The Disappeared

This is not one for the squeamish.

One theme is the arrest of General Pinochet in The London Clinic in 1998 and the subsequent protracted legal battles that ended twice in the House of Lords. Spain wanted to extradite him to face charges for committing atrocities against Spanish citizens. He claimed immunity as a former head of state and the Chilean government, that advised against his trip to london, wanted him back. Eventually the matter was decided by Jack Straw, Home Secretary. Phillipe Sands is thorough in his research and interviews everyone concerned. Straw says he now regrets his decision. It’s a good story.

The main story is about the torture and murder of Pinochet’s opponents after he came to power. Most of them simply disappeared. They were dumped at sea, incinerated or otherwise disposed of. Sands speaks to a wide number of descendants of “the disappeared” and even to some of the perpetrators. It is a horrifying account of a fractured society where until very recently there was little appetite to confront the past. Even today Pinochet is revered by some.

The third strand of his book is about SS commander Walther Rauff who found sanctuary in Patagonia after the war. Attempts to extradite him failed as he had Pinochet’s protection. He did not draw attention to himself but his identity was an open secret. Sands tries to establish Rauff’s role in the disappearances and largely succeeds. There is a prison camp he designed based on the German model and he offers his expertise on the vilest and cruellest torture techniques. Rauff’s principal contribution in the war had been to design mobile gas chambers, often disguised as ambulances.

If you read the book you may never eat tinned crab meat again. It is horrifying how inhumane humans can be to each other and something that must be as upsetting for some Chileans today as for Germans after the war.