Studia Historica: Historia Contemporánea (May 2011)
An «Embarrassing and Indecent» Topic: The Public Debate around Sexual Violence in Post-Authoritarian Chile
Abstract
The essay provides with some insights around the topic of sexual violence to women involved in politics during general Augusto Pinochet military rule (1973-1990). Not only it is meant to describe the phenomenon in quantitative and qualitative terms, but also to delve into the realm of the social actors who, in several moments and contexts, identify rape as a specific type of torture, different from other human rights violations. This practice finds its roots well before the coup, in long duration processes and especially in domestic violence, but reaches its climax after 1973, extending into politics and blurring the boundaries between public and private sphere. Elaborating this theme today, either for individuals and in the collective debate, seems to be extremely difficult and controversial: maybe it constitutes one of the most thorny issues of the ‘history of present time’ in contemporary Chile.
