Carmen Quintana: Set on fire by Pinochet's soldiers
9 September 2013
Last updated at 19:41 ET
By Mike Lanchin
BBC World Service
... It was 2 July 1986, the first of two days of nationwide strikes in Chile against Augusto Pinochet's rule.
Eighteen-year-old Carmen was a serious young woman with thick bushy hair, from a left-wing family fiercely opposed to the Pinochet regime. From an early age she had gone with her parents on anti-government demonstrations - and had witnessed first-hand the repression meted out by the feared Carabineros, Pinochet's jackbooted police ...
"They grabbed Rodrigo first and threw him to the ground, kicking him. They put me up against the wall and searched me. I could see Rodrigo lying there, bleeding. They said to me, 'What were you doing, where were you going?' I said, 'Going to the university, to study.' They swore at me and hit me with the butt of their machine guns. I began to cry."
Another group of soldiers then appeared, carrying a couple of tyres and a bottle of kerosene. "So this is what you were up to, right?" one of the soldiers said ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24014543
