A Day of Chilean History: Under Pinochet's Rule

Today, we met up with Andres and Paula. Andres was a prisoner for 40(?) days during Pinochet's rule. He was detained and tortured at a detention/torture center in Santiago, Chile. He survived to tell us his tale with his daughter, Paula, as his translator. This was a very special treat for us as he has only volunteered to provide a tour the past 2 years to World Teach volunteers. Most tourists do not get this opportunity to learn about this past which is still very real and painful to many Chileans as it was only 20 years ago that Chile was freed from Pinochet's rule. However, there are Chileans who have appreciated Pinochet's dictatorship to recover Chile's plummeting economy during Salvador Allende's rule (under socialist rule). Therefore, we have to be very careful not to share our opinion of Pinochet with Chileans especially strangers as they might have supported either side.

HISTORY
On September 11, 1973, Pinochet led a coup d'état which put an end to Allende's democratically elected socialist government. The military junta then appointed Pinochet as President. From the beginning, the government sought out to kidnap, torture, and murder those who did not support his regime. 80% of those kidnapped were men and the other 20% were women. On average, those kidnapped were 25 years old and many belonged to the poorer working class (i.e. teachers, musicians, artists, etc.). Many Chileans disappeared and are still missing to this day.

Our 1st stop happened to be a building that I've walked by multiple times near our hostel. I remember thinking to myself that this is such a beautiful building and it must be a much nicer hotel or hostel than ours. However, Andres informed us that this building was actually a torture/detention center. All the torture/detention centers were well hidden from the public. (SEE ABOVE- the original building is still intact). In fact, we went to the Chilean soccer stadium which was also once a torture center.Pinochet even had the addresses changed and fake IDs were made for all the prisoners to pretend that they lived at those residences in order to pay for the utility bills.

Our 2nd stop was at the Presidential Palace. Presidents have not lived here for over a decade, but continue to do their work here. Allende was ambushed here by Pinochet and his military. No one really knows if Allende was killed by Pinochet or if it was a suicide.

We got to see the tradition of changing of the guards at the palace which was AWESOME! This happens every 2 days and takes approximately 20-30 minutes where a set of guards, horsemen, and band make their way to the Palace from the nearby streets. They salute the guards that are to be switched out along with a lengthy gun procession. The police band was quite good on their drums, xylophone, tuba, etc. All guards are policemen and they stay awake for 48 hour shifts.

Our 3rd stop was at Santiago's largest cemetery. Here we saw memorials for those who had been murdered or missing during Pinochet's rule. There are memorials all over Chile since there were torture centers all over Chile. Prisoners were also transferred from one center to another. The memorial above had some beautiful statues facing the sky to pay respect to those who were murdered. The memorial says "All my love is here and has stayed/remained in the rocks, sea, and mountains".

In addition, we also saw some very elaborate tombs for the richer families in Chile (see above). Again, there is such a large divide between the rich and poor in Chile.

The above memorial is located at one of the torture centers. If you look at the mural, you will see that prisoners were bound and suspended by their wrists in nude. Many prisoners were blindfolded too during most of the time that they were held prisoner.

Andres took us to Villa Grimaldi where Andres and some of his friends were held for a while. This was the largest torture center where prisoners were raped, electrically shocked on metal beds, stayed in solitary cells, and locked in boxed cells with 6 others where there was little room that prisoners had to take turns to stand while blindfolded. The cells were smaller than the rectangular blocks (see above). One tree was planted in each box as a memorial to show that Chileans are strong and tough even though they may have been hurt with bruises (such as the trees) and they will survive.

"Old Parking Lot. Section that people were tortured by vehicles". Blindfolded prisoners were forced to lay down on the ground to be driven over by cars and trucks.
It was very sad to hear that there were organizations such as the Red Cross who had visited Villa Grimaldi under suspicions that prisoners were being held there, but Pinochet's regime was able to hide the prisoners in an empty swimming pool saying that it was just trash under the cover.

THANK YOU Andres and Paula for a wonderful tour into Chilean history. I will never forget it.