Chile confronts past with new museum

[Judi Lynn]

Chile confronts past with new museum
It's dedicated to victims of Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship, still a raw national wound.

http://www.latimes.com.nyud.net:8090/media/photo/2009-12/51302715.jpg

The $19-million Museum of Memory and Human Rights honors the 31,000 murder, kidnapping
and torture victims of Pinochet’s regime. Many wonder how the events will be portrayed.
(December 27, 2009)

By Chris Kraul
December 28, 2009

Reporting from Santiago, Chile - What they'll leave in and what they'll leave out -- that question haunts Margarita Iglesias as she considers next month's opening of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights.

That Chile is recognizing victims of its military dictatorship in a striking new "monument to memories" is positive, said Iglesias, both a victim and a historian of Augusto Pinochet's bloody 17-year rule. As a high school student activist in Santiago in 1975, she was tortured before fleeing with her family to France.

"It can't be just a horror show. The political movements and conditions that led to the coup and its aftermath must be explained. If not, how can you understand how state terrorism came about?" said Iglesias, 51, now a University of Chile professor.

The $19-million museum that opens in downtown Santiago on Jan. 11 is dedicated to the 31,000 murder, torture and kidnapping victims of the 1973-90 military dictatorship of Gen. Pinochet.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-chile-museum28-2009dec28,0,6134060.story

[Peace Patriot]

1. K&R! And we in the U.S. should never forget who sponsored these horrors! nt