On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the civil-military coup d’état, a commemorative event for International Human Rights Day will be held in the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park, next Sunday 10th December 2023, at 10am.
At the event, a plaque will be unveiled for the Humanist Party Deputy, Laura Rodríguez Riccomini, who served in the former 24th district of Peñalolén and La Reina, between 1990 and 1992.

With this Ceremony, a recognition will be made of the contribution of our Deputy, who, hearing the clamour of the neighbours of her district, carried out, on the one hand, nonviolent actions together with the inhabitants of the district and with Human Rights groups, to materially recover this site of memory, entering and installing herself on the land; and, on the other hand, it negotiated with the Chamber of Deputies and the Ministry of National Property, so that this space would become not only a place to remember those who suffered the atrocities committed by the dictatorship, but also a Public Park for Peace, for the education and dissemination of Human Rights, allowing the commemoration, teaching, recreation and reaffirmation of Life and Peace, as fundamental values of society.

We hope that this milestone will contribute to join forces in the direction of always defending Human Rights, so violated in times of dictatorship and threatened nowadays. As Laura said, “Human Rights do not belong to the past, they are there in the future guiding our project of society and democracy”.

We recognise that having an International Human Rights Day is a step in the right direction, however, Human Rights today are by no means aspirational, they are rather aspirations, they are inspirations of humanity, which can become rights, to the extent that there is a change that allows the overcoming of human pain and suffering. This world date shows us a path, it contributes to a horizon, but it still requires much effort to become a reality.
This 10 December, in the current Peace Park, a place that was once a detention, torture and death centre during the civil-military dictatorship, and on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état, there will be a ceremony, an important event, where a book will be launched telling the story of Villa Grimaldí, including how this place became a Peace Park.

It is in this context that recognition will be given to the person who was a protagonist in the recovery of this place, which is certainly good for everyone to know, it was the first place of memory recovered after the dictatorship in Latin America, so it also marked a historical footprint, and additionally, a footprint as a place of memory, which is proposed as a public space for the future, where these fundamental values that have to do with the best human aspirations, based precisely on the struggle for human rights in our society and for the whole world, will be promoted.

So this part of the story is going to be told, which for us who are humanists, who share the current of opinion of Universalist Humanism, in its different social, intellectual, cultural, political and spiritual translations, of which Laura Rodríguez was part as a member of the Humanist Party, is a significant moment, which moves us and brings us together.

And so, Laura is a reference point for us, as hers is a demonstration effect of what we humanists think the public role of someone who is elected by a social base should be. Such an affirmation is valid in those acts of hearing from neighbours as a candidate, arriving and taking material possession of a space together with the people once elected, and then taking office to effectively manage an issue so significant to the social base you represent. This description, which should be the norm, is unfortunately the exception in the behaviour of the people’s representatives. That is why it became a reference not only for those who lived through it, but also for us and for the new generations of the country.

The Villa de Grimaldi Peace Park will have a plaque honouring the Humanist Party deputy Laura Rodriguez, which can be visited at any time after, whenever anyone requires, as the Park is a public space.

Collaborator: Leticia García Farías; M. Angélica Alvear Montecinos; Guillermo Garcés Parada and César Anguita Sanhueza. Public Opinion Commission