Pedro Alejandra Matta, a leader of ex-political
prisoners and victims of torture during Augusto Pinochet's regime in
Chile, is making a rare North American appearance on April 4 and 5.
On Wednesday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's
Reamer Auditorium, Matta will present a public lecture titled,
“Memories of Torture: An ex-political prisoner describes life and
death in Pinochet's prisons.” The lecture will feature slides of
Chilean torture centers and a discussion of Matta's efforts to bring
Pinochet and other military leaders to justice.
Matta has been an outspoken advocate for bringing the
Pinochet regime to justice for their alleged human rights abuses. He
helped to compile the charges that formed part of the extradition case
attempting to bring Pinochet to justice in Spain. That effort was
unsuccessful; Pinochet was allowed last month to leave England, where he
had been under house arrest.
Matta was a student leader in the law school at the
University of Chile, Santiago, in 1973 when Pinochet overthrew the
Salvador Allende government. He was arrested after the coup and taken to
two different torture centers (during which time he was
“disappeared”) and then imprisoned until 1976. At the request of
the U.S. Justice department in 1976, Matta and 200 other political
prisoners were released from Chilean jails and granted exile in the U.S.
Matta lived in California and New York before returning to Chile in 1988,
two years before the end of Pinochet's regime.
Matta's visit, which is part of Union's
commemoration of Latino Heritage Month, is sponsored by the College's
History Department, Amnesty International chapter, ALAS (African and
Latino Alliance of Students) and CELA (Circulo Estudiantil Latino
Americano).