When Perpetrators of State Violence Speak Out: The Politics and Judicialization of Speech in Argentina and Chile.

This paper will examine the judicialization of politics and legal cultures through the "apologia del delito" law. In both Argentina and Chile the law has been used to prosecute perpetrators of authoritarian state violence who publicly boast about their past criminal violence. Such an application of the law has made the courts a site of political struggle over both justice for past authoritarian state violence and free speech rights in the new democracy. By examining the novel use of the apologia del delito lawto by-pass perpetrators' amnesties and send them to prison, the paper contributes an additional case study of the judicialization of human rights politcs in Latin America. Unlike many other cases, however, this project will explore whether this form of judicialization contributes to, or constrains, democratic politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]