Chile: the balanced view : a recopilation of articles about the Allende years and after

testimony in the Human Rights hearings by the House Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements, is out of date. Certain less dramatic problems persist, including unemployment resultin(J Irom prior close association with the Allende regime orwith one 01 the Marxist parties or groups. There is also the large number 01 suspects against whom charges have not been made after weeks or months in detention. . In is noteworthy that none 01 the 40 high government officials 01 the Allende regime who were imprisoned on Dawson Island was subjected either to torture or interrogation abciut their poi ¡tical activities and that at least three 01 them have been released without charges. There have been no known death sentences carried out in Chile this year, and'it is likely that the lour persons condemned to death lor treason on July 30 will have their sentences commuted to lile imprisonment. Competent U.N. officials report that the government was extraordinarily cooperative in providihg for several thousand relugees to leave the country. It has permitted the Internatio– nal Committee 01 the Red Cross Ireely to visit and inspect detention centers. It has welcomed delegations Irom international and other organization to observe the Air Force trials. Foreign newsmen come'and go as they please and report what wish without censors- hipo These are hardly the marks 01 a repressive regime. . As in all countries in a state 01 emergency there is some internal censorship in Chile, but it iS,comparatively light and almost entirely 01 the sell-regulatory sort under guidelines provided by the Junta. Under very rare circumstances there has been pre-censorship. Unlike the situation in neighboring Peru, the government does not own or control any mass medium 01 communication. Contrary to the impression sponsored in sectors 01 the American press, Chilean church leadersand other critics 01 the regime enjoy remarkable Ireedom 01 expression. This point was emphasized by Cardinal Silva on the occasion ofthe release olthe Catholic bishops 01 Chile statement in April1974 which criticized certain aspects o( the government. "We were granted absolute Ireedom to prepare it," said the Cardinal, and "we have had complete Ireedom to publish i1." This is "the best prool that in Chile, people have the right to dissent and that the continuity 01 every law is in lul! ellec1." . The Cardinal addressed two additional points to loreigners. First, "we want to make it clear... tha! the Chilean situation is incomprehensible if you do not take into account the chaotic state 01 the country and the enormous exacerbation 01 passions that existed during the previous government." Second, our declaration "rellects a situation. of concern to Chileans only" and we do not want "lar any reason whatsoever" foreigners to interlere "in our internal affairs." These woros 01 the Cardinal were perhaps more newsworthy than the lormal declaration itself, which in any event was addressed primarily to Chileans, but the '. New York Times totally ignored the Cardinal's admonitions to loreigners and printed only the formal statement. . In the same vein,The New York Times ignored the significant May 12, 1974, declaration of Monsignor Emilio Tagle, Archbishop of Valparaíso, Chile's second largest city. Among other things, the Archbishop said the Armed Forces "Iegitimately took overthe government in a quick action that prevented the catastrophe of a civil war. They, therelore, deserve the 9 ratitude 01 the Fatherland." Internal security is sli II endangered, he added, because there are "many centers of aggression, that even receive help from abroad." Was this statement of a major religious leader not newsworthy? . In the whole range of legal questions unrelaled to internal security, the government appears lo be observing the lelter and spiril 01 the Constitution, thoughf il must be said that with the'legal wreckage 01 Ihe Allende period, many complex and legally murky problems remain to be clarilied. . 2. Many Chileans lotd us thal the human righls issue was largely a concern 01 Ihe pasl and that the most urgent task was the economic problem-curbjng inflation and restoring produclivity. It is too early lo asses lhe performance 01 lhe governmenl in this complex area, but the preli minary indicators appear encourag ing: The inflatión rate has been substantia- 278