Rettig Report

Chile, 1990 to 1991. Chile's National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, whose findings are known as the Rettig Report, reached conclusions on 2,279 cases of political execution and disappearance under Pinochet and left 641 more unresolved for lack of evidence. President Aylwin presented the report in a nationally televised address. Its limits are as instructive as its findings. The commission could not name perpetrators, even well-known ones, though it often identified the institution responsible. Pinochet answered with a speech defending the army's honor, and neither he nor his civilian supporters accepted responsibility. A clear case of truth established officially while the old regime's defenders still held real power.