During the early morning of this Saturday unknowns entered the premises of the Site of Memory Ex Clínica Santa Lucia, a torture center operated by dina doctors in dictatorship, and now also headquarters of the Chilean Commission on Human Rights.
According to testimonies the place located in Santiago was found with the door of the street closed and the padlocks intact, however, on the second floor a window would have been forced where the strangers entered. Broken chairs, tools destroyed and, on the third floor – where the Chilean DHRHH Commission is – a broken door, paint on the floor and on stairs.
In the early morning of today, Saturday, March 14, 2020, unknown agents entered the property for the third time. The place was found with the street door closed and the locks intact, while the second floor featured forced metal window laid by protection, broken chairs, destroyed tools and thrown on the floor. On the third floor was the office window open, a broken door, wires in the window, paint on the living room floor and stairs, plus all the offices on the first floor were outraged
“The reiteration of these criminal acts suffered by the historical monument of the Memory Site and the Commission on Human Rights, counting to date, have already been three incomes with great destruction and theft of work material such as computers, projectors, cameras and files among others lost; And
it is also important to mention the attempted abduction that one of our collaborators of the Site suffered,” the Ex Clinic Santa Lucia 162 directory said in a statement.
Lautaro Videla, chairman of the board of the Ex Clínica Santa Lucia Memory Site, commented that the place was intervened for the third by “alleged criminals who curiously damaged the first, second and third floors, where the Chilean DDHH Commission and the Memory Site”.
“Electronics were removed, unnecessary damage was caused, doors were blown up, and we suspect it is an intervention that has a political bias,” he added.
All the offices on the first floor were vandalized and still do not know exactly which items were stolen, that is, the complaint is filed.
“This action would include the fourth complaint, the proceedings of which are in the hands of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and IDP. We express our well-founded suspicion that these actions have rather than criminal motives and call on the political, police and judicial authorities the highest diligence in the face of these suspicious assaults of which we are being subjected”, concluded from St. Lucia 162.
It is worth mentioning that this is on the first Vandalized Memory Site this year. Since 18 October last year, a series of attacks have taken place on various memorials across the country. The last one had been registered in Valdivia, where a memorial of detained missing in military dictatorship was affected located in the municipal cemetery of the capital of the Los Ríos region.
