Chile ordered to pay £20,000 to compensate Pinochet torture victim

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Chile ordered to pay £20,000 to compensate Pinochet torture victim

Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent
theguardian.com, Monday 4 November 2013 03.56 GMT

An 80-year-old Chilean torture survivor, who was forced into exile by General Augusto Pinochet’s regime, has been awarded £20,000 in compensation by the highest court in the Americas.

The landmark judgment sets a precedent for victims of the military dictatorship still living abroad and requires Chile to complete a criminal investigation into what happened to Leopoldo García Lucero in the basement of a Santiago police station 40 years ago.

The decision by the Inter-American court of human rights, the continent’s equivalent of the European court of human rights in Strasbourg, marks the end of an 11-year-long legal quest for justice. It is the first ruling by the court involving a Chilean torture survivor.

García Lucero, who now lives in London with his family, was a member of the Socialist party and worked at Santiago’s racecourse, near the presidential palace. He was close to Salvador Allende, the president who was removed in the 1973 military coup.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/04/chile-ordered-compensation-pinochet-torture-victim

[gopiscrap]

1. good

[Judi Lynn]

2. I read long ago people can tell torture survivors often from their eyes.

This survivor of the Nixon-supported Pinochet's reign of terror has unique eyes, himself. It is painful just considering what events in his life he saw helplessly, unable to defend against, while nasty right-wing goblins showed up to separate him from hope, each day, all day, as he fell asleep knowing as he tried to sleep at night, the whole thing would be starting all over as soon as they rested and resumed their evil sport with him.

From the article:

Five days after the uprising, García Lucero was seized by police officers who took him to a police station. His left arm was broken in several places after being smashed with a rifle; he now walks with a stick and has never regained full feeling in his hand. Most of his teeth were knocked out and he suffered cognitive problems due to being beaten on the head.

After three days blindfolded and tied up in the police station, García Lucero was removed to the national stadium, where hundreds of opponents of the junta had been herded. At night he heard the rifle fire of executions. For nearly two years he was detained and mistreated, before being deported in 1975. His family joined him. His three daughters have married and live in Britain.

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If the torture survivor is "lucky" enough to not succumb to the violence against his body, he is still broken irreparably for the rest of his life. His sin? Knowing the only moral position politically you can have is NOT being a right-winger. He dared to believe in a moral structure to society.

I guess they showed García Lucero, didn't they?

Right-wingers, you are filth.