In Chile, retired colonels Ramon Caceres Jorquera and Edgar Benjamin Cevallos Jones were charged with torturing former President Michelle Bachelet's father,
General Alberto Bachelet. General Bachelet was convicted of being a traitor by the Pinochet regime and died in prison in 1974 after he was convicted of being a traitor. General Bachelet was 51 when he died of heart complications most likely related to his torture.
Gen. Bachelet had told his family of being tortured by the same young air force members he had trained.
"They broke me from the inside," the general wrote in a letter from prison. "At one point they had morally torn me apart. I never thought to hate anyone, I always thought that the human being is the most marvelous of this creation and should be respected as such, but I found myself confronted with air force comrades whom I've known for 20 years, my own students, who treated me like a delinquent or a dog."
While the trials of former military officials for crimes committed during the Cold War have helped to uncover greater truth about what went on and has contributed in some ways to attaining justice, does anyone get a sense that it has brought about reconciliation among the individuals/groups involved in the violence?
