Pedro Matta, a former torture
victim and political prisoner of Chile's
Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), will speak on Tuesday, May 4, at 7 p.m. in the Reamer Campus Center Auditorium.
His presentation will be, “Chile
after Pinochet: Human Rights, Justice, and the Struggle against Impunity.”
Matta was a law student in 1975
when he was arrested for organizing against the Pinochet military dictatorship.
Once a target for the Pinochet regime's political violence, he was imprisoned
and tortured by the secret police at the infamous Villa Grimaldi then sent into
exile.
Matta was a private investigator while
living in exile in the U.S.
Since returning to Chile,
he uses those skills to hunt down torturers still running free. He compiles
files that one day may serve the cause of justice in trials.
He lives in Santiago,
Chile, where he directs Trinity
College's “Trinity in Santiago,”
a program largely based on human rights education.
Matta travels extensively and
addresses the issues of political violence, torture, reconciliation and
impunity. He has said, “To rebuild a really democratic society, you have to
rebuild according to your history. You cannot erase your history.”