Child victims are the forgotten voices of Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship from 1973 to 1990

By EVA VERGARA
Associated Press

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — When Augusto Pinochet installed himself as Chile’s dictator in 1973, the age of majority was set at 21 years. But being a minor was no protection from the military dictatorship’s crackdown. Children were killed, detained, tortured, and even used as decoys to detain their parents in the name of the dictatorship’s fight against communism and leftist guerrillas.  The trauma of that period makes many of the young victims reluctant to speak. But according to figures from the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, the military government detained 1,132 minors under 18. Figures from the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission show 307 minors were killed _ or nearly 10% of the deaths attributed to the dictatorship.