A dozen streets, squares, and bridges are to be renamed this year to honor victims of the dictatorship. The public spaces are to carry the name of human rights activists and detained, disappeared, and executed people. Among the proposed changes are prominent streets like General Bulnes and Huérfanos.
Last week, several organizations and human rights collectives that form part of the committee organizing the commemoration of the coup in Santiago, presented a proposal to change several names, squares, and bridges in the municipality, CNN Chile writes.
The proposed names correspond to either victims of the dictatorship or human rights activists. The streets slated for name changes are places where human rights violations took place during the dictatorship, said the committee, which seeks to give more visibility to the atrocities committed during the dictatorship.
If agreed upon by authorities, some prominent streets, such as General Bulnes, Huérfanos, and Rosas will be renamed. The municipality, led by Communist mayor Irací Hassler, is expected to decide later this week. The committee proposes the following changes:
- Part of Calle Santa Monica: Jaime Castillo Velasco (founder of the Chilean Human Rights Commission (CCHDH)).
- The first two blocks of Calle Maule: Carlos Lorca Tobar (detainee disappeared in 1975).
- The eighth block of Calle Delfina: Alicia Aguilar Carvajal (a six-year-old executed in 1973).
- Part of Calle Aconcagua: Carlos Humberto Contreras Maluje (arrested and disappeared in 1976).
- General Bulnes, between Alameda and La Moneda: Jécar Antonio Nehgme Cristi (executed in 1989).
- A part of Calle Huérfanos: Patricio Bunster Briceño (former director of the Chilean National Ballet).
- A part of Plazoleta: Carolina Wiff Sepúlveda (detainee disappeared in 1975).
- Another part of Plazoleta: Lincoyán Berríos Cataldo (executed).
- Puente Loreto: Puente Ronald Wood (executed in 1986).
- Part of Calle Manuel de Amat Street: Elisa del Carmen Escobar Cepeda (disappeared in 1976)
- Rosas, between Morandé and Teatinos: Littré Quiroga Carvajal (executed in 1973).
- Calle Namur Street: Ida Amelia Vera Almarza (detainee disappeared in 1976).
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Editor-In-Chief Boris van der Spek is the founder of Chile Today.