Chile's Bachelet visits site of her own torture

[Judi Lynn]

Chile's Bachelet visits site of her own torture
Sun Oct 15, 2006 2:50 AM BST
By Manuel Farias

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Chilean President Michelle Bachelet returned on Saturday to the place where she was imprisoned and tortured more than 30 years ago under military rule, paying homage to those who didn't survive.

This was the first presidential visit to Villa Grimaldi, one of the most infamous of the secret detention centers used by Augusto Pinochet's secret police in a brutal crackdown on leftist dissent during the 1973-90 military dictatorship.

Bachelet toured the memorial park built amid the ruins of the detention centre, peering at a mock-up of the centre before its demolition and stopping at a wall bearing the names of the 229 prisoners who were kidnapped and killed.

She also went inside a replica of the small tower where detainees were often sent before being murdered.
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http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-10-15T014955Z_01_N14386234_RTRUKOC_0_UK-RIGHTS-CHILE.xml&WTmodLoc=World-C1-Headline-8

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Chilean President Visits Place She Was Imprisoned, Tortured
October 14, 2006
VOA Top Stories, VOA, VOA Americas, VOA Human Rights and Law
By voanews


Chile’s President, Michelle Bachelet, has made an emotional visit to the former detention center were she was once tortured as a political prisoner under the regime of General Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s. Villa Grimaldi is now a memorial to those who were imprisoned there by the Chilean secret police.

The president looked visibly emotional as she made her way onto the grounds of Villa Grimaldi on the outskirts of Santiago.

Both she and her mother were held there in 1975, during Augusto Pincohet’s dictatorship.

At the time, Bachelet was a 22-year-old medical student. Now the country’s President, she and her mother went to the villa Saturday to open a new theater. She told the audience how it feels to have been through such an experience.

She said that people like me who survived this experience are the lucky ones. Thousands of Chileans, including my father didn’t survive the pressure and the torture. It is them who we remember today.
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http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/10/14/chilean-president-visits-place-she-was-imprisoned-tortured-2/

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Chile's leader visits tortured past
Oct. 15 - Chile's president visits the former prison where she was tortured during the rule of former strongman Augusto Pinochet.

Michelle Bachelet and her mother were taken to the former torture centre more than 30 years ago under military rule.

This was the first presidential visit to Villa Grimaldi, one of the most infamous of the secret detention centres used by Augusto Pinochet's secret police in a brutal crackdown on leftist dissent during the 1973-90 military dictatorship.
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http://today.reuters.com/tv/videoStory.aspx?isSummitStory=false&storyId=a01754a393977a5202d721dd3cfed044a4f9ad07&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-R1-Video-5



Pinochet, the right-wing dictator whose administration
tortured Bachelet's family (her father dying during his
imprisonment) and his U.S. strong supporter,Richard M.
Nixon's Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger.