Cuts on funds to Chilean human rights institutions described as severe

Santiago, Chile, Nov 23 (Prensa Latina) Alicia Lira, President of the Association of Families of Executed Political Prisoners (AFEP), on Wednesday described, as a severe fact and a setback for Chilean democracy, the elimination of funds to human rights organizations .

November 23, 2022
09:49

In the debate on the budget bill for next year, the Chamber of Deputies decided to leave without fundings, the National Human Rights Institute, the Memory Museum, the Salvador Allende Foundation, the London 38 Center, and the National Stadium, among other institutions.

Lira told Prensa Latina that this decision violates international treaties on the State’s obligation to provide reparations to the victims of the violations committed under Augusto Pinochet’s civil-military dictatorship.

According to the AFEP president, a reactionary right wing, unfortunately, has political and economic power and wants to deny the crimes against humanity that occurred in Chile between 1973 and 1990.

During the discussion in the lower house, the opposition coalition Chile Vamos (Let’s Go Chile), supported by Democracia Cristiana (Christian Democracy) and other parties, rejected the financing of those institutions.

It comes at a time when the executive announced the decision to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the coup d’Etat, and all organizations are preparing events to vindicate the Popular Unity (Unidad Popular) government of President Salvador Allende, Lira recalled.

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