Chileans honor Pinochet-era victims, demand prison closure

Chileans took to the streets on Sept.13 to honor the victims of Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 regime and to demand the closure of a special "luxury" prison for ex-dictatorship officials.

At the end of the vast, peaceful march in the capital Santiago, riot police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a small group of violent masked protesters. Four people were arrested.
 
People here are still grappling with the legacy of the dictatorship as they work to unravel laws set during the period and bring ex-military officials and rights abusers to justice.
 
"The wound remains open because the truth has not been told, and justice has not been served," said Tania Nunez, 52, who marched with a poster picturing some of the more than 3,200 people -- mostly leftist activists -- slain during the dictatorship.
 
Others carried signs with black and white photos of killed loved ones.
 
On September 11, 1973, Chile's military toppled the elected socialist government of president Salvador Allende.
 
The Sept.13 march made its way by La Moneda, the presidential palace that was bombed by air force jets during the coup, and ended at a cemetery where regime victims are buried.
 
Recordings of Allende's speeches blared from loudspeakers carried by the marchers.
 
Among the protesters was 52-year-old Monica Figueroa, whose father died after he was arrested in 1974.
 
"While there is no truth and justice, there will be no reconciliation, and we will always be divided as a people," she said.
 
Allende's daughter, Isabel Allende Bussi, a socialist politician, was also at the rally.
         
Jose Dalquin, who at 24 was born after Pinochet left office, said he was outraged by the ...