Tourist Productions 2007

Excerpt:

According to staff at Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, the property
originally belonged to a wealthy family, whose daughter was arrested
by the Army shortly after the coup of 1973. The family surrendered the
land to the Army in return for the release of their daughter.

Villa Grimaldi is an extensive plot of land and its buildings, now
demolished, were enlarged to accommodate the center's additional
functions. Apparently, the first prisoners arrived in mid-1974
although their volume did not become more regular until later that
year. Around the summer of 1975, Villa Grimaldi became the MIB's
center of operations, in charge of internal repression in Santiago.

Operative teams had their quarters at Villa Grimaldi. They brought
prisoners there for initial interrogation after arrest and devices
specially designed for different forms of torture were kept there. One
such victim was current President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, who was
tortured with her mother as her father, General Bachelet, opposed
Pinochet. Prisoners who were not subject to torture were also kept
there, sometimes for long periods, awaiting possible new
interrogations or a decision on their fate.
As the number of prisoners increased, new structures were built to
hold them. The conditions of these apparently differed depending on
the state of the arrested individual and the effects the DINA wanted
to produce in him or her. The Rettig Commission visited this site and,
although the main buildings were demolished, the following description
of Villa Grimaldi could be confirmed through studying the distribution
of ruins and foundations:
Villa Grimaldi's buildings (particularly its Main House, a
construction from mid 19th century) were destroyed during the last
days of the military dictatorship, presumably to destroy evidence of
the crimes that were committed there. The location is now the site of
the Park for Peace, a Chilean National Monument dedicated to human
rights and the memory of the victims of DINA. Some structures from the
detention center remain, such as a swimming pool, and parts of the
original wall that surrounded the site; some have been re-created
(notably the watchtower and some representative detention cells). As
of 2006 there are plans to build a museum on the site.
"The day begins with a breakfast of boiling tea in a small metal
container and half a bread. Lunch is at midday, soup with potato skins
floating around in it and pieces of carrots. Sometimes we eat the
agents' leftovers, with olive pits, bits of fish and fishbones mixed
in with it. Almost impossible to swallow. The screams and moans take
your appetite away. But we're forced to do it. Meanwhile, they never
stop calling people to the "parrilla" (the "grill" torture method), to
endless interrogations... It is a world of contrasts. Guards play the
guitar to the sound of the wailing, while in a corner, lying on the
floor, Manuel Diaz, alias "El Tano" is dying, little by little..."
(excerpt from La Guerra Oculta: Detenidos-Desaparecidos, Capítulo 3.
Recintos Secretos, by Carmen Ortuzar and Marcela Otero, Revista Hoy,
No. 445, jan.27 - feb.2, 1986.)
On September 9, 2006, General Augusto Pinochet (now deceased) was
stripped of his immunity by the Chilean Supreme Court. Judge Alejandro
Madrid was thus able to indict him for the kidnapping and torture at
Villa Grimaldi.[1] He was put under house arrest at his suburban
Santiago mansion on October 31, 2006.[2]