An infiltration of organisations, schools, universities and workplaces, followed by clever, cynical misinformation and manipulation over a period of months or years must take place to undermine support for the elected regime, eventually leading to a collapse of infrastructure and widespread disillusionment among the people.

Then comes the visible strike to topple the government and install the puppet leader, usually a high ranking military officer. Simultaneously, or following very quickly on the heels of the takeover, begins the repression of any resistance to the new regime. Initially this is swift, brutal and widespread, to knock out any actual or potential resistance. Intellectuals, political activists and dissenters are rounded up and dealt with harshly to gain information about others not supportive of the new regime, and to instil terror in the population at large.

Torture doesn’t just happen. It is planned and prepared for in advance. Personnel need training, dehumanising and reprogramming in order to be able to carry out inhuman acts of violence, humiliation and – ultimately – systematised, cold-blooded murder of thousands of people. Locations need to be found, taken over and converted for their intended use.

Tejas Verdes used to be a luxury hotel in Santiago before the coup. It was taken over by Pinochet’s thugs and turned into a torture centre. Over 1000 similar torture centres were established all over Chile.

The torture started on 11th September 1973 and continued well into the 1980s. Over 300,000 men, women and children were tortured.

The play Tejas Verdes explores the effect of torture at the personal, human, individual level through the eyes of five characters, each one involved in torture in a different way, each one linked to the others by torture’s far-reaching tentacles.

Zyg Staniaszek