Spain as a Human Rights Champion in Latin America: The Trial of General Pinochet

This paper will focus on the history of Latin America and Spain and the transition of Spain from a human rights violator to a human rights defender. In recent history, Spain has repeatedly decried and intervened in cases of extreme human rights violations, in order to give the people the justice and closure they can not pursue on their own soil. Though there are many examples of Spain’s intervention against human rights abuses, this essay will focus on the case of General Augusto Pinochet and the charges pressed against him by the kingdom of Spain beginning in 1996. This paper will detail the human rights abuses committed by both the Franco regime and the Pinochet regime to prove that past tragedies do not define the future of nations that are committed to addressing and righting wrongs