The PBS series, P.O.V., aired an excellent documentary Tuesday night called The Judge and The General. This film tells the story of Juan Guzmán, a judge assigned to try criminal cases against members of Augusto Pinochet‘s regime in Chile. Guzmán had been a supporter of Pinochet, and the film chronicles the information he uncovered while investigating these cases, and how he ultimately came to the realization that Pinochet’s legal immunity from prosecution was a huge hurdle toward Chile’s goal of truth and reconciliation. From the P.O.V. synopsis:
The Judge and the General follows the twists and turns
of the efforts of Guzmán and others to overcome Pinochet’s immunity and his claims to be too ill, even too senile, to stand trial, and then his final defense — when significant proof had been gathered — that he had known nothing of the crimes. Was Pinochet, who died in 2006 while under
house arrest, brought to justice in the eyes of society? Or did he escape being “touched,” as his supporters jubilantly proclaim? What are the prospects for the cases against Pinochet underlings that are now under way? Most important, what are the prospects for Chile finding both truth and reconciliation through a legal accounting of its recent violent past?
A brief discussion of the film’s finer points follows the jump.
Cynthia Van Maanen is a contributor to the Quantitative Peace blog and researcher in political science.