Chilean President Gabriel Boric, right, in conversation with Italian President Sergio Mattarella during his visit to the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Mattarella is in Chile from two days before traveling to Paraguay. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric, left, walks with Italian President Sergio Mattarella during his visit to the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Mattarella is in Chile for two days before traveling to Paraguay. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
After the military coup in Chile, in September 1973, Italy lowered the level of its representation in the Chilean capital from ambassador to charge d’affaires. In addition, the Italian embassy granted asylum to hundreds of Chileans.
During a joint statement, Boric thanked Mattarella for the fact that the Italian embassy in Santiago maintains a memorial in memory of the young Lumi Videla. The militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) was assassinated by the repressive police of the dictatorship and her remains were thrown over a wall towards the gardens of the Italian embassy.
Mattarella will deposit a rose on Wednesday before the monument and the olive grove that inside the diplomatic headquarters remember the young woman. The tribute will be “one of the most significant moments” of her visit, says a statement from the embassy.
Videla, 26 years old and the mother of a son, was arrested on September 21, 1974 and was not heard from again until the early hours of November 4, when her body was thrown inside the embassy, where some 250 Chileans they had taken refuge to escape into exile, according to what the then young Italian diplomat Emilio Barbarani recounted years later in his memoirs.
The Rettig report, which quantified human rights violations in Chile, indicates that one day after Videla’s arrest, her husband, Sergio Pérez, also a MIR militant, was arrested. Videla died during a torture session, while Pérez joined the list of disappeared detainees. The dictatorship was looking for the top head of the MIR, who died in a confrontation in October.
The Italian president – a figure in Italy different from the head of the government, which is held by the prime minister – recalled that his country welcomed “a large number of persecuted” Chileans after the irruption of the military dictatorship (1973-1990).
Before his meeting with Boric, the Italian president visited the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, which recalls the serious human rights violations during the Chilean military regime.
Chile and Italy have a long list of agreements – dating from the beginning of the 20th century – in scientific, economic, environmental and cultural areas, among others. Two memorandums were signed on Tuesday, one on sustainable development and a second on diplomatic training.
Before leaving Chile for Paraguay, Mattarella will give a talk on Wednesday at the University of Chile entitled “Latin America and Europe: two continents united for peace, democracy, development.”
FUENTE: Associated Press
