Linked with Viviana Elisa Díaz Caro – Chile.
Derechos Chile, a web page dealing with the history of human rights abuses in Chile, beginning in 1973 when the military regime of General Augusto Pinochet took power and continuing through today’s current events. On this site you will find testimony, photographs, articles and other interesting information. With its link to The Santiago Times, Derechos Chile offers regular news stories about the continuing evolution of human rights issues in Chile. Here you will find information for everyone – for those with a limited understanding of Chile, and for those who participated in making its history. If you want to know more about the site, please continue reading (homepage).
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WHY KEEP LOOKING BACK AT THE PAST? The team that created this web page was motivated by a concern for the word « memory. » In the years that have gone by since Chile began its « transition » to democracy, there has been a constant call for people to forget. The effort to erase the memory of a very specific part of the country’s history comes most especially from one sector of the society. Still, as made evident by regular, every-day events, the contradictions from the past continue to have their effect today.
If there is a call to forget, then it must be because many still remember. Derechos Chile starts from this perspective, the right to remember. A right that some would challenge even now. But we believe, as do many others in Chile and around the world, that it is of critical importance to understand and remember the past. The past must be understood if we are to understand where we are today, who we are and how best to deal with the future.
Derechos Chile works both with past and present-day events. This web site is a tool, helping to understand the present by helping to remember the past. In Chile there are still many « taboo » subjects, unresolved conflicts and open wounds as a result of the 17 years of military government.
The current-day behavior of Chileans has been shaped by other times, other experiences that occurred in the nation’s history, but experiences that are always remembered.
Based on these assumptions, we have created on this site a history of human rights violations occurring in Chile over the past quarter of a century. It is also a history of the defense of human rights during all this time, a defense made by those who refused to stand by while their rights were trampled.
The Derechos Chile team hopes this effort will help in the restoration of Chile’s historic memory, so that forgetfulness will not win out. We also hope to create a memory so that what happened in Chile will never occur again. So that tomorrow the human rights of all Chileans will be respected.