Human Rights Tour

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Last week we went on a tour led by a former political prisoner of the Pinochet regime. For those of you unfamiliar with Chilean history, in 1973 a CIA backed military coup took over the government of Chile, killing the democratically elected socialist president, Salvadore Allende. Afterward the military run government ruled with an iron fist until 1990. During this time hundreds of thousands of Chileans were tortured, killed or have disappeared. You can obviously look more into this on your own but just know that the wounds from this time are still very fresh in the minds of Chileans.
Our tour guide took us all over Santiago to some of the key places of that time. In fat the very place he was held and tortured is on the beautiful, peaceful street we are living on. On the sidewalk in front of this building are stones with the names of those who were killed there. The average age of detainees was somewhere around 24 years old.
It was a very somber experience and educational. It is important to try and understand the situations our students, and especially their parents, are coming from.

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Photos

Photo 5
National Stadium used to hold detainees