Hove woman's 'infinite grief' for her father, one of Chile's disappeared victims
4th September
By Rose Lock @roselock22
IN December 1976, Carlos Contreras went out into the streets of Santiago to buy bread and was never seen again.
Maria Anderson-Contreras was just three years old when her father disappeared under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who seized power in Chile in 1973.
Business consultant Maria, who now lives in Hove, was born in the city of Concepcion in central Chile and has few memories of her father, who was an opponent of the Pinochet government.
The 46-year-old said: “I only saw him a handful of times.
Carlos Contreras at the age of 29, before he disappeared
“My mother tells me that despite the danger to his own life, he would come to my kindergarten just to see me playing from afar. It’s heartbreaking.”
As the councillor of the municipality of Concepción between 1971 and 1973, Carlos was a prime target for Pinochet’s fierce regime, which persecuted tens of thousands of people – including those who had supported the Popular Unity government of former president and socialist Salvador Allende.
More:
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18697618.hove-womans-infinite-grief-father-one-chiles-disappeared-victims/
