Chile's army has come clean on abuses committed during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.
In a surprise statement by Chilean army commander-in-chief, the military confessed to acts of torture and terror during the 17-year Pinochet regime that ended in 1990. In all, 3,000 were killed or went missing and some 30,000 were reportedly tortured during the period.
"The army has taken the difficult but irreversible decision to assume responsibility as an institution for all the punishable and morally unacceptable acts of the past," said Gen. Juan Emilio Cheyre in letter published in La Tercera newspaper.
Although he did not justify the actions, Cheyre said they were the result of a "Cold War climate," prompted by fear of political dissidents opposed to the dictatorship.
"Human rights violations never, and for no one, can be given ethical justification," he said.
Chile's armed forces took over the country in a violent coup on Sept. 11, 1973, ousting President Salvador Allende who is said to have committed suicide shortly thereafter.
Until last week's edict, the Chilean armed forces blamed individual soldiers for human rights abuses during the dictatorship. Pinochet said last year "in any political fight, there are excesses by those we cannot control." He denied ordering tortures or the killing of political opponents.
Chile appears ready to reconcile with the past and seek justice for the victims of Pinochet's regime.
Last year, the government decided to compensate those tortured. Until then, only the families of those killed received money.
On the legal front, justice officials are seeking to put the aging Pinochet on trial for his own alleged crimes despite the former leader escaping prosecution in 2000 when he was found mentally unfit to stand trial. Judge Juan Guzman is seeking to try Pinochet on human rights abuse charges stemming from his involvement in Operation Condor, the 1970s and '80s agreement between South America's military dictatorships to pursue political opponents across borders.
Now under house arrest at his home in Santiago, the 88-year-old Pinochet denies any wrongdoing in connection with Operation Condor. A court-appointed doctor said earlier this month he suffers from mild dementia, a diagnosis that could keep him out of the courthouse.
If he does go to trial, additional evidence from the United States may help the prosecution, though Pinochet is unlikely to ever see the inside of a prison cell.
In May, the U.S. State Department released a transcript of a phone conversation involving then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
"Well we didn't -- as you know -- our hand doesn't show on this one, though," Kissinger said in the conversation on Sept. 16, 1973.
"We didn't do it. I mean we helped them," he added, mentioning someone or some organization blacked out in the transcript had "created the conditions as great as possible."
Kissinger was widely believed to be the mastermind behind U.S. support for Pinochet and the coup that ousted Allende, though he told Senate investigators the United States has severed ties with the coup plotters by Oct. 15, 1970, three years before Pinochet's coup.
Adding fuel to Pinochet's prosecution was a statement made last year by the State Department condemning U.S. policy in Chile during the 1970s. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in February 2003 that U.S. involvement in the region at the time was "not a part of American history that we're proud of."
