«Museum of Memory and Human Rights»
The “Museum of Memory and Human Rights” in Santiago is the first museum in Latin America – and, for the moment, the only one – dealing with the dark side of history: in this case, the Chilean military dictatorship between 1973 and 1990. This new museum will take Chile into the circle of those countries wishing to preserve upright the memory of violence and human rights violations. Similar efforts can be found in the in the United States (the Martin Luther King, Jr., Human Rights Museum), Senegal (the House of Slaves) and Russia (the Gulagmuseum).
The museum was opened in January by then-President Bachelet, and had a cost of 12,000 million Chilean Pesos (about €18 million). The museum includes a collection of historical documents, as well as audio and film material, both from and about the victims of the military dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet.
The museum will serve as an important contribution to public debate in Chile, where, even twenty years after its end, the dictatorship remains controversial.
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