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CHRONOLOGY - 1998
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JANUARY 15, 1998
Forensics establish that a detainee died January 12 as a result of torture received during an interrogation session by Carabineros police. The Medical Legal Institute confirms that 55-year-old taxi driver Raul Palma Salgado went into cardiac arrest in the course of
interrogation during which he received blows and other forms of torture following arrest. The forensic specialists say Palma's body bore multiple fractures and internal bleeding. Days later a witness comes forward, saying he saw Palma being tortured by Carabineros police. On January 20, Carabineros Investigations Police dismiss four officers implicated in Palma's death.
JANUARY 17, 1998
Newly named Cardinal Monsignor Jorge Medina publicly expresses support for Pinochet, upsetting government officials who describe the remarks as "inappropriate."
JANUARY 20, 1998
Pinochet faces criminal charges as Court of Appeals Judge Juan Guzman Tapia accepts a criminal complaint of genocide against the Army commander-in-chief by the Communist Party (PC). It is the first time a court accepts direct charges against Pinochet for human rights violations committed during his regime.
JANUARY 21, 1998
Two journalists are jailed for making derogatory comments about former Supreme Court Chief Justice Servando Jordan. Rafael Gumucio and Paula Coddou are accused of violating the State Security Law after describing Jordan as "old, ugly" and having "a murky past." The libel suit is withdrawn on January 28.
JANUARY 27, 1998
The Organization of American Sates announces it will analyze a legal challenge by 11 Chilean lawyers to Chile's non-elected designated and lifetime senator positions.
JANUARY 29, 1998
The Supreme Court rebuffs a request from Spanish tribunals seeking information about human rights violations committed during the military regime. At the same time, retired Chilean Air Force General Sergio Poblete testifies before the Spanish tribunals leading the Spanish inquest that after the military coup he was tortured by his own colleagues and subordinates.
FEBRUARY 2, 1998
Government officials discount the US State Department's claim that police and prison operators in Chile continue to commit abuses. The claim is made in the State Department's annual international human rights report.
FEBRUARY 19, 1998
The European Union Parliament censors Pinochet's imminent move to a lifetime position in Chile's Senate arguing that such a decision is not in the best interests of Chile or democracy.
FEBRUARY 24, 1998
Manuel Contreras, former head of the DINA secret police, names Pinochet as directly responsible for DINA actions during the military regime period. Days later, Contreras says former US citizen Michael Townley and his Chilean wife Mariana Callejas are responsible for
the 1974 car-bomb assassination of General Carlos Prats and his wife in Argentina.
MARCH 6, 1998
The Army names Pinochet "Meritorious Commander-in-Chief" pledging the institution's absolute and permanent loyalty to their head, just days before his retirement.
MARCH 10, 1998
Pinochet steps down as Army commander-in-chief, at the age of 82, after 25 years as head of the institution, and 17 years as head of the military regime that ruled from 1973 to 1990. He is replaced by General Ricardo Izurieta Caffarena.
MARCH 11, 1998
Pinochet assumes lifetime seat in Senate. The retired general is sworn in at a strife-ridden ceremony, while thousands of protesters demonstrate their opposition to Pinochet outside Congress. Over 500 people are arrested and 34 wounded, including 12 police officers,
during demonstrations against the former dictator in several Chilean cities.
MARCH 12, 1998
The Supreme Court rules not to apply the 1978 Amnesty Law in the case of the disappearance of 24 people from the town of Paine.
MARCH 13, 1998
Police are witnessed torturing a suspect in police headquarters by Chiloe Governor Jaime Moraga. Four Investigations Police officers, who beat and applied electric shock to Pedro Gaston, aged 18, are fired and indicted.
MARCH 15, 1998
Spanish television airs murder confession by Nelson Banados, a former Chilean soldier who says he was ordered to kill Spanish priest Joan Alsina immediately following the military coup.
MARCH 16, 1998
Ten Concertacion deputies file a constitutional accusation against Pinochet charging him with threatening national honor and security as commander-in-chief of the Army between 1990 and 1998. If successful, the legal maneuver, which is similar to a call for impeachment, would prevent Pinochet from becoming a lifetime senator.
MARCH 16, 1998
The government announces plans to create a DNA bank to identify the disappeared.
MARCH 18, 1998
The Second Branch of the Supreme Court rejects a request by former DINA secret police head Manuel Contreras to review his conviction for the 1976 car-bomb assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffit.
MARCH 24, 1998
Carabineros police conduct a massive raid and occupation of former Colonia Dignidad with the aim of finding fugitive ex-colony leader Paul Schaefer. It was the largest of a series of unsuccessful raids into the German compound.
MARCH 24, 1998
Spanish judge Manuel Garcia Castellon closes the investigation into human rights violations suffered by Spanish citizens residing in Chile during the military regime.
APRIL 1, 1998
The Martial Court names civilian judge Hugo Dolmestch as special prosecutor in the recently re-opened "Operacion Albania" case investigating the 1987 deaths by shooting of 12 opponents of the military regime. The case was re-opened in December 1997 when the Supreme
Court qualified the crimes as "premeditated murder."
APRIL 3, 1998
Chile votes in favor of a United Nations resolution to abolish the death penalty worldwide.
APRIL 3, 1998
The Supreme Court dismisses a case against journalist Manuel Cabiess charged in 1991 with making offensive comments about former Army head Pinochet and of being anti-patriotic.
APRIL 9, 1998
The Chamber of Deputies defeats the constitutional accusation against Pinochet, filed in March, in a vote in which eleven members of the Concertacion's Christian Democrat Party join the rightist opposition parties to defeat the measure, which fails by 62 votes to 52.
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