Identification of Human Remains (N.N.) at Patio 29, General Cemetery Santiago, Chile, March 2011

After the military coup of 11 September 1973 thousands of suspects and supporters of the Popular Unity government were arrested while hundreds were killed. In many cases the bodies of those who had been arrested, tortured and executed by the military were left on the streets of Santiago or floating on the Mapocho River. Thus, many illegal burials took place without the relatives of the dead knowing what had happened to their relatives or where their bodies had been buried. One of the locations where illegal burials took place more systematically between September 1973 and March 1974 was area 29 of the Santiago General Cemetery where crosses with no name (N.N.) marked the burial place of simple coffins containing sometimes more than one body. This work outlines the new identification of human remains related to the disappeared and the executed during the military regime of Patio 29 of the Santiago General Cemetery announced during March 2011.