The Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared (AFDD) ( es, Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos), is a Chilean

human rights group A human rights group, or human rights organization, is a non-governmental organization which advocates for human rights through identification of their violation, collecting incident data, its analysis and publication, promotion of public awareness ...

that formed in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

in 1974 in the wake of detentions and disappearances of thousands of people by the

military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

of General

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

. The main focus of the group was to maintain awareness of the ''desaparecidos'' in the public eye, and to pressure the regime to release information about them. The goals and pressure brought to bear by the Association played an influential role in the establishment of the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

after the reestablishment of democracy in Chile and the 1989 election of President

Patricio Aylwin Patricio Aylwin Azócar (; 26 November 1918 – 19 April 2016) was a Chilean politician from the Christian Democratic Party, lawyer, author, professor and former senator. He was the first president of Chile after dictator Augusto Pinochet, a ...

Background

On 11 September 1973 a

military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...

toppled President

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

in a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

and installed General

as head of the new regime. This was a dictatorial, authoritarian regime which trampled on human rights with the use of torture, disappearances, illegal and secret arrest, and extrajudicial killings. Thousands were being detained, and hundreds killed by the regime. It was in this context, that the first opposition to the Pinochet regime appeared in 1973, when several religious groups led by the Archdiocese of Santiago organized the

Committee of Cooperation for Peace in Chile The Committee of Cooperation for Peace in Chile ( es, Comité de Cooperación para la Paz) was a Chilean Peace committee, peace organization founded in October 1973 by an inter-religious group led by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago de ...

in 1973 in order to support human rights of those persecuted by the

regime of General Augusto Pinochet In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan J ...

Founding

At the end of 1974, a group of mostly women applied to the

to find out the whereabouts of their missing family members, the ''

desaparecidos An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a State (polity), state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or po ...

'' (Engl: the ''disappeared''), who had been detained or killed by the brutal Pinochet regime. The new Association coalesced unofficially out of this group of people.

Clotario Blest Clotario Leopoldo Blest Riffo (; 17 November 1899 – 31 May 1990) was a Chilean social activist and labor union leader. Blest was one of the founders of Agrupación Nacional de Empleados Fiscales (ANEF), Central Única de Trabajadores (CUT), R ...

formally established the Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared in 1975 out of his home in central Santiago. Memorial Detenidos Desaparecidos Régimen Militar Chile

Memorial Detenidos Desaparecidos Régimen Militar Chile

Activities

After the opening of the notorious detention centers like

Tres Álamos Tres Alamos was a political prison camp that operated during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. This enclosure was operational between 1974 and 1976. Being the last camp of political prisoners. Its main importance was that t ...

failed to produce any leads about their missing kin, they staged several hunger strikes to pressure the government into giving out information. In 1978,

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

and the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

became involved, and sent information about 613 cases to the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

but there was no reply. In December, bodies of some of the ''desaparecidos'' were found in Lonquén. They had been seen being taken away by uniformed men in 1973. In February 1979, the group made a pilgrimage to the site where the bodies had been found. In order to try to pressure the government to release information, members of the group chained themselves to the fence of the National Congress, where the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

was located. There was no response from the government.

Return to Democracy

The

Chilean return to democracy The Chilean transition to democracy is the name given to the process of restoration of democracy carried out in Chile after the end of the military dictatorship of Pinochet, in 1990, and particularly to the first two democratic terms that suc ...

culminated in March 1990 with the election of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

. The Association was represented in the ceremonies on inauguration day, March 11, 1990, and in the celebrations at the National Stadium of Chile the next day. The pressure they applied for information about the ''desparecidos'' played a key role in the establishment of the

under the new administration. During the period of military rule under the Pinochet government, the Association never ceased searching for information about the detention and destiny of their family members, in the face of continual silence or rebuffs from the government. With the advent of democracy, this goal did not change but now that they had a democratically elected president sympathetic to their goals, the focus of how best to achieve their goals shifted. Both the Association and the new government sought a public airing of the facts of disappearances as state policy during the Pinochet years, establishment of human rights as a basic value and distinguishing factor between dictatorship and democracy. But they didn't agree on how best to advance and balance the goals of truth and justice. In addition to continuing their public demonstrations to raise and maintain awareness, they now also held meetings with high officials, including Justice Minister Cumplido, Interior Minister Krauss, and President Aylwin. Aylwin strongly supported the Commission, which exposed the government's brutal repression of its citizens during the military dictatorship.

References

External links

1975 establishments in Chile Human rights organisations based in Chile {{Chile-hist-stub