Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 25 June 2019

Chile’s dictatorship-era children demand legal recognition

By EVA VERGARA tal regime. In 1994, Lagos
Associated Press was formally recognized as
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — an illegitimate daughter.
Two months before Tamara That allowed her to pursue
Lagos was born in 1984, her a university degree for free
father was killed by agents and obtain a monthly pen-
of the Chilean dictatorship sion of about $57 while she
of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. studied — one of the ben-
Soon after, her mother took efits granted to the rela-
her into exile in Argentina. tives of dictatorship victims.
But when Lagos finally re- But the designation still sug-
turned to Chile five years gested she had been born
later, she was unable to out of wedlock.
secure a birth certificate In 1998, legislation retract-
with her father’s surname ed the requirement that
because he wasn’t alive to children’s status at birth be
claim her as his child. The listed on their legal docu-
quest for redress eventu- ment. The law, however,
ally led her to the Supreme only applied to children
Court, which finally ordered born after that year, leav-
the Chilean civil registry ing many — including those
in April to correct Lagos’ orphaned for reasons unre-
identity document. lated to the dictatorship —
Even so, she doesn’t have In this May 10, 2019 photo, protesters whose family members or friends were detained and never at a loss. For a long time,
a sense of closure. heard from again during the Pinochet dictatorship are reflected in an office window advertising Lagos focused on a lawsuit
“My father was killed 35 private pension plans, in Santiago, Chile. against the government
years ago, the same 35 Associated Press aimed at securing justice
years that I’ve been on this Chile’s Human Rights Pro- he said. “In the beginning, special judges exclusively over her father’s execution.
Earth,” she told The Associ- gram declined to give AP it hurt him.” Since the Su- dedicated to cases of hu- A court eventually ruled
ated Press. “The ruling is not the number of cases similar preme Court ruling applied man rights violations, with that two assassins were in-
enough to repair it. It’s not to that of Lagos. But there only to Lagos, Aedo is cur- 447 defendants sentenced volved in the killing, but
enough to do justice. It’s are nine instances listed in rently considered a legally and an additional 1,328 said it could not determine
not enough to become a the 1991 records of a Chil- illegitimate son and carries put on trial between 2000 who took the fatal shot.
source of joy.” ean truth commission that the name of his stepfather and 2018. An amnesty law That case is currently being
Like many others, Lagos is quantified the number of — another example of the issued by Pinochet in 1978 appealed.
one of Chile’s “posthumous people killed and entitled difficulties faced by fam- shielded offenders who Separately, Lagos filed a
children,” those who lost their direct relatives to ily members in the pursuit committed human rights formal suit in 2018 against
one or both of their parents compensation. of justice for Pinochet-era abuses during the dicta- the Chilean civil registry
during the 1973-1990 Pino- Luciano Aedo, whose fa- crimes. torship’s first five years, but over the exclusion of her fa-
chet regime. Some have ther was also killed by dic- During the dictatorship, at has also not been applied ther’s name on her identity
fought decades-long legal tatorship agents in the least 3,095 people were since 1990, leading to the document. Rodrigo Bustos,
battles demanding to be same operation that left killed, according to gov- prosecution of hundreds of head of the National Hu-
recognized as offspring of Lagos’ father dead, said ernment figures, and tens others. man Rights Institute’s legal
victims, while others have he has been attempt- of thousands more were Despite the strides, how- department, said the insti-
struggled to obtain accu- ing to be recognized as tortured or jailed for politi- ever, Chile continues to up- tute helped with the case
rate identification with the Luciano Aedo Arias’ son cal reasons. hold deep barriers against because Lagos “was suffer-
names of their biological since he was 19. “I had to Chilean courts have made the children of leftist dissi- ing an infringement on her
parents. sue my (adoptive) father,” progress by appointing dents killed during the bru- human rights.”q

Italian mobster Rocco Morabito escapes from Uruguayan prison

By LEONARDO HABERKORN is a distribution point for ille- ate explanations from the
Associated Press gal drugs. Montevideo government,
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay The fugitive has also been and chasing Morabito,
(AP) — A top Italian orga- described as a key fig- wherever he is, to throw him
nized crime boss escaped ure in the Calabria-based in prison as he deserves.”
during the night from the ‘Ndrangheta mob, one of Morabito was arrested in
Uruguayan prison where he the world’s biggest movers 2017 at a hotel in the Uru-
was awaiting extradition to of cocaine. guayan capital, although
Italy, Uruguay’s interior min- “It’s disconcerting and se- he had been living in a villa
istry said Monday. rious that a criminal like with its own swimming pool
Rocco Morabito and three Rocco Morabito, a boss in the seaside city of Punta
other inmates got out In this Sept. 3, 2017 file photo released by the Italian police, a of Ndrangheta, has man- del Este. At the time, Uru-
“through the roof” of a pris- man identified by police as longtime fugitive Rocco Morabito, aged to escape from an guayan police confiscated
on in Montevideo around looks down after being arrested at a hotel in Montevideo, Uruguay prison while wait- a 9 mm gun, 13 cellphones
midnight before making Uruguay. ing to be extradited to It- and $54,000 in cash as
their way “through a neigh- Associated Press aly,” Italian Interior Minister well as a luxury Mercedes
boring farm and robbing run from Italy since 1994 prosecutors say Morabito, Matteo Salvini said on Twit- coupe. He had been living
its owner,” a ministry state- and has been sentenced 52, played a large role in ter. “I’m making two pledg- under an alias for about a
ment said. there to 30 years in prison operations between South es: shedding full light on the decade and using a false
Morabito has been on the for drug trafficking. Italian America and Milan, which escape, asking for immedi- Brazilian passport.q