thumb|150px|Supreme Decree No. 355, creating the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation|alt=

thumb|Raúl Rettig, chair of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation

The Rettig Report, officially the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (), is a 1991 report by a commission designated by Chilean President Patricio Aylwin (from the Concertación) detailing human rights abuses resulting in deaths or disappearances that occurred in Chile during the military dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet, which ran from 1973 to 1990. The report found that over 2,000 people had been killed for political reasons, and dozens of military personnel have been convicted of human rights abuses. In addition, many reforms have been made based on the recommendations of the report including an official reparations department.

Background

The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, the eight-member committee that later wrote the Rettig Report, was set up shortly after Patricio Aylwin, Chile's first democratically elected president since Salvador Allende, took office following the 1989 election. In addition to the eight members, the committee was chaired by Raúl Rettig, a former Chilean senator and ambassador to Brazil under Allende.

The eight-members of the commission were Jaime Castillo Velasco, José Luis Cea Egaña, Mónica Jiménez, Laura Novoa Vásquez, José Zalaquett Daher, Ricardo Martin Díaz, and Gonzalo Vial Correa (minister of Education 1978-79).

The commission was given large amounts of resources and access to official documents to ensure thoroughness, and the report was finalized in February 1991. One criticism of the report is that it only focused on politically motivated murders and disappearances that occurred while Pinochet was dictator, and did not include other human rights violations. This issue was addressed in a second report commissioned in 2003 known as the Valech Report.

Findings

thumb|The official Report, published in February 1991

The report determined that there were 2,115 victims of human rights violations and 164 victims of political violence between September 11, 1973 and the end of the Pinochet regime on March 11, 1990. This breaks down further to 1,068 victims confirmed to have been killed, 957 people who disappeared after their arrest, and an additional 90 killed by politically motivated private citizens. The report also was unable to come to a decision for 614 cases, and there were an additional 508 cases in which the nature of the violation did not fit the commission's mandate. While some perpetrators have been convicted, prosecution has been difficult due to an amnesty law passed by the military regime in 1978 giving full legal protection to any individual implicated in human rights violations between 1973 and 1978.

Over time, many of these recommendations were put into place in Chile, although progress was slow due to a lack of a legislative majority from Aylwin's party, and the continued influence of the military in politics. One area where Aylwin was unable to make change was a failure to repeal the 1978 amnesty law.

  • The elimination in 1998 of the national holiday celebrating the 1973 coup.
  • The Chilean military was stripped of its political power with the elimination of the military dominated National Security Council in 2005.
  • The National Institute for Human Rights, a government agency that reports on human rights issues within Chile, was created in November 2009.