October, it was packed with 1,924 prisoners and just 100 guards, working in three shifts. The blaze reportedly began after two prisoners in a fight set fire to their mattresses. Once firemen arrived, they had to use wire cutters to get through the perimeter gates, and had trouble opening locked cell doors.
The government has tried to alleviate the overcrowding by building new jails. Over the past seven years, six new prisons have been built under private concession contracts, and seven more are planned. But the inmate population is rising as well. According to Fundación Paz Ciudadana, a Santiago-based NGO, 317 of every 100,000 Chileans are now in jail—44% more than in 2000, and one of the highest rates in the region. Most of the victims from the San Miguel fire identified so far were in their twenties and had been sentenced on theft or burglary charges.
More:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2010/12/chiles_jails
(Privatization, a gift from US-supported, torturer, murderer, puppet dictator Augusto Pinochet.)
Chile's president closes luxury prison for dictatorship-era criminals
By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, September 26, 8:14 PM
SANTIAGO, Chile — Chile’s president announced Thursday that he will close a luxury prison for dictatorship-era military officials convicted of crimes against humanity, taking away their tennis courts, barbecues and a pool.
~snip~
The decision came after Manuel Contreras, the former chief of Pinochet’s secret service gave an interview inside Cordillera ahead of the 40th anniversary of the military coup.
Contreras, who is serving combined sentences of more than 100 years for kidnappings and murders, mocked prison guards, saying they were only there “to hold his cane,” and he claimed that all of the thousands of disappeared during the dictatorship were armed leftists killed in gunfights.
~snip~
Former President Michelle Bachelet, who was held and tortured during the dictatorship, praised the decision to close Cordillera.
~snip~
But the public outcry reached a high point Wednesday when supporters of former Brigadier Miguel Krassnoff tried to organize a BBQ in his honor at Cordillera, where he is serving a 144-year sentence. An event honoring Krassnoff in 2011 ended in clashes between his supporters and human rights activists.
More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/chiles-president-closes-luxury-prison-for-dictatorship-era-criminals-no-more-tennis-bbq/2013/09/26/c7e65ae6-270e-11e3-9372-92606241ae9c_story.html
[center] 
From: CIA Acknowledges
Ties to Pinochet’s Repression
Report to Congress Reveals U.S. Accountability in Chile
by Peter Kornbluh, Director, Chile Documentation Project
September 19, 2000
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20000919/
[/center]