The government commemorated Journalists’ Day in Chile on July 11. The administration inaugurated a plaque in La Moneda with the names of journalists who were assassinated or disappeared during the dictatorship. The president, human rights officials, and families of the victims attended the ceremony.
The government installed a plaque in La Moneda with the names of 37 journalists who, according to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, were either disappeared or executed during the Pinochet dictatorship. The director of the museum, the Human Rights undersecretary, and families of the victims attended the ceremony.
The unveiling of the plaque took place in the governmental palace, La Moneda. Government spokesperson Camila Vallejo said “Starting today, in an act of profound justice, with the historical, political, and social memory of our country, the names of these journalists will be stamped in this Government Palace, outside the Hall of the Association of Journalists of La Moneda.”
Among the speakers at the ceremony was Ana María Arón, sister of Diana Arón, who was a seven-months pregnant journalist when she was arrested and disappeared in 1974. “Because we are wounded,” she said, “we have to tell others about the suffering we are experiencing. It is not enough that I repair myself alone. I need others to know what I suffered, not what our families who are no longer here suffered, but what we suffer in this incessant, impotent search, and receiving absurd answers. We are the guardians of memory and we must remember to be able to heal, remember to be able to tell others, remember so that our deceased can be in peace, and so can we.”
En el #DíadelPeriodista, recordamos en La Moneda a periodistas y trabajadores de las comunicaciones asesinados y desaparecidos en dictadura. A #50AñosDelGolpe, develar sus nombres es un acto de reparación y memoria para los familiares de las víctimas y una forma de mantenerlos… pic.twitter.com/I1u2tyVtpu
— Camila Vallejo Dowling (@camila_vallejo) July 11, 2023
The National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture report showed that there were approximately 230 cases of journalists who suffered political imprisonment, as well as 70 more who were not journalists but linked to journalistic activity. There were 37 journalists, as well as communicators, who suffered disappearance or executions:
- Alfonso Gamboa Farías
- Arcadia Flores Pérez
- Archibaldo Morales Villanueva
- Augusto Carmona Acevedo
- Augusto Olivares Becerra
- Carlos Bascuñán Mourgues-Dewet
- Carlos Berger Guralnik
- Charles Horman
- Daniel Castro López
- Diana Arón Svigilisky
- Eduardo Jara Aravena
- Ernesto Traubmann Riegelhaupt
- Fernando Vergara Vargas
- Guillermo Gálvez Rivadeneira
- Hugo Araya González
- Jaime Aldoney Vargas
- Jaime Sierra Castillo
- Jane Vanini Capozi
- Jonathan Moyle
- Jorge Yáñez Olave
- José Carrasco Tapia
- José Carrasco Vásquez
- José Pérez Hermosilla
- José Rivas Rachitoff
- José Tohá González
- Juan Espinoza Parra
- Leonardo Henrichsen
- Luis Alaniz Álvarez
- Luis Durán Rivas
- Mario Barrios Gallardo
- Mario Calderón Tapia
- Máximo Gedda Ortiz
- Nenad Teodorovic Sertic
- Óscar Castro Videla
- Ricardo Troncoso León
- Richard Montecinos Slaughter
- Sergio Contreras
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Chongyang Zhang is pursuing an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s program in journalism, media and globalisation. His interest lies in the relations among the United States, Latin America and China. He is currently doing an exchange semester at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.