History Held Hostage: The CIA’s Refusal to Declassify the Covert Record on Chile, Peter Kornbluh, Director, Chile Documentation Project
The recent decision by Chile’s traditionally conservative Supreme Court to allow former right-wing dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet to be prosecuted for crimes committed under his regime was a major step toward reconciliation in that deeply divided nation. By contrast, the CIA, which played an important behind-the-scenes role in propping up Pinochet’s regime, would rather pretend it never happened, and has been stalling for months on requests from Congress and the Administration to disclose documents detailing U.S. involvement throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Peter Kornbluh, Director of the National Security Archive’s Chile Documentation Project, reports on the ongoing legal battle between the spy agency and its critics.
