The family who found sanctuary in Wales after fleeing a dictator
Jose Cifuentes tells Robert Dalling how he suffered torture at the hands of General Pinochet’s military dictatorship before starting a new life in Wales...
JOSE CIFUENTES found himself imprisoned and tortured just for standing up for what he believed in.
The now 68-year-old grew up in Chile at a time of revolutionary hope for a fairer society, one in which everyone would share in the country’s wealth.
In 1970, Salvador Allende was elected as President, leading the progressive, left-wing Popular Unity government.
Mr Cifuentes and his partner and companera Maria Cristina, as student activists, worked to help poor people improve their lives by securing basic decent housing and food on the table.
But on September 11, 1973, a military coup put an end to their hopes and dreams and those of millions of ordinary Chileans.
The coup was supported by the rich, by multi-national companies and by the government and secret services of the USA under President Nixon.
President Allende was murdered, and a brutal military dictatorship led by General Pinochet began to hunt down everyone who supported the ideals of Popular Unity.
Many thousands of people were detained with no legal process, abused and tortured, and many were killed or disappeared without trace.
Mr Cifuentes was imprisoned and tortured, and then spent years on the run.
Describing how he was tortured, he writes in his book: “I was beaten while they shouted insults and forced me to answer whether I liked the soldier who was beating me.”
He said he was subsequently forced to run up and down an empty swimming pool, the sides of which were covered in blood, before having a gun barrel placed in his mouth.
“Minutes after that mock execution they handed me over to some young officers who used my body as a punchbag and then used my head to practice their drumming technique while they beat me with their truncheons.”
He was then taken to prison which he described as “like a horror story”.
“There, I was interrogated with the aid of electric shocks to my head.”
After being freed, he and Maria Cristina worked in Santiago for the committee for peace and the vicarage of solidarity, the only organisations in Chile which documented human rights abuses and supported the families of victims.
Finally, the danger was too great, and Mr Cifuentes and their baby daughter Rocio were among those who were lucky enough to find sanctuary abroad, coming to Swansea in 1977 where they have remained since.
Mr Cifuentes has relived his ordeal in a book called Revolutionary Dreams From Chile To Wales, something which chronicles his time in the country and how life has changed for him since.
He explained: “It’s a story which is uncommon. It was very therapeutic to go back to those days 45 years ago when I was a lot younger, trying to place myself in those days, trying to create a much better, fairer world.
“What we went through was something no ordinary person could grasp. It is something extraordinary in terms of the brutality, illegality and cruelty of knowing through no fault of your own, your life is at risk 24 hours a day, every day, every month.
“Nobody could say I’m safe, any person, you could disappear at any time. It happened to many close friends, women, old, young, it didn’t matter. We have been extremely lucky.”
A passage from the book gives a candid glimpse into what Mr Cifuentes, now living in Gower Road, Killay , was faced with.
It reads: “From that moment I learnt what it meant to live in hiding under a military dictatorship. I would go on to hear my mother begging me to hand myself over to the military authorities, naively believing this would protect me.
“I would experience the assassination in cold blood of many of my companeros, as well as torture and exile. My dreams, and those of millions of other Chileans, were shattered by the force of the bullets, the tanks and the fascist military boots.”
Life was completely different once they arrived on Welsh soil.
The book explains: “Without realising it, we soon started to make this land our second homeland.
“In Swansea, we began to see our baby daughter Rocio grow, together with her Welsh brother, Aleri Gerald, who was born in Mount Pleasant hospital on August 25, 1979.
“Later we would see the arrival of our grandchildren. Thanks to the acceptance, affection and support of friends, colleagues and the people of Swansea, we started to develop our own bonds with this land and its people.”
Mr Cifuentes has revisited Chile since and said he had noticed a lot of changes.
He said: “I’m pleased to say it’s a much more civilised society and it seems a much more civilised Government.
“I presented the book to the people which was a very emotional moment but equally nice being able to go back to them and remember those who did so much trying to create a different world.”
■ Revolutionary Dreams from Chile to Wales by Jose Cifuentes is available at Colliers Photographic Emporium & Services at Sketty Road in Uplands. All proceeds from the book go to Swansea Bay Asylum Support Group.