Bill Would Protect Pinochet Informers

Chile’s lower house of Congress voted 104 to 0 to approve a measure granting confidentiality to people who provide information on the whereabouts of those who disappeared during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Police in Valparaiso removed from the Chamber of Deputies several human rights activists who protested the measure. The demonstrators said they feared that officials might be settling for letting the truth come out, rather than prosecuting the offenders. The Senate must now vote on the bill, which was drafted by a commission of military representatives, human rights lawyers, religious figures and academics.