Jesuitas bajo Pinochet. Actitudes frente al orden político y a las violaciones de los derechos humanos

– The paper illuminates the attitudes of the Jesuits in Chile after the military coup in 1973. The Society of Jesus in Chile and especially the Jesuit journal Men-saje are known for their critical attitude towards the military regime under Augusto Pinochet. The paper brings into focus the first phase of Pinochet's dictatorship and argues that the critical position towards the regime – similar to the attitude of the Episcopal Conference – did not follow from the military coup, that is the overthrow of the elected government, but resulted from the fact that the armed forces established a long-lasting dictatorship under which human rights were systematically violated. Directly after the coup the journal Mensaje called for a return to democracy, but did not openly criticize the violation of human rights before the end of 1975. Nevertheless several Jesuits were deeply involved in the defense of human rights. The paper sheds light on the fact that different and even opposed attitudes were adopted within the Jesuit order in Chile. Among these positions we can also find the denying of human rights violations by some Jesuit military and prison chaplains. However it is shown that the Jesuit's Provincial superior together with several influential Jesuits protected and encouraged the Jesuit commitment for human rights.