Kornbluh, Peter. “Chilean Executions.” In “Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973,” 1973. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm.
This document is a report drafted by the CIA and State Department on the practice of summary military executions on the part of General Pinochet’s ruling Junta in Chile, which was put in place with the help of the US government through a coup against Salvador Allende. The report discusses how the practice had been officially halted by the Junta, but it is not completely clear at the time of the report’s drafting to what extent units in the field were following this order. The report notes that the Junta’s official figures were drastically undercounting the number of people killed this way.
The document describes the ending of the practice of summary execution to be a positive step, and expresses hope that the Junta’s stability is increasing and that this will ultimately lead to less violence. The fact that this violence is the result of US policy is not discussed by the report. After reading other documents which discuss plans for US action in various Latin American countries, the reader may experience a feeling of some irony at the document’s tone, which presents the executions as an unavoidable contingency which the US can do nothing about. This, of course, was not the tone of any document which described a Latin American country defying US geopolitical or economic interest.
“On October 24th the Junta announced that summary, on-the-spot executions would no longer be carried out and that persons caught in the act of resisting the government would henceforth be held for military courts. Since that date 17 executions following military tribunals have been announced. Publicly ackow-ledged executions, both summary and in compliance with court martial sentences, now total approximately 100, with an additional 40 prisoners shot while “trying to escape”. An internal, confidential report pre-pared for the Junta puts the number of executions for the period of September 11-30 at 320. The latter figure is probably a more accurate indication of the extent of this practice.”