Chileans are rounded up by Pinochet's soldiers during the 1973 Chilean coup. (Image: Archive)

Documents detailing the potential role of Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) agents in the 1973 Chilean coup will remain largely secret after the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) held that revealing them would prejudice the “security, defence or international relations of the Commonwealth”.

It follows a four-year campaign by former military intelligence officer and UNSW Canberra Professor Clinton Fernandes to get the material declassified. And it means the extent of Australia’s involvement in the rise to power of Augusto Pinochet’s brutal military dictatorship might never be revealed.

The AAT’s decision was reached with reference to largely secret evidence provided by a series of intelligence officers under pseudonyms. 

“It’s an obscenity to the memory of the victims to continue to hide the truth,” Fernandes said.

The decision

Fernandes first applied to get material on the Chile coup released in 2017. When the National Archives blocked its release on national security grounds, he appealed to the AAT, which heard arguments in June. 

In reaching its judgment, the AAT relied heavily on secret evidence provided by “Jack Lowe” of ASIS and “Peter Darby” of ASIO (both pseudonyms), and Tony Sheehan from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The tribunal placed great weight on arguments made by the intelligence officers around “mosaic analysis”, whereby innocuous disclosures about past intelligence work could be used by Australia’s “adversaries” to piece together compromising information about current national security arrangements.

The decision favourably cited Lowe’s submissions referencing online investigative journalism website Bellingcat, which used open-source information to identify Russian spies involved in the 2018 poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and Skripal’s daughter Yulia. 

“Seemingly innocuous documents, when analysed appropriately, can reveal a great deal of information,” the tribunal said. 

Because Attorney-General Michaelia Cash issued a public interest certificate at the request of the intelligence agencies, Fernandes and his barrister Ian Latham were unable to hear, test or cross-examine any of this evidence, which was given after they’d made their submissions

“It was essentially a private discussion between the AAT and the government,” Fernandes said.

The tribunal also rejected arguments that the great openness of other countries like the United Kingdom and United States about involvement in Chile should weigh in favour of disclosure.

“Protecting our ability to keep secrets — and being seen to do that — may require us to continue suppressing documents containing what may appear to be benign or uncontroversial information about events that occurred long ago,” it said.

Fernandes says this affirms Australia’s role as a “sub-imperial power”, working to assure the US that we will continue to keep its secrets.

An incomplete picture

The AAT’s decision means the full extent of Western involvement in Pinochet’s coup remains hidden. When democratic socialist Salvador Allende was elected president in 1970, the Nixon administration began a campaign to “make the economy scream”, destablising the country with the help of allies to create the conditions for a military coup which the White House hoped would purge any potential leftist influence in Latin America.

The Pinochet regime would go on to murder, torture and “disappear” thousands. 

It’s well established that Australia had intelligence officers in Chile during the coup. Documents revealed through Fernandes’ proceedings show ASIS established a station in Santiago at the request of the CIA in 1971, and detail how Gough Whitlam agonised over whether to close down the operation for fear of upsetting the US. 

But the tribunal’s decision means what those officers did is still unknown. Fernandes has the possibility of appealing the decision to the Federal Court, which won’t be bound by Cash’s order that evidence be presented in secret. But if he loses an appeal, he could be made to pay the government’s legal costs.

The secrecy around the original hearing makes it difficult to determine the grounds for an appeal.

Chilean community wants answers

For Chilean-Australians who fled the Pinochet regime, Australia’s ongoing secrecy around the coup is bitterly disappointing. Macquarie University Latin America analyst Rodrigo Acuña, whose father was imprisoned by the Pinochet regime, suspects Australia’s involvement in Chile was crucially important to the CIA.

“A part of me expected it, and another part of me is still somewhat surprised and dumbfounded as to the decision by the Australian government,” he told Crikey. 

The tribunal’s decision may have repercussions beyond Australia.

Chile is still undergoing the painful, decades-long process of bringing Pinochet-era figures to justice. One of those is Adriana Rivas, a retired Sydney nanny alleged to have helped with kidnappings for the regime, and who lost an appeal against her extradition to Chile this year.

Acuña says releasing information about Australia’s involvement could assist legal processes in Chile. It’s why he and other Chilean-Australians whose families experienced the brutality of the Pinochet regime have repeatedly written to the government demanding disclosure and an apology for Australia’s involvement. Their pleas have been ignored.

“We feel we’re entitled to an apology because we’re of the view that our universal human rights were violated by Australia and the United States to overthrow a democratically elected government,” he said.