Journalist sued for libel, another faces intimidation

(PERIODISTAS/IFEX) – On 30 September 2002, lawyer Jorge Balmaceda filed a legal action against Víctor Gutiérrez of the daily “La Nacion” for libel. The journalist had written a series of articles quoting a former Chilean armed forces agent, who indicated that Balmaceda was behind a number of irregular moves that benefited former members of the […]

(PERIODISTAS/IFEX) – On 30 September 2002, lawyer Jorge Balmaceda filed a legal action against Víctor Gutiérrez of the daily “La Nacion” for libel. The journalist had written a series of articles quoting a former Chilean armed forces agent, who indicated that Balmaceda was behind a number of irregular moves that benefited former members of the last military dictatorship in trials for human rights violations. Following the publication of the articles, “La Nacion” accused the high command of the armed forces of trying to intimidate its staff.

On 9 September, “La Nacion” published an interview that Gutiérrez did with Otto Trujillo, also known as “Colmillo Blanco”. Trujillo was a member of the “Joint Command” (“Comando Conjunto”), a group made up primarily of members of the Chilean air force and believed to have been responsible for numerous disappearances of individuals during the dictatorship. According to several sources, the group is currently said to be reorganising. In one of the passages in the interview, Trujillo stated that Balmaceda and another lawyer, Carlos Portales, had allegedly oriented witnesses’ statements in a number of human rights trials to favour those who had participated in the repression. In a previous case in February 2001, Balmaceda had represented the then provisional head of the Chilean air force, General Hernán Gabrielli Rojas, who had sued three individuals for alleging in a news report that he had taken part in human rights violations (see IFEX alerts of 14 May and 15 February 2001). At the end of 2001, Gabrielli was removed from his post because of the ensuing scandal.

Gutiérrez’s reports in “La Nacion” sent shockwaves throughout the country. Alejandro Jiménez of the fledgling Journalists’ Association for Free Expression in Chile (Asociacion de Periodistas por la Libertad de Expresion de Chile) noted that while Gutiérrez was being interviewed on a programme on Chilean National Television (TVN) he reported having been followed and having received death threats by telephone. Gutiérrez brought this persecution to the attention of the Chilean investigative police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as he resides in the United States.

“La Nacion” director Alberto Luengo wrote in an article entitled, “In the wolf’s mouth” (“En la boca de lobo”) that, on 10 September, following the publication of the first report on the matter, he had a meeting with Chilean air force Commander-in-Chief Patricio Ríos. “Cordial and frank, he approached me directly and said that there had been ‘some inquiries’ made about me. ‘Do you wish to see them?’ he asked. He then showed me a page from a notebook with my name on it. Below it was a single word: ‘socialist’. (…) I found myself in the curious position of having to explain to a commander-in-chief that I was not a socialist, that I did not belong to any political party, that I did not receive orders from any secret government branch and that I was only doing what I have tried to do throughout my professional life: practice journalism.”

The National Council of the Chilean Journalists’ College expressed its support for Luengo. “It comes as a surprise that, under the rule of law in a country governed by democratic norms of co-existence, a military officer with the authority of General Ríos uses methods of intimidation against the director of a media outlet that had complied with its ethical responsibility to report, in a truthful and opportune manner, on the re-grouping of the so-called ‘Joint Command’, a repressive organisation that operated during the dictatorship,” the council noted.

On the afternoon of 2 October, General Ríos was to appear before the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies. For the majority of representatives, his appearance was to be an opportunity for him to respond to accusations regarding the “Joint Command”‘s re-forming and the alleged hiding of information about the fate of individuals murdered and “disappeared” during the Pinochet dictatorship.

Recommended Action

Appeals To

Patricio Ríos Ponce
Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Air Force
E-mail: rrppfach@fach.cl

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.