Latest news with #Pinochet
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Julio Ponce to Exit SQM Holding Companies in Reorganization
Julio Ponce, the former son-in-law of Chile's deceased dictator Augusto Pinochet, announced his departure from the group of cascading holding companies through which he owns a major stake in lithium supplier SQM. Under a proposal announced in a regulatory filing Thursday, the number of holding companies will be reduced to two from six through a series of corporate actions. Sociedad de Inversiones Oro Blanco, Sociedad de Inversiones Pampa Calichera, Nitratos de Chile, Potasios de Chile and Global Mining will be merged into two companies. As a result, the group would now be composed by two companies: Oro Blanco and Potasios.
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
The mum of an ISIS 'Beatle'. Shamima Begum. Gerry Adams. 5 Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists. The Attorney General's defenders say he had no choice but to represent these enemies of Britain. But are they right?: DAN HODGES
A couple of weeks ago the liberal human rights lawyer Philippe Sands appeared at the Cambridge Festival to promote his book recalling the case of late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's 1998 UK arrest. Opening his talk, Sands revealed to his audience how he had been asked to represent Pinochet, a sadistic torturer, in the impending court case. 'I explained to my wife, with some excitement, and she says to me, 'Will you do it?'' he recalled. 'Then she says to me, 'You can do it if you want to do it. But if you do it, I will divorce you tomorrow.''
CNN
04-06-2025
- General
- CNN
Chile prosecutes individuals alleged to have stolen babies
It's a dark chapter in Chile's history. During the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990, thousands of babies were stolen from their biological mothers and sold into adoption, mainly to foreign couples from the United States and Europe. In Chile, they're known as 'The Children of Silence.' And now, for the first time in the country's history, a Chilean judge announced he was prosecuting individuals alleged to have stolen babies in the country. Alejandro Aguilar Brevis, a Santiago Court of Appeals judge in charge of the investigation 'determined that in the 1980s' there was a network of health officials, Catholic priests, attorneys, social workers and even a judge who detected and delivered stole babies from mainly impoverished mothers and sold them into adoption to foreign couples for as much as $50,000, according to a Monday press release by Chile's judiciary. The investigation, which focuses on the city of San Fernando in central Chile, involves two babies who were stolen and handed over to foreign couples, according to the judiciary statement. According to the statement by Chile's judiciary, the ring allegedly focused on 'abducting or stealing infants for monetary gain' with the purpose of 'taking them out of the country to different destinations in Europe and the US.' The judge charged and issued arrest warrants for five people, who he said should remain in pre-trial detention for 'criminal association, child abduction, and willful misconduct,' the release said. The Chilean government has made an extradition request to Israel for a former Chilean family court judge who now lives there and was allegedly involved, the release added. CNN contacted the judiciary to determine if those involved have legal representation and how they respond to the allegations, but there has been no response so far. The judge ruled that the statute of limitations does not apply in this case because as 'these are crimes against humanity committed under a military regime and must be punished in accordance with the American Convention on Human Rights and the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.' The investigation was announced Monday, one day after Chilean President Gabriel Boric said that a task force he created last year to investigate cases of stolen babies has issued its final report. Following its recommendations, Boric said the Chilean government will 'create a genetic fingerprint bank that will provide additional means of searching for origins and enable family reunification for the many babies who were stolen for so long and given to foreign families.' Constanza del Río, founder and director of Nos Buscamos (We Are Looking for Each Other), a Santiago NGO dedicated to reuniting families of stolen babies said that she feels cautiously optimistic because actions by countries like Chile to find the truth about the stolen babies have been 'very slow and something that revictimizes the victims.' Del Río, herself a victim of an illegal adoption, filed a lawsuit in 2017 demanding an investigation by the Chilean government. Authorities named a special prosecutor, but the investigation went nowhere, she said. Another prosecutor took the case for five years only to declare last year that he hadn't been able 'to establish that any crimes have been committed,' according to Del Rio. President Boric has said creating a task force proves his government is serious about the issue and has spoken publicly about it, recognizing the systematic theft of babies back then as a fact. There could be tens of thousands of cases. The theft of thousands of babies in Chile has been documented for over a decade by non-governmental organizations. Since 2014, CNN has reported about multiple cases where people stolen as babies have reunited with their biological mothers after DNA tests proved they were, in fact, related. Constanza del Río says Nos Buscamos alone has built a database that includes about 9,000 cases and has helped reunite more than 600 parents with their stolen children. Ten years ago, Marcela Labraña, the then-director of the country's child protection agency (SENAME, by its Spanish acronym), told CNN her agency was investigating hundreds of cases but suspected there could be thousands more. 'This is no longer a myth. We know nowadays that this happened, and it was real. It's not a tale that a couple of people were telling,' Labraña said at the time. CNN's Cristopher Ulloa contributed reporting.
