All the horror of Pinochet's dictatorship fits on a mother-of-pearl button

"Villa Grimaldi was one of the most symbolic torture and extermination centers of Augusto Pinochet's regime (1973-1990). Since 1997, it's been a museum. There, visitors can see a railway track that's been preserved: the bodies of victims of state terrorism were tied to it, before they were thrown into the sea. Of the hundreds of corpses dropped into the Pacific, only one surfaced, in September of 1976: that of Marta Lidia Ugarte Roman, who was murdered at the age of 42."

"However, another piece of evidence exists: a small button, almost fused with the iron, rusted after years at sea. This discovery is the focus of Patricio Guzman's powerful documentary, The Pearl Button (2015). It's the last memento of a human being who was disappeared by the dictatorship, and it's proof of the long period of repression, during which at least 3,200 Chileans were murdered. Contemplating it in one of the rooms of Villa Grimaldi, enlarged by a magnifying glass, opens the door to the abyss that represented the years of death under Pinochet."

Massive human rights violations occurred during the Chilean military dictatorship, with Villa Grimaldi serving as a major torture and extermination center. The site has been a museum since 1997 and preserves objects and evidence such as a railway track where victims were tied before being thrown into the sea. Of hundreds of corpses dumped into the Pacific, only one surfaced in 1976. A small, rusted mother-of-pearl button recovered after years at sea stands as a tangible memento of the disappeared and as evidence of a repression that claimed at least 3,200 Chilean lives. Numerous memorial sites across Santiago commemorate the victims.

Read at english.elpais.com