Museum of Memory and Human Rights- Santiago Chile

The effect that this museum has on you is like hitting a brick wall. You are stunned by the brutality Pinochet inflicted on his people during his term as President from 1973 to 1990. You simply can't ignore the devastation and depth. This museum was built "so it would never, ever happen again". It highlights in a most dramatic way the human rights violations of his military regime.

Pinochet over-threw Allende's democratic government calling it a Marxist cancer. And then his junta went on a rampage of murder, rape and torture. The numbers might not be significant compared to what is currently happening in Syria, or what happened in Bosnia or the Holocaust. But the way the museum presents this devastation with footage of survivors is most disturbing. It asks very simply- what if it were you, or your brother or Mom or daughter?

There is a huge wall, three stories high, of pictures showing the number of people afflicted. Under his rule, there were 35,000 documented human rights violations. Of these, 28,000 were tortured, 2,279 executed, and 1,248 missing and never found. This included gruesome acts of physical and sexual abuse (raping both males and females), electrocutions (the favoured way was placing prisoners on a wire cot with no mattress and electrocuting them)  and psychological damage. In addition, some 200,000 people suffered exile and were denied entry back to Chile. This absolutely instilled fear and terror throughout Chile during his reign.

What is surprising is the amount of time it took, 25 years, before the World and the Chileans were able to get him out, then make him pay for his crimes. He made new laws while President such that after he was defeated in 1990, he made himself head of the army and couldn't be touched with his official title. In 1998 when he finished his term, he sought exile in England and it was there that he was finally indicted for violations committed on his people. He was held until 2000 but then authorized to freely return to Chile. Pinochet died without having been formally convicted on any case (too bad he didn't die like Valdivia).

One final note- when you enter and exit the museum, there is a wall depicting the plight of the world's human rights violations:

I noticed Canada was not included among the 30 countries. 

As a world we can't seem to get it right as atrocities against one another continue in spite of what we have learned, especially over the last 100 years. You would think that as human beings, we would have seen enough of this.