From 1974 to 1977, DINA (National Intelligence Directorate) and other agencies such as the Joint Command were the main institutions responsible for committing most acts of repression. It was during this period when most of the forced disappearances took place. While these agencies committed barbaric acts of physical and sexual torture, they also caused an immense amount of psychological pain and suffering.
Detentions and torture centers Intelligence agencies under Pinochet's regime instituted secret detention and torture sites to conduct political repression. In total, Chile had 17 torture centers. On occasion, prisoners were released after being confined and tortured. However, many detainees were also killed and "disappeared."
Cuatro Álamos Cuatro Álamos was a detention center to which no one outside the DINA had access, except personnel from other intelligence agencies. It was established in 1973, during the earliest phase of the regime. Life in Cuatro Álamos was relatively easier than in other detention sites. It consisted of twelve small cells, one large cell, and staff offices. There were very few instances of torture within the walls of the prison. In another variation of this method, one wire would be attached to the prisoner, typically to the victim's genitalia, while another wire could be applied to different parts of the body. This created an electric current passing through the victim's body, with the strength inversely proportional to the distance between the two electrodes. A smaller distance between the electrodes resulted in a stronger current and therefore more intense pain for the prisoner.'s torture center at José Domingo Cañas 1367A particularly brutal version of the "grill" involved the use of a metal bunk bed; the victim would be placed on the bottom bunk while a relative or friend was simultaneously tortured on the top bunk. Most prisoners endured severe beatings, and some had their limbs broken or amputated. At Villa Grimaldi, DINA forced non-compliant prisoners to lie down on the ground. The captors would then run over their legs with a large vehicle, crushing the prisoners' bones. The assailants also beat prisoners in the ears until they became deaf and unconscious; this torture method was known as the "telephone." Most of these acts of punishment were intended to humiliate the prisoners severely. At the Pisagua Concentration Camp, captors intimidated prisoners by forcing them to crawl on the ground and lick the dirt off the floors. If prisoners complained or even collapsed from exhaustion, they were promptly executed. Prisoners were also immersed in vats of excrement and occasionally forced to ingest it.
Sexual abuse Pinochet's regime perpetrated numerous gruesome and horrific acts of sexual abuse against its victims. Several detention sites were established solely for the purpose of sexually tormenting and humiliating the prisoners. One such facility was the Discothèque (or
Venda Sexy), which served as one of DINA's primary secret detention centers. Many of those who "disappeared" were initially held in this prison, where prison guards frequently subjected both men and women to sexual assault. This prison also served as the central hub for internal repression operations. Women were the primary targets of these gruesome acts of sexual abuse. According to the Valech Commission, almost every single female prisoner fell victim to repeated rape. Military personnel not only raped women but also employed foreign objects and even animals to inflict additional pain and suffering. Women, and occasionally men, reported incidents where spiders and live rats were implanted on their genitals. One woman testified that she had been "raped and sexually assaulted with trained dogs and live rats" and was forced to engage in sexual acts with her father and brother, who were also detained. In the words of
Alejandra Matus, detained women endured a double punishment: first for being labeled as "leftists" and second for not conforming to the military's ideal of women, often being derogatorily referred to as
perra ("bitch").
Psychological repression The military junta often framed leftist individuals and groups in order to justify its agenda to target and torture political dissidents. The junta fostered fear of leftists by staging arsenal captures and portraying leftist extremists in an extremely negative light. The regime falsely accused leftists of stealing dangerous weapons from weapons stores to justify the illegal capture of dissidents. Such fake portrayals of "the revolutionary threat" resulted in the legitimization of the Pinochet regime. The junta commissioned the Chilean public to report the actions of any suspected leftists and proceeded to turn them in. Pinochet also authorized DINA to stage the bombing of a Chilean safe house, placing the blame on leftist extremists to demonstrate the danger they posed to society. Essentially, the military junta made use of brainwashing propaganda to portray the leftists as the enemies. Psychological torture was used to destroy a prisoner's will, dignity, morale, and physical resolve in order to extract pertinent information from the victim. Members of intelligence agencies like DINA and the Joint Command attempted to extract information from victims by threatening their children and loved ones. Many mothers who were incarcerated in illegal detention centers had to choose between saving themselves or their children's lives. On August 21, 1989, military personnel seized Jessica Antonia Liberona Niñoles and detained her in a dark, solitary room. She was stripped naked, forced to lie down on an uncomfortable prison cot, and was not permitted to sleep for five days during the interrogation period. The captors constantly threatened to kidnap her nine-year-old daughter from school if she failed to cooperate. According to the Valech Commission,
waterboarding was one of the torture methods most commonly recorded by victims of imprisonment and torture. The captors poured water over a cloth that covered the victims' faces and breathing passages, causing individuals to experience a drowning sensation and a near-death experience. Waterboarding caused detainees to asphyxiate, while their heads were submerged into the water several times in a row. Often, prisoners were hung upside-down with ropes, and they were dropped into a tank of water, headfirst. The water was contaminated and filled with debris. Waterboarding was employed to cause both physical and psychological pain; however, victims found that the mental suffering they endured was far worse than the physical pain. They attested that even thirty years after being "waterboarded," they still suffered from the devastating effects of psychological torture. Many victims reported suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, humiliation, worthlessness, shame, anxiety, and hopelessness. The Valech Commission Report describes the testimony of a man who experienced waterboarding in September 1973:They put cotton on both eyes, then taped them and tightened a hood around my neck. They tied my hands and legs, submerged me in a 250-liter tank that had ammonia, urine, excrement, and seawater. They submerged me until I could not breathe anymore. They repeated it over and over, while beating me and asking me questions. That is what they called the submarine. Their bodies were deliberately hidden in undisclosed locations. Only seven days after Pinochet seized power, he ordered the military to round up approximately 10,000 students, workers, and political activists and jammed them into Santiago's National Stadium on September 18, 1973. This stadium, which symbolized Chile's greatest pastime, turned into a concentration camp within a few days. Many were tortured and gunned down, and several hundred bodies were shuttled into secret mass graves. These were victims of a well-organized program of official, yet clandestine, torture and murder. Many people were last seen in the detention and torture centers established by the intelligence agencies of the military regime. Following Pinochet's arrest in 1998, Chile made a renewed effort to uncover the atrocities of the past. For the first time in several decades, human rights lawyers and members of the armed forces wanted to investigate where the bodies of the "disappeared" were buried. On January 7, 2000, President
Ricardo Lagos made a 15-minute nationwide address, revealing that the armed forces had uncovered information about the fate of approximately 180 people who had disappeared. According to Lagos, the bodies of at least 150 of these people were thrown into lakes, rivers, and the Pacific Ocean. The whereabouts of hundreds more bodies remain unknown. == Institutionalized terrorism ==