Pisagua Prison Camp

The Pisagua Memorial in 2007.

The Pisagua Prison Camp (Spanish: Campamento de Prisioneros de Pisagua) was a concentration camp in Pisagua, Chile.

History

An isolated location in northern Chile, Pisagua was used as a detention site for male homosexuals under the military regime of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo in 1927-1931.[1]

In the 1940s, Pisagua became the site of wartime internment for citizens of enemy nations when Chile entered the Second World War on the Allied side. The complex was turned into a concentration camp for Chilean communists under President Gabriel González Videla in 1947-1948. Chilean Army Captain Augusto Pinochet was appointed to run the Pisagua Camp in January 1948.

Military Regime to Present

When General Pinochet himself seized power in September 1973, the site again became a political detention center.

In the 1990s, the Pisagua court case would draw further scrutiny to the prison camp when a claim of illegal burial was presented by the Chilean Vicariate of Solidarity on 31 May 1990.[2] A mass grave was discovered in June 1990 and was found to contain 20 bodies inside.[3] These would be later linked to prisoners and missing persons (desaparecidos) executed at the camp.

Identified Persons from Mass Grave (June 6, 1990)

Order of Discovery[3] Name[3]
1Manuel Eduardo Sanhueza Mellado
2Nicolas Chanez Chanez
3Tomas Orlando Cabello Cabello
4Luis Manriquez Wilde
5Juan Orlando Rojas Osega
6Hugo Tomas Martinez Guillen
7Alberto Amador Yañez Carvajal
8Luis Alberto Toro Castillo
9Nelson Jose Marquez Agusto
10German Elidio Palominos Lamas
11Juan Apolinario Mamani Garcia
12Jose Rufino Cordova Croxatto
13Juan Valencia Hinojosa
14Julio Cesar Cabezas Gacitua
15Mario Morris Barrios
16Humberto Lizardo Flores
17Luis Alberto Lizardi Lizardi
18Marcelo Omar Guzman Fuentes
19Juan Efrain Calderon Villalon
20*Not confirmed by source

See also

The Pisagua Court Case

Footnotes

  1. Spooner 2011, p. 58
  2. "El Hallazgo de la Fosa". Memoria Viva. Retrieved 4 July 2012.(Spanish)
  3. 1 2 3 "Plano de la fosa común en el cementerio de Pisagua". Memoria Viva. Retrieved 10 May 2013.(Spanish)

References

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