Systematic Sexual Violence: Chile under Augusto Pinochet
This case note documents the occurrence of sexual violence in violent conflict. It contains explicit mentions of different forms of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Background of the Conflict
Chile was under a military dictatorship between 1973 and 1990, under General Augusto Pinochet. After overthrowing the democratically elected socialist government led by Salvador Allende in a coup d’etat backed by the United States on September 11, 1973 (Qureshi, 2009), the military junta headed by Augusto Pinochet took over. The military seized the opportunity presented by the breakdown of democracy and the resultant economic crisis to seize power, claiming that its mission was national reconstruction. The dictatorial regime was characterized by the systematic suppression of any dissident and opposition political party (Wright & Oñate, 2005). According to the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation (Rettig Commission) and the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture (Valech Commission), the number of direct victims of human rights violations in Chile totalled around 30,000 people, where around 27,000 were tortured and over 2,000 were executed, and the number of individuals exiled was around 200,000 (Skidmore, 2004; Sitkin, 2017).
Prevalence of Sexual Violence
Sexual violence and rape were part of a larger campaign of systematic human rights violations committed by the military dictatorship in Chile (Skidmore, 2004). The National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and other agencies such as the Joint Command were mainly responsible for committing the largest number of acts of repression. In several instances, family members underwent sexual abuse in the presence of their loved ones. Detention centres were established exclusively for the purpose of sexually tormenting and humiliating prisoners (Kornbluh, 2016). Women were the primary targets of most acts of sexual abuse. The Valech Commission noted that almost every female prisoner was targeted with repeated rape, using objects and animals. Reports suggest that sexual torture was conducted in over 1,000 detention centres across Chile (Sitkin, 2017). Several other forms of violence and torture were also used, such as waterboarding, forced bestiality, forced nakedness, forced incest, electrical shocks, and suffocation (Sitkin, 2017).
Basis of the Use of Sexual Violence
Sexual violence and rape were deliberately used, specifically as state-sanctioned tactics of torture and intimidation. There are several reports bearing identical details of sexual violence among several survivors, attesting to how the use of such violence was organized, intentional, and deliberate (Sitkin, 2017). Sexual violence and rape were also used as tools to humiliate and shame women for their political stances (Sitkin, 2017), while their fathers, sons, and husbands were forced to watch. Women and men alike were purposely targeted for their political alignment with the left, and for not conforming to the military’s ideal. In almost all cases, women and men were targeted for their resistance, where brutal forms of sexual violence were used as tools of repression and silencing dissent. Some have also indicated that acts of sexual torture such as forced bestiality imposed measures upon women that prevented them from bearing children, which made it a condition of genocide (Sitkin, 2017). Though the sexual violence and rape were not motivated by ethnic or religious reasons, its aims were synonymous with genocide, i.e., the elimination of a group, namely the leftist political group (Sitkin, 2017).
References
Kornbluh, P. (2016). The Pinochet file: A declassified dossier on atrocity and accountability. The New Press.
Lubna Z. Qureshi (2009). Nixon, Kissinger, and Allende: U.S. Involvement in the 1973 Coup in Chile. Lexington Books.
Sitkin, R. (2017). To Destroy a People: Sexual Violence as Genocide during Conflict. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1096&context=honors_theses
Skidmore, T. (2004). Modern Latin America. Oxford University Press.
Wright, T.C., & Oñate, R. (2005). "Chilean Diaspora", in Ember, M., Ember, C. R., & Skoggard, I. (Eds.). (2004). Encyclopedia of diasporas: immigrant and refugee cultures around the world. Volume I: overviews and topics; Volume II: diaspora communities. Springer Science & Business Media.
