For nearly 20 years, the women of Calama traveled into the desert each day to search for their loved ones — their husbands and partners who were ripped from them, detained, tortured, executed, and disappeared in the weeks following Chile’s US-backed 1973 coup d’état.

Monday through Sunday, sun-up to sundown, they scoured the harsh desert earth with strainers and rakes, searching and hoping.

And finally, in 1990, on the edge of a hillside overlooking the expansive Atacama desert, the women found fragments of bones and pieces of teeth. This was the location their loved ones had laid buried for 17 years. 

This is the May Week of the Disappeared — a week to remember and honor those who have been forcibly disappeared and the fight for truth and justice for their families.

This is episode 38 of Stories of Resistance—a podcast co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Independent investigative journalism, supported by Global Exchange's Human Rights in Action program. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times.
If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review.

You can also follow Michael Fox’s reporting and support his work and this podcast at www.patreon.com/mfox.

Written and produced by Michael Fox.

Resources:
Filmmaker Patricio Guzman’s masterpiece of a documentary, Nostalgia for the Light:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1556190/
Spanish singer, Victory Manuel wrote a song for the Women of Calama:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pkzzsK-uuA
Mujer de Calama Afeddep Calama Dictadura Chile:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6hG5m3BYhw
Acto de conmemoración de Afeddep a 45 años del paso de la Caravana de la Muerte por Calama:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__pUZR-68OE
Memorial for the Disappeared Detainees of Calama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2D6-es9Nnw

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