The Lagos Administration: Moving Along Multiple Fronts

Abstract

President Lagos’ major accomplishment was to forge the political compromises needed to pass the 2005 Constitutional reforms, which eliminated the most undemocratic vestiges of Pinochet’s 1980 Constitution. During these six years the Courts began to move at a much faster speed because of the judicial reforms carried out during the Frei administration and the military doctrine changed due to General Cheyre’s reforms. The work of Judge Guzmán and others made possible the indictment of Generals Pinochet and Arellano, and a number of other military officers.

President Lagos’ policies contributed to bringing light onto the use of torture and political imprisonment by establishing the Valech Commission and by repeatedly denouncing the abuses. Compensating the victims was also an important step in the right direction. But, much like in the past, accessing the truth was limited by the conditions under which the Commission operated and by the fact that only victims were identified and not the torturers. In brief, the chapter focuses on the 2005 constitutional reforms, the Valech Commission’s functions and report, the presidential apologies, reparations, and normalizing the situation of both former political prisoners and exiles.