Carmen Hertz Cádiz (born 19 June 1945) is a Chilean
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
politician and lawyer who participated in various institutions for the protection of
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
that arose as a result of the
systematic violations committed during the
dictatorship
A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...
headed by
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
from 1973 to 1990. She worked with the
Vicariate of Solidarity
The Vicariate of Solidarity (La Vicaría de la Solidaridad) was a human rights organization in Chile during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Background
On 11 September 1973 a military junta toppled Chilean President Salvador Al ...
, the (FASIC), the , and the
Ministry of the Interior
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
's Human Rights Program. She became the human rights director of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...
after Chile's
transition to democracy
Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...
, and was elected to the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
in 2018.
Early life and education
Carmen Hertz was born into a
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
family in
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
on 19 June 1945. Her father, Germán Hertz Garcés, was a lawyer of German descent, active in the now-defunct
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
. She spent the first years of her childhood mainly on the family farm in Carrascal (today in the commune
Quinta Normal
Quinta Normal is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. It is named after a large park in the area.
Demographics
According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Quinta Normal spans an a ...
).
She attended Andrew Carnegie College, a small elementary school that was near the family home on José Miguel Infante Street in
Providencia. In her third year of humanities she entered , where she encountered new points of view.
She entered the Law School of the
University of Chile
The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843. , where she initially politically identified with the liberals, gradually moving to the
left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right
* L ...
. In those years as a student, she was
José Miguel Insulza
José Miguel Insulza Salinas (born June 2, 1943) is a Chilean politician, lawyer, and academic serving as a senator for the Arica y Parinacota Region since 2018. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1999 and Ministe ...
's girlfriend. After graduating she joined the
Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), a political organization that vouched for political changes through armed revolution, in which she met her future husband. After the victory of
Salvador Allende
Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...
, on whose electoral campaign she had worked, Hertz decided to join the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
(PC) in the late 1970s.
During the
Popular Unity alliance, Hertz was a legal secretary of the council of the (1970–1973),
which was chaired by the Minister of Agriculture,
Jacques Chonchol
Jacques Chonchol (born March 26, 1926) is a politician and professor known for his work in the Chilean land reform movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. Conchol served from 1970 to 1972 as Minister of Agriculture in the government of President ...
. When her friend Carlos Berger – a lawyer and a communist journalist who had gone to Moscow for a year, and with whom she had maintained an active correspondence – returned to Chile in 1971, they immediately began a romantic relationship.
Berger was commissioned to create the first left-wing youth magazine, ''Ramona''. Then, after was appointed
Minister of Finance
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...
, Hertz became his press secretary in June 1972. In November, she gave birth to a son, Germán Berger Hertz.
Murder of Carlos Berger
In late July 1973, the PC sent Berger to take over the communications of Chuqui Copper. The family left for
Chuquicamata
Chuquicamata ( ; referred to as Chuqui for short) is the largest open pit copper mine in terms of excavated volume in the world. It is located in the north of Chile, just outside Calama, at above sea level. It is northeast of Antofagasta and n ...
in August, and there, Berger took over as director of Radio El Loa and Hertz began working in the mining company's legal department.
[ On 11 September, the day of the ]coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
, Berger was arrested after continuing radio broadcasts although the new authorities had ordered him to cease them.[ That night he was released, but hours later, the military raided the house and took him away. Berger was subjected to a ]drumhead court-martial
A drumhead court-martial is a court-martial held in the field to hear urgent charges of offences committed in action. The term sometimes has connotations of summary justice.
The term is said to originate from the use of a drum as an improvised ...
that sentenced him to 60 days in jail for failing to comply with the order to stop transmissions during the day of the coup. On 17 October, Hertz, who was his lawyer, managed to have the remaining days of the sentence commuted to a fine. But the political prisoners who were held at Calama, including Berger, were taken away and brutally killed by members of the so-called Caravan of Death
The Caravan of Death ( es, Caravana de la Muerte) was a Chilean Army death squad that, following the Chilean coup of 1973, flew by helicopters from south to north of Chile between September 30 and October 22, 1973. During this foray, members of t ...
, an operation directed by Sergio Arellano Stark
Sergio Arellano Stark (10 June 1921 – 9 March 2016) was a Chilean military officer. He led the so-called " Caravan of Death," which killed 97 Chileans from helicopters and established Augusto Pinochet’s hold on power.
Biography
Born on Jun ...
to eliminate political dissidents from the recently established military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer.
The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
.
The bodies were thrown into a clandestine grave on the way to San Pedro de Atacama
San Pedro de Atacama is a Chilean town and commune in El Loa Province, Antofagasta Region. It is located east of Antofagasta, some 106 km (60 mi) southeast of Calama and the Chuquicamata copper mine, overlooking the Licancabur volcano. ...
and hidden from their relatives. Subsequently the bodies were removed by military order and thrown into the sea. Decades later, some bone fragments were found in the ditch, which allowed the identification of 18 of the 26 victims, among them Carlos Berger.[
The death of her husband led Hertz to participate in various organizations dedicated to the defense of ]human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
, including the Vicariate of Solidarity
The Vicariate of Solidarity (La Vicaría de la Solidaridad) was a human rights organization in Chile during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Background
On 11 September 1973 a military junta toppled Chilean President Salvador Al ...