CNN
04-06-2025
- General
- CNN
Chile prosecutes individuals alleged to have stolen babies
It's a dark chapter in Chile's history. During the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990, thousands of babies were stolen from their biological mothers and sold into adoption, mainly to foreign couples from the United States and Europe. In Chile, they're known as 'The Children of Silence.' And now, for the first time in the country's history, a Chilean judge announced he was prosecuting individuals alleged to have stolen babies in the country. Alejandro Aguilar Brevis, a Santiago Court of Appeals judge in charge of the investigation 'determined that in the 1980s' there was a network of health officials, Catholic priests, attorneys, social workers and even a judge who detected and delivered stole babies from mainly impoverished mothers and sold them into adoption to foreign couples for as much as $50,000, according to a Monday press release by Chile's judiciary. The investigation, which focuses on the city of San Fernando in central Chile, involves two babies who were stolen and handed over to foreign couples, according to the judiciary statement. According to the statement by Chile's judiciary, the ring allegedly focused on 'abducting or stealing infants for monetary gain' with the purpose of 'taking them out of the country to different destinations in Europe and the US.' The judge charged and issued arrest warrants for five people, who he said should remain in pre-trial detention for 'criminal association, child abduction, and willful misconduct,' the release said. The Chilean government has made an extradition request to Israel for a former Chilean family court judge who now lives there and was allegedly involved, the release added. CNN contacted the judiciary to determine if those involved have legal representation and how they respond to the allegations, but there has been no response so far. The judge ruled that the statute of limitations does not apply in this case because as 'these are crimes against humanity committed under a military regime and must be punished in accordance with the American Convention on Human Rights and the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.' The investigation was announced Monday, one day after Chilean President Gabriel Boric said that a task force he created last year to investigate cases of stolen babies has issued its final report. Following its recommendations, Boric said the Chilean government will 'create a genetic fingerprint bank that will provide additional means of searching for origins and enable family reunification for the many babies who were stolen for so long and given to foreign families.' Constanza del Río, founder and director of Nos Buscamos (We Are Looking for Each Other), a Santiago NGO dedicated to reuniting families of stolen babies said that she feels cautiously optimistic because actions by countries like Chile to find the truth about the stolen babies have been 'very slow and something that revictimizes the victims.' Del Río, herself a victim of an illegal adoption, filed a lawsuit in 2017 demanding an investigation by the Chilean government. Authorities named a special prosecutor, but the investigation went nowhere, she said. Another prosecutor took the case for five years only to declare last year that he hadn't been able 'to establish that any crimes have been committed,' according to Del Rio. President Boric has said creating a task force proves his government is serious about the issue and has spoken publicly about it, recognizing the systematic theft of babies back then as a fact. There could be tens of thousands of cases. The theft of thousands of babies in Chile has been documented for over a decade by non-governmental organizations. Since 2014, CNN has reported about multiple cases where people stolen as babies have reunited with their biological mothers after DNA tests proved they were, in fact, related. Constanza del Río says Nos Buscamos alone has built a database that includes about 9,000 cases and has helped reunite more than 600 parents with their stolen children. Ten years ago, Marcela Labraña, the then-director of the country's child protection agency (SENAME, by its Spanish acronym), told CNN her agency was investigating hundreds of cases but suspected there could be thousands more. 'This is no longer a myth. We know nowadays that this happened, and it was real. It's not a tale that a couple of people were telling,' Labraña said at the time. CNN's Cristopher Ulloa contributed reporting.
The Guardian
02-06-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Colin Henfrey obituary
In the late autumn of 1973, Colin Henfrey, a young sociology lecturer at Liverpool University, was ushered into the closely guarded headquarters of the Liverpool dockers' union. His address helped persuade the traditionally militant shop stewards to boycott Chilean cargoes, contributing to the international isolation of the regime of Gen Augusto Pinochet, who a few weeks earlier had seized power in a military coup. Colin subsequently played a big role in establishing what was to become one of Britain's most effective campaigns of solidarity. Colin, who has died aged 83 of lung cancer, was also a notable writer and researcher, and an inspirational teacher. He had established a stellar reputation even before arriving at Liverpool in 1971. While still in his 20s, he had written two acclaimed books: The Gentle People (1964), which detailed his travels among the Indigenous groups of Guyana, where in his late teens he had worked as a volunteer, and Manscapes, a rambling journey among down and outs in the US, which would be published in 1973. His parents, Charles Henfrey, a British army officer, and Ethne (nee Turner) were stationed in Nairobi when Colin, their third child, was born during the second world war. After Marlborough college in Wiltshire, he went to New College, Oxford, where he studied classics before switching to English, graduating in the mid-60s. In Oxford he met June Gollop, a fellow student on an island scholarship from her native Barbados, and they married in 1964. For his doctoral research, Colin, June and their two young sons lived in the Liberdade district of Salvador in Brazil (1968-71), while he studied candomblé, samba schools and other manifestations of Afro-Brazilian culture. At Liverpool, his courses focused on development issues. They were colourful, drawing as much from journalism and novels as standard academic texts, and were very immediate. Within weeks of the Chilean coup in 1973, Colin had introduced a course unit on that country's recent history. And they were popular. He attracted a coterie of proteges, including me. His involvement in the Chile campaign gave a political direction to his underdog sympathies. Colin was joint secretary and helped many refugees settle in Britain. Several obtained places on his courses. One Chilean trade union leader lived with the Henfreys at their Wallasey home in Merseyside for several months. Colin's third book, Chilean Voices (1977), focused on the leftwing Allende government, but his most striking scholarly research, carried out from 1975 and still ongoing at the time of his death, was on Jaguar's Den, a remote and poor rural community of 50 families in the north-east of Brazil. During regular visits Colin became an intimate of successive generations. His articles tell a story that stretches from the mid-1970s when they were kicked off their land to their successful fight to win it back. He retired from Liverpool as a senior lecturer in 1994, two years after June died of cancer, going back on a temporary basis to lecture in sociology later in the 1990s. Colin is survived by his second wife, Claire Dove, whom he married in 2003, their sons, Laurie and Josh, his sons, Steve, Neil, Tom, from his first marriage, and his sister, Janet.
