Respuestas estatales a la desaparición forzada en Chile: aspectos forenses, policiales y jurídicos ('Forensic, Police and Judicial Aspects of State responses to Enforced Disappearance in Chile')

This working paper (in Spanish) is the second interim output of the British Academy-supported International Mobility Grant project Forensic, Police and Judicial Aspects of State responses to Enforced Disappearance, carried out between Ulster University and the Universidad Diego Portales, Chile in 2015. The paper reports on fieldwork and interview studies with police officers, forensic scientists and lawyers who presently work to investigate and resolve enforced disappearances carried out during Chile's military dictatorship. It discusses how generational, professional and personal characteristics shape the ways in which these professionals conceive of and describe their work, and considers what can be learnt for transitional justice theory and practice about how victim-centred practices around disappearance can be made compatible with due process and investigative imperatives in prosecution-oriented approaches such as the Chilean one. Contrasts are drawn with humanitarian focused approaches such as that carried out in Northern Ireland. The chain of events surrounding the investigation of enforced disappearance is broken down into stages, and it is suggested that a blend of prosecutorial and administrative approaches may offer ways to improve the chances that judicial process can be accompanied by the location and recovery of the remains of victims of disappearance, and their restoration to their families.