Pedro Matta
Pedro Alejandro Matta was a student leader at the Law School of the University of Chile in Santiago when the coup de etat of September 14, 1973, overthrew the democratically elected government of President Salvador Allende. He was a member of the Socialist Youth, which was among President Allende’s party.
In May 1975, Matta was arrested, taken to two different torture centers and imprisoned for more than 13 months. He was never brought before a court of law or charged with any crime. He is one of the survivors of the notorious torture center known as Villa Grimaldi.
After he was released from prison in July 1976, Matta immigrated to the United States, where he was acknowledged as a political prisoner and granted asylum. Matta testified before the United Nations Commission of Human Rights about abuses and violations of human rights in Chile during the Commission’s 1976 sessions.
Matta became a successful private investigator in San Francisco and returned to Chile in 1991 after 15 years of exile. Since his return, he has put his detective skills at the service of human rights, documenting the abuses of torture centers and advocating remembrances as a way to confront the past to prepare a better future.
Through his research of Villa Grimaldi, Matta produced documentation of the torture that transpired at the center during the dictatorship. His work brought to light those who were killed at Villa Grimaldi, and honor to their memory by etching their names in the Memory Wall.
Matta tours universities in the United States lecturing on human rights issues and more precisely on contemporary Chilean history and the transition from dictatorship to democracy. Since 2000, Matta has held the post of director of the Trinity-in-Santiago, a study abroad program of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, with a strong emphasis in Latin America Contemporary History and Human Rights.