Stages of Repression and Legal Strategy for the Defense of Human Rights in Chile: 1973-1980

Abstract

This article analyzes the legal strategy for defending human rights in Chile since 11 September 1973 when the process of constructing and institutionalizing the authoritarian state began. The tactical changes in the legal defense of political dissidents conducted by a group of lawyers assisted by the Catholic Church are outlined and linked to changes in the government's repressive tactics.' This article does not examine the social and political forces that led to the repression in Chile. Instead the objective is to describe the different stages of governmental human rights violations, relating changes in government repression to the strategy for the legal defense of human rights. An analysis of the way in which the courts were used in Chile and the effect that the legal defense had during different stages of repression reveals information about the way an authoritarian state works. The organized presence of lawyers defending victims of political repression in the courts is not unique to Chile. But in Chile it is especially significant because of the institutional and human resources invested in it and the impact it had on the internationalization of the Chilean human rights situation. For reasons enumerated in this article, the continuous recourse to the courts met with some success and even managed to limit the freedom of action of the government's repressive apparatus. Legal defense activities from 1973 to 1978 enjoyed public notoriety through press coverage of major cases. For