Peñalolén, Santiago, Chile: Villa Grimadli was a residential estate turned into a military complex and prison, located in Santiago, Chile. It was used by the military police to detain, torture, and kill thousands of people in the wake of the 1973 coup in which General Pinochet rose to power. Although much of the Villa was destroyed in the final weeks before the regime fell, the remaining structures and gardens have been turned into a peace park, featuring a wall with the names of those who were killed at the Villa and including several gardens for reflection and prayer. The tower, a guard facility into which hundreds disappeared, has been partially reconstructed based on prisoner testimony.
This is a hard place to find. As a result, people tend to go in groups often led by former prisoners. If you read Luz Arce’s EL INFIERNO, a testimonial about her torture at this place, the walk through it seems ghostlike. Without that background, however, it might be hard to imagine its past. Arce talks about smelling the roses while experiencing the trauma of torture. This juxtaposition is odd as one sees remanants of beautiful tile and sees fountains and rose bushes, but hears about the horrors that occurred there.