In September 1973, a violent coup d’état ended President Salvador Allende’s government and established a right-wing state in Chile. Democratic institutions across the nation were closed and replaced by a brutal military dictatorship, launching a campaign of repression and systematic elimination of opponents to the state. Thousands of citizens were detained and “disappeared” while others survived the clandestine centers of detention and torture during the 17-year period of state terrorism.
Founded in 1996, Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi (Villa Grimaldi Park for Peace Corporation) strives to preserve the historical memory of Villa Grimaldi and other centers of torture and detention, to promote a culture of human rights, to organizes a wide variety cultural, social, political, religious and other types of activities to achieve these goals, and to manage, conserve and promote the Parque de la Paz (Park for Peace), established in 1997 for the benefit of the community of Peñalolén in Santiago, Chile. In 2004, the National Monument Board declared Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi an Historic Monument, in recognition of its historic value as the only clandestine detention center to be recovered and preserved in Latin America.
Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi is a member of the International Network for Peace which grew out of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows International Conference held in 2006. Its Director, Marcia Scantlebury represented the organization at the conference. A journalist by trade, Marcia was arrested, tortured and held in various concentration camps in 1975, during the dictatorial rule of General Augusto Pinochet. While in exile, she lived in Colombia where she joined the International League of Women for Peace and Disarmament, Costa Rica where she earned a postgraduate degree in Human Rights and Rome where she participated in a world-wide anti death-penalty campaign promoted by the Catholic Community.
Since returning to Chile in 1987, she has worked for Analysis Magazine (a means of resistance against the dictatorship), The Agreement for the Plebiscite (the opposition coalition), and for the campaign that brought the first democratic President, Patricio Aylwin, to power. Marcia has served as the Press Secretary for presidential candidates and as the Director of Culture for the Chilean government. She is also a member of The Pro Disarmament, Integration, and Latin American Development Women’s Organization.
Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi
Avenida José Arrieta 8401
Peñalolen, Santiago
Chile
Tel: +56-2-273-6543
