Testimonios de las víctimas en la construcción de las memorias de la represión en Chile y México

Abstract

The victims’ testimonies have often been fundamental for the reconstruction of experiences and pattern of political repression of the last decades, which is why many truth commissions and other official investigations have used testimonies in their work. This article analyzes the use of the testimonies of the victims in the final reports of the two truth commissions in Chile and the Special Prosecutors Office for Past Social and Political Movements (spo) in Mexico. The three reports use the testimonies in very different ways: the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Chile, for example, gives only a Little space for the testimonies, even though they are used as information sources. In the final report of the second Chilean commission that investigated torture and political imprisonment during the Pinochet dictatorship, the voice of the victims is much more present than in the report of its predecessor. The Mexican Special Prosecutors Office, for its part, uses lots of testimonies, but in many cases in a problematic manner.