The Michelle Bachelet administration got it self into a difficult bind; this after its candidate to occupy a seat in Chile's Supreme Court did not receive sufficient votes in the Senate. Santiago Appeals' Court Judge Alfredo Pfeiffer, a conservative judge, was nominated by the ruling centre-left Concertacion coalition, after a deal was struck with the right-wing opposition to get the ruling coalition's own candidate, Justice Harold Brito, appointed to the occupy one of two vacant spot in the country's Supreme Court.
Judge Pfeiffer, in his entire career as a judge, has upheld the Pinochet dictatorship era Amnesty Law. A law that pardons human rights violators. Pfeiffer has never prosecuted human rights violators, he always has applied the Amnesty Law. Pfeiffer has defied a Supreme Court edict that sets aside the Amnesty Law, which ensures the prosecution of human rights violators. Pfeiffer has closed human rights cases even in some cases without holding an investigation in cases of disappearances of Pinochet era political opponents.
Judge Pfeiffer's reasons for defying the Supreme Court in human rights cases, is that he believes the Amnesty Law is valid, in the books and that it has not been repealed. But the Supreme Court ruled that Law should be set set aside in human rights violation cases.
He also argues that International Law and legal treaties Chile has signed do not have legal binding value in national law, Pfeiffer argues national law trumps international justice.
But what really sets Pfeiffer apart, is an interview he gave in the early 1990's with the conservative daily El Mercurio. He told veteran reporter Raquel Correa, that he did not believe movies that depicted the Jewish holocaust at the hands of Nazi Germany. Pfeiffer the son of a German immigrant to Chile, told Correa the Holocaust was not as bad as depicted in movies.
This is the judge the Bachelet government wanted promoted to the country's Supreme Court. This after the Bachelet government struck that deal with the right-wing opposition. With the agreement the Bachelet administration managed to get the respected judge Haroldo Brito, who has made an impressive career investigating and prosecuting human rights violators, to the Supreme Court in exchange for the second seat to be allocated to Judge Pfeiffer.
It is surprising that the Socialist Bachelet, her centre-left ruling coalition many like Bachelet victims of human rights violations, hitched their reputation on a holocaust apologist and who is dismissive of human rights violations in Chile.
It is also surprising for the right-wing opposition to be angry, they called the Senate rejection of Pfeiffer a betrayal. It is surprising how political deal making becomes an act of political betrayal. Also it is surprising how little attention was given to Pfeiffer's legal views on human rights, international law, and particularly to Pfeiffer's egregious holocaust apologizing.
