CLACS Media Collection

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When in 1998 Chilean judge Juan Guzman was assigned the first criminal cases against the country's ex-dictator General Augusto Pinochet, no one expected much. Guzman had supported Pinochet's 1973 coup - waged as an anti-Communist crusade - that left the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, and thousands of others dead. The filmmakers trace the judge's descent into what he calls #the abyss,# where he uncovers the past including his own role in the tragedy. The Judge and the General reveals one of the 20th century's most notorious episodes and tells a cautionary tale about violating human rights in the name of #higher ideals.#

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