The Baltasar Garzón International Foundation held this Monday at the Carlos III University the conference The Pinochet case and Universal Jurisdiction, 20 years later
Victims recounted their experience and expressed at the event the need to fight for memory and universal justice
Published on 15/10/2018
The Baltasar Garzón International Foundation (FIBG) held this Monday at the headquarters of the Carlos III University of Madrid in Puerta de Toledo the The Pinochet case and Universal Jurisdiction, 20 years laters. The now president of FIBG and then judge of the National Court signed the arrest of the dictator Augusto Pinochet in London in October two decades ago.
In this academic journey, The head of the UC3M Legal Department shared a table, Carmen Lamarca; the president of the Association for Human Rights of Spain (APDHE), Hernán Hormazábal; the director of FIBG, Maria Garzon; and Marcia Tambutti Allende, from the Salvador Allende Foundation, who highlighted the necessary international pressure when acting on crimes against humanity.
“It was my turn to be there at that moment and make the decision”, the former judge recalled, who assured that “to this day, “We are not in the best scenario for the advancement of universal jurisdiction.”, For this “we must all continue working… because this is the hope of the victims, And they are the ones that truly matter.”. Under the title The Pinochet case: everything changed in October, The table began by delving into the cases of Argentina and Chile as “milestones of universal jurisdiction”, that Carmen Lamarca, The lawyer Joan Garcés and the journalist Ernesto Ekaizer analyzed from the point of view of the treatment they gave him then. the media, until Pinochet's arrest.
Human rights
The expert in Human Rights and Universal Jurisdiction Manuel Ollé listed another series of milestones that are part of recent history, where “the victims began to win the legal battle” and the media headlines applauded its operation as a “toast to the sun.”. Besides, criticized the double edges of justice having found themselves in situations of lack of protection during those “years of work, "of risks and fear", differentiating that the principle of universal jurisdiction was “applauded by all, politicians and states” to fight drug trafficking, except when “the crime came from the States themselves” and therefore it was used for fight impunity.
Guatemala, CIA flights, the massacre of jesuits… impossible to address legally without the international cooperation, remembered: “With each case we learned and established jurisprudence.”
To explain the “procedural pilgrimage”, Baltasar Garzón went back twenty-two years before the arrest of Augusto Pinochet: “It all started in March 1996”, because it was “the complaint of the Progressive Association of Prosecutors regarding the crimes of the Argentine dictatorship “the one that gave the starting signal”. Although he was convinced that “thanks to common efforts we reached today”, He insisted that “these are not good times.”, but we have to change that inertia and, from the civil society, achieve momentum in the advancement of Universal Jurisdiction”.
Victims of Universal Jurisdiction cases
Maria Garzon, director of FIBG, exposed “the struggle of victims of international crimes for Justice” supported by the participation of several victims who described what each of their processes were like and expressed how the work of universal jurisdiction makes visible their stories.
Maria Bueno, missing children victim; Florentina Rodríguez, granddaughter of a person who disappeared in the Spanish Civil War; Thubten Wangchen, exiled from Tibet after the Chinese invasion and parliamentarian in exile; Oscar Soto, Chilean exile and doctor to Salvador Allende; and David Couso, José Couso's brother, killed by the American Army in 2003, who stated, on behalf of everyone, his gratitude for having given voice to “the forgotten ones who begin a judicial process without knowing what we are going to do”, looking to have repercussion to “fight for memory and for Justice and, for it, It is essential to advance in matters of Universal Jurisdiction”.