, and later in the .[ The story of her search for justice for Berger's murder was brought to the small screen by ]Andrés Wood
Andrés Wood Montt (born 14 September 1965) is a Chilean film director, producer and writer. Some of his most popular films include ''Machuca'', '' Violeta se fue a los cielos'', and ''Historias de Futbol''. He created his own production company ...
in the miniseries '. In it, Carmen as a young woman is played by María Gracia Omegna, and as an adult by Aline Küppenheim
Aline Adriana Küppenheim Gualtieri (born 10 August 1969) is a Chilean actress.
Biography and career
Born to a French father and a Chilean mother, Kuppenheim spent his early years traveling around different parts of Europe as a result of his ...
; Carlos is played by . Their son Germán became a filmmaker and journalist, and directed the documentary ''Mi vida con Carlos'' about his father's killing, which was nominated for four Goya Awards
The Goya Awards ( es, Premios Goya) are Spain's main national annual film awards, commonly referred to as the Academy Awards of Spain.
The awards were established in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sc ...
in 2010.
Political career
With the return of democracy, Hertz participated in various government institutions. A member of the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL), she was responsible for verifying that country's peace agreements.[ She was human rights advisor and legal director of the ]Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...
from 1994 to 1998 – a position she resigned on 31 October of that year, when the Concertación
The Concertación, officially the Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia ( en, Coalition of Parties for Democracy), was a coalition of center-left political parties in Chile, founded in 1988. Presidential candidates under its banner won ...
government decided to take on the defense of Pinochet, who had been arrested in London on 16 October. She joined the Chilean delegation to the Rome Conference in 1997, which approved the Statute of the International Criminal Court
The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998Michael P. Scharf (August 1998)''Results of the R ...
. She was Chile's attaché to international organizations based in Geneva in 2003, a lawyer of the Ministry of the Interior
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
's Human Rights Program from 2004 to 2006, ambassador to Hungary from 2006 to 2009, and in the latter year was appointed human rights director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[
She has written nonfiction books about her life and repression during Pinochet's regime.
Carmen Hertz was a candidate for national deputy for ]District 16 16th district may refer to:
France
* 16th arrondissement of Marseille
*16th arrondissement of Paris
United States
Congressional districts
*California's 16th congressional district
*Florida's 16th congressional district
*Illinois's 16th co ...
(which included the communes of Pudahuel
Pudahuel (, Mapudungun "place of pools/water" or "place where seagulls gather") is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. Santiago's international airport Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez is located there. ...
, Quilicura
Quilicura ( ; ) is a commune of Chile located in capital Santiago. Founded in 1901, it was originally a satellite city on what were then the outskirts of the city of Santiago, but as urban sprawl has set in it is now quickly urbanizing from what w ...
, Colina, Lampa, and Tiltil
Tiltil or Til-Til is a Chilean municipality and city, in the Chacabuco Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. Tiltil is most known for being an execution place for rebels during Chile's independence war against Spain. Manuel Rodríguez was exec ...
) in the 2005 parliamentary election, but with 13,694 votes (8.27%), she was not elected. She was successful, however, in the 2017 election, in which she won a seat for District 8 ( Cerrillos, Colina, Estación Central
Estación Central ((), Spanish for "central station") is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. Its namesake is the Estación Central railway station located in the commune.
Demographics
According to th ...
, Lampa, Maipú, Tiltil, Pudahuel, and Quilicura).
Books
* ''Operación siglo XX: El atentado a Pinochet'' (1990), with journalist Patricia Verdugo
Patricia del Cármen Verdugo Aguirre (October 20, 1947 – January 13, 2008) was a Chilean journalist, writer and human rights activist. She focused much of her investigative reporting on the human rights abuses committed by the military dictator ...
,
* ''Operación Exterminio. La represión contra los comunistas chilenos (1973–1976)'' (2016), with Apolonia Ramírez and Manuel Salazar,
* ''La historia fue otra: Memorias'' (2017),
References
External links
*
Carmen Hertz
at the Chamber of Deputies of Chile
The Chamber of Deputies ( es, Cámara de Diputadas y Diputados, links=no) is the lower house of Chile's bicameral Congress. Its organisation and its powers and duties are defined in articles 42 to 59 of Chile's current constitution.
Eligibil ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hertz, Carmen
1945 births
20th-century Chilean lawyers
20th-century Chilean women writers
20th-century Chilean non-fiction writers
21st-century Chilean lawyers
21st-century Chilean women writers
21st-century Chilean non-fiction writers
Ambassadors of Chile to Hungary
Chilean human rights activists
Chilean non-fiction writers
Chilean women lawyers
Communist Party of Chile politicians
Living people
Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile
University of Chile alumni
Women members of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile
Writers from Santiago
20th-century women lawyers
21st-century women lawyers