Patio 29

Patio 29 (Spanish: Yard 29) is a common grave site in Santiago General Cemetery in Chile, where political prisoners, especially those who "disappeared" during the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, were buried anonymously.

The mass grave, the largest of Augusto Pinochet's military government, was used for unannounced and unmarked burials in the 1970s until an anonymous tip alerted the public to its usage.

[2] In 1979, the Vicariate of Solidarity, the Catholic Church's human rights office, received information regarding illegal burials of six victims from Paine, Chile in a section of Santiago's main cemetery, known as Patio 29;[3] this led to a court investigation which revealed that Patio 29 had been used to anonymously bury the unmarked bodies of executed political prisoners between 1970 and 1980,[4] especially those kidnapped during the 1973 coup.

[7] Following the end of military rule and return of democracy to Chile in 1990, investigation of human rights violations became a top priority.

The commission's February 1991 Rettig Report named victims disappeared shortly after the coup, executed by gunshot, and presumed to be buried in Patio 29.

[9] In September 1991, two judges on cases by the Vicariate and family of disappeared leftist leader Bautista van Schouwen issued court orders to begin research projects to exhume and identify the graves.

[10] Skepticism about the matches' veracity emerged in 2003, and the institute's own DNA testing in 2005 revealed a project rife with mistakes and exaggerated certainty:[14] 48 bodies were wrongly identified and 37 more were doubted.

[19] The Council chose the site for its proof of the Pinochet military government's elaborate procedures used to conceal the disappeared's bodies and their identities.

[21] Patio 29 is a common grave site in Santiago General Cemetery where the victims of mutilation, torture, and execution under the Pinochet military government were buried.

[7] Augusto Pinochet came to power in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, where he led the army that attacked the presidential palace and overthrew President Salvador Allende.

[24] The annual protests against the 11 September 1973 coup start at the then-besieged La Moneda presidential palace and conclude here in the General Cemetery.