Letter of Valentina Palma Novoa

Santiago de Chile, winter 2006

They sent me a letter in the early mail/ in this letter they told me my brother was in jail/ that without pity and with crickets in the street they dragged him… I find myself so far away/ waiting for news/ a letter tells me that in my country there's no justice… (The Letter, Violeta Parra)

My name is Valentina, Valentina Palma Novoa. Time has passed, I turned 31 years old, I am a Chilean film student who was kidnapped, tortured, sexually abused and then unjustly deported, for the simple act of filming documentary images of what happened in Atenco on the 3rd and 4th of May. I received no explanation, only mistreatment.

I would like to take advantage of this opportunity, today on Thursday, June 29th in the reading of the report concerning Atenco that has been elaborated by the International Commission on Human Rights, to, despite the distance that has been arbitrarily imposed upon me, be with you all and share a few feelings and reflections that, with the passing of time, have rolling around in my heart-head and today transform in words.

Democracies, they say, are based in dialogue, in the coexistence of the word, of the different words and voices that inhabitant the world… Is it then in the name of democracy that they abuse the body, the space of others? Is it in the name of democracy that they treat women as liars who with our words have reported the abuse of which we were objects? Is it in the name of democracy there are still innocent women in jail? Is it in the name of democracy that now we should stand the dreams where the mistreatments and tortures prolong? Is it in the name of democracy that I should accept that a handful of men decide over my life which has cost me so much work to put together and which, from one day to the next, without any explanation, is robbed from me? If this is so, excuse me, here or there, I prefer chaos to this false democracy.

"No to torture, no to impunity" is a phrase that since I was a little girl and for having lived in the dictatorship I always heard… Now that I'm grown up, and live in these supposed democracies, it's a slogan that continues to be valid despite the fact that our governments sign human rights agreements to rise in the ranks of human development and better life conditions.

I welcome the results of this report about Human Rights, hoping that from this forced distance, it will be received by open and noble hearts that have the word justice more in their personal dictionaries than the word impunity.

With a warm hug despite my winter
Sincerely,

Valentina Palma Novoa