Thursday

Class then Villa Grimaldi.  Very triste.

Here is the story:

An Italian came to Chile and built a beautiful, walled, Tuscan estate in the 1960s outside of Santiago proper.   He built a water tower within the compound because water lines were not yet able to service his estate.

In 1973 the military led by General Pinochet presented the Italian with a choice: sign the documents releasing ownership of the property to the military and go away into exile, OR, refuse to sign and die.  He chose to sign.

From 1973 to 1979 over 4,000 Chileans were trekked through the compound as prisoners of the military.  If they were kept in the water tower converted to a prison then they were on the brink of becoming one of the disappeared.  

If not in there then they were kept tightly bunched in small cells and tortured throughout the day by either electrocution in the man or woman's most sensitive areas, water suffocation (water boarding), or dry suffocation (shavings placed in a plastic bag wrapped around the prisoner's head that entered the air passages once the oxygen was depleted from the bag).  A total of 236 are known to have died or disappeared from Villa Grimaldi (of 3,000 total that died in that time).  Disappeared means the helicopter flew bodies over the ocean, tied rail road ties to the bodies, placed them in bags, and dropped them.  These rail road ties have since been recovered some with remnants of buttons or clothing.

Presidente Michelle Bachelet and her mother were kept in the water tower as prisoners because General Bachelet was a member of the socialist party.  The President was exiled rather than killed; she returned for quite the triumph.

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I'm sorry to share such a gruesome tale, but knowing the history is not only so important in understanding Chile's progression socially, politically, and economically, but is also important to analyze if the solutions Chile has employed to this history of horror could be applicable to current atrocities in other countries around the world.

So. An educational, somber visit.  But these courses are certainly a steep learning curve!