Villa Grimaldi

Villa Grimaldi was a complex of buildings used for the interrogation and torture of political prisoners by DINA, the Chilean secret police, during the government of Augusto Pinochet.The complex was located in Penalolen, in the outskirts of Santiago, and was in operation from mid-1974 to mid-1978.The property originally belonged to a wealthy family, whose daughter was arrested by the Army shortly after the coup of 1973. The family surrendered the land to the Army in return for the release of their daughter.

Villa Grimaldi is an extensive plot of land and its buildings, now demolished, were enlarged to accommodate the center’s additional functions. Apparently, the first prisoners arrived in mid-1974 although their volume did not become more regular until later that year. Around the summer of 1975, Villa Grimaldi became the Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade(BIM)'s center of operations, in charge of internal repression in Santiago.