Chilean Justice announced Thursday the opening of its first investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of President Salvador Allende died during the coup of General Augusto Pinochet that toppled the leftist government, September 11, 1973.
"We'll see whether or not there was suicide and under what circumstances," said a judicial source, who requested anonymity.
Salvador Allende, elected president of Chile in 1970 to lead a leftist coalition, was killed by gunfire in the presidential palace, bombed by the air force during the coup led by General Pinochet.He was 65.
An autopsy concluded that Allende had committed suicide, but the results are disputed by some political sectors and organizations defending human rights.
"Justice will investigate what has not been investigated," he simply stated the prosecutor of the Court of Appeal, Beatriz Pedrals.
It was she who on Wednesday opened proceedings in this case and in 725 other cases of violations of human rights during the dictatorship (1973-1990), never previously treated for lack of complaints.
"Last year, the lists of victims of the Rettig Report (National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation) have been reviewed and this information was intersected with the complaints so far.We then saw that many cases had not been the subject of proceedings, "said the judiciary.
The judge assigned to coordinate these issues has asked the Attorney Pedrals to complain instead of victims of dictatorship, which ended in 3150 killed or missing and 28,000 cases of torture.
Currently, 560 former military personnel are prosecuted for crimes committed under military rule.
Files opened Wednesday correspond to cases of missing and dead prisoners "whatever the reason," said the judge. It may for example include people killed by a bullet "lost" during a protest.
"We must investigate all crimes.We speak more than 700 cases that have never been investigated, including that of Allende, which gives more weight "to the proceedings, responded Lorena Pizarro, president of the Association Parents of Disappeared Detainees.
The arrival in power of Allende had worried the conservative sectors of Chile and the United States, who feared that his "Chilean road to socialism" do not rock the South American country in the communist camp.
Washington had decided to act secretly with the CIA, sponsoring and supporting the coup against Allende, who had nationalized the major mining resources of the country, such as copper, at the time controlled by U.S. multinationals.
The United States has long supported the then military regime and its economic policy, modeled on the precepts and ultra-liberal monetarists of the Chicago School.
Pinochet died in 2006, 16 years after he left office without having been tried.
Allende's widow, Hortensia Bussi, had fled to Mexico after the coup but had continued to fight the dictatorship. She herself died in 2009 at the age of 94 years.
The couple had three daughters, Carmen Paz, Beatriz, who died, and Isabel, Socialist MEP.
