Overcoming the Legacies of Dictatorship

NEW DEMOCRACIES, OLD WOUNDS
“No one touches anyone,” warned General Augusto Pinochet in October 1989, two months before Chile’s first free elections since his 1973 coup. “The day they touch one of my men, the rule of law ends. This I say once and will not say again.” The old junta leader’s comment, made almost casually to reporters, cast a pall over the fiesta-like campaign atmosphere. As expected, the anti-Pinochet forces won. But the general’s warning still hangs in the air. Pinochet’s democratic successors have chosen not to call his bluff.