NAS TRAMAS DA REDEMOCRATIZAÇÃO CHILENA: A MEMÓRIA HISTÓRICA DAS VIOLAÇÕES HUMANAS NOS INFORMES DAS COMISSÕES DA VERDADE RETTIG E VALECH (1990 – 2005)

Abstract

The present work is part of the line of studies on transitional justice in the context of the redemocratization of the Southern Cone after military regimes. Specifically, we focus on the Chilean experience, seeking, as a central objective, to analyze the construction of the historical memory of human rights violations between 1990 and 2005, using the narrative productions of the two truth commissions: Rettig (1991) and Valech (2004). The first, carried out between 1990 and 1991, investigated the circumstances of the violations involving victims who were killed or disappeared during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1990), ultimately publishing a report aimed at reconciliation that guided public uses of the past throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, particularly regarding the triad of transitional justice: truth, memory, and justice (both reparative and punitive). The second commission, Valech (2004), in an unprecedented initiative, relied on survivors' testimonies to investigate crimes of torture and political imprisonment, publishing a report that emphasized the need to advance the goals of transitional justice. This study analyzes the construction of the Final Reports of these commissions by examining the power relations involving social actors (human rights organizations, the Armed Forces, the press, and governments) and the narrative strategies that gave rise to an institutional version of the historical memory of human rights violations in Chile during the Concertación governments. In this sense, the research brings History closer to the fields of memory and transitional justice, demonstrating how Chilean society dealt with its legacy of human rights violations during the process of redemocratization.