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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE April 9, 2008
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| March 20, 2008 |
Valparaiso, Chile – Investigating the Lesser-known 9.11 |
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This district of Valparaiso, registered as a UNESCO world heritage site for its cultural importance, contains both colonial architecture and artistically renovated, mural-speckled neighborhoods |
On the dark day of September 11th, 1973, the Chilean military led a coup d'état to overthrow Chile’s government. The military coup, backed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, ended in the death of Chile’s first democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, and the succession of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte as dictator of a new military regime. Over the next two decades, General Pinochet’s military regime kidnapped, detained, tortured and executed thousands of innocent Chileans; to this day the whereabouts of 3,200 civilians remain unknown. Additionally, the Chilean government has never formally apologized for this terrible violation of human rights. |
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Tour participants stopped at this mural, the first dedicated to the memory of Los Desaparecidos in Valparaiso, which was painted by Peace Boat participants during the 52nd global voyage |
When Peace Boat arrived in Valparaiso on March 20, a group of 60th voyage participants set out to investigate the history behind this incident by meeting Pinochet regime victims face to face, and by visiting the execution, torture and detainment facilities used by the Pinochet regime. Tour participants said they joined this tour to learn what 9.11 meant to Chileans: while the New York 9.11 incident of 2001 is widely known, they saw this tour as an opportunity to learn about a lesser-known piece of political and social history through firsthand experience. |
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| Former political prisoner Nelson Cabrera shared his story of detainment and torture in the Cuartel Silva Palma |
Participants first visited the Plaza Sotomayor and the Cuartel Silva Palma, an old navy barracks used as a torture center during the Pinochet regime. Nelson Cabrera, who has joined previous Peace Boat voyages as a guest educator and organized this tour for Peace Boat, shared his experience as a prisoner in the Cuartel Silva Palma. In both 1974 and 75, Nelson endured one-month sentences in the cuartel, and shocked participants with some of the horrible truths of surviving detainment in a torture center. Nelson hopes to convert the cuartel into a museum in memory of the 3,200 Desaparecidos (The Disappeared Ones), who were wrongfully kidnapped during Pinochet’s dictatorship. The local media came to cover Peace Boat’s visit to the cuartel, and Nelson spoke hopefully about the project’s progress. |
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These 1000 folded paper cranes show Peace Boat’s support for peace and reconciliation between the Chilean government and the people held prisoner during the Pinochet military dictatorship |
After paying respects to a memorial at the University of Valparaiso Faculty of Architecture for two of Los Desaparecidos from the university, the tour visited a public monument to Los Desaparecidos, Los Detinidos, y Los Presos Politicos (The Disappeared, Detained, and Political Prisoners) on La Avenida Brasil in central Valparaiso. This monument, constructed through cooperation from Peace Boat and funded by the Chilean government, bears the names of Los Desaparecidos from the Valparaiso region. Peace Boat commemorated the visit by hanging a string of 1000 folded paper origami cranes on the monument, which participants folded onboard the ship in preparation for the visit. The tradition of folding 1000 origami cranes dates back to post World War II Japan, when a radiation victim in Hiroshima named Sadako Sasaki vowed to fold 1000 cranes in the hope that she would be cured from her radiation sickness. Sadako died before she met her goal, but the folding of 1000 cranes continues to stand as a symbol of peace for Japanese people today. |
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| A tour participant contemplated the terrors of imprisonment in the former prison |
The final visit of the day was to a former prison used during the Pinochet era as a detainment and torture center for political prisoners. The prison has been converted into a cultural center with murals and sculptures, a small theatre, bakery, internet café, and workshop space for local artists and circus groups. A former prisoner gave a tour of the grounds, sharing his personal experiences, reflecting on changes in Chile since the end of Pinochet’s dictatorship in 1990, and speaking about what changes he would still like to see made in Chile today. In addition to recognition of the crimes committed during the Pinochet regime by the national government, Nelson and other ex-political prisoners that 60th voyage participants met voiced the need to increase awareness of this dark side of Chilean history through projects like Nelson’s cuartel museum, and general education in Chilean schools. Nelson also pointed to Peace Boat’s visit and Japanese participants’ interest in learning about Chile’s 9.11 incident as important vehicles to spread international awareness and provide support to Chilean citizens seeking recognition and justice from their government and the international community. |
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