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MELINKA (PUCHUNCAVI)
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"It is hard to understand how there can be so much hatred, but we were capable of resorting to fundamental values that restored our dignity. Those of us who went through that experience agree that it was an education. We honored life by knowing how to live and get along under those circumstances."
(Baldovino Gómez, Melinka survivor as cited in Analisis #289, 1989)
Location:
In the town of Puchuncavi, a few meters from the highway, in the province of Valparaiso. The government of Salvador Allende built Melinka as a "popular beach resort," for low-income families. Similar in structure to Ritoque, it was owned by the central labor confederation, CUT, before being taken over by the military.
Duration:
July 1974 until 1975 Prisoners: Immediately upon opening Melinka as a concentration camp, 58 prisoners from the Chile Stadium were brought there. In October 1974, more prisoners were transferred from Chacabuco.
Conditions:
The camp was comprised of five blocks containing 10 cabins each, with separate bathrooms, a common dining room and a nurse's station. Each cabin held seven prisoners. The Melinka prisoners were highly organized. In addition to camp-related activities such as a seniors' council, workshops, theater and sports, political parties functioned clandestinely and managed to communicate with the world outside the camp. As a result, about 100 Melinka prisoners were quick to organize a hunger strike to protest the case of 119 disappeared persons reported to be dead abroad. Upon hearing the news, the prisoners wrote a letter to the guards stating that they would not report for meals until the situation of the 119 people, many of whom the prisoners had shared the secret prisons with, was clarified.
The guard in charge called all the prisoners to formation and threatened the hunger strikers with severe reprisals if they went ahead with their proposal. Nonetheless, 96 men disregarded the threats and proceeded with the hunger strike. They were separated from the rest of the prisoners and put into isolation. The hunger strike was called off when Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez promised to meet with the government to clear up the issue of the "list of 119." The hunger strikers were later split up into different camps.
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