6. The Bachelet Administration: Identifying and Remembering the Victims

The focus of this chapter is on a series of distinct, but impactful executive actions that expanded the role of the Commission on Illegal Imprisonment (Valech Commission); facilitated the identification of those murdered by the Pinochet dictatorship; and focused on the construction of museums and memorials to honor the victims and immortalize the repression. The legislative branch supported executive actions by funding these activities and creating new human rights bureaucracies or expanding previously existing ones. As opposed to previous administrations, during the Bachelet years there was a much closer relationship between the administration and the human rights organizations. The administration established mechanisms to facilitate the collaboration with the organizations, and the organizations were actively involved in the policy process.

Justice continued to move at a glacial pace and when the courts reached verdicts, the sentences were not commensurate with the crimes due to the judicial exceptions discussed in the chapter. The chapter concludes that victim identification and the construction of The Memory Museum and memorials throughout the country have all contributed to unveiling the truth and repairing some of the damage.