MB Civic

Go to article (click) –

One more time…

Who were the victims? The musician, Victor Jara, whose hands were broken at the Chile Stadium, where thousands of prisoners were held in those first few weeks of terror after the coup, who was then shot and killed, his body dumped unidentified in a morgue. The university professor who taught subject matter incomprehensible to the military junta, subjects such as journalism, sociology, and political science. The schoolteacher whose student denounced her because he knew she was an Allende sympathizer. Doctors, professionals, workers, students.

In the press this week there was an image of a woman, a mother, kissing a skull. She was one of the few whose relatives’ remains had been identified, and she could kiss his skull to express her love. So many other Chileans will never be able to say goodbye to their loved ones even in this cruel manner, for there are still 1100 Chileans who remain disappeared at the hands of Pinochet’s men, including hundreds who were taken in helicopters, had their stomachs slashed open, and then were dropped into the Pacific Ocean.

Another of Pinochet’s victims was the father of president Michelle Bachelet. A General in the Chilean Armed Forces, Alberto Bachelet opposed Pinochet’s coup. Bachelet was imprisoned and tortured to death in a Pinochet prison cell. General Bachelet’s wife and daughter were also tortured in one of the most sinister of torture centers, Villa Grimaldi. Many never survived Villa Grimaldi. But Michelle Bachelet and her mother did, and today Michelle Bachelet is the President of Chile.

In an effort to document torture, a government-appointed truth commission gathered testimony from Chileans who had been held and tortured in prisons all over the country. Torture consisted of electric shocks to the victims’ genitals, immersion in feces-filled waters to simulate drowning, the rape of female prisoners by men, dogs, and rats. Fully 28,500 people came forward to recount the most physically, spiritually, and psychologically destructive torture, which has marked them for life.

Where’s the 5000 word NYT/LAT/WashPost/WSJ story on that?!?
-MAB