page_title: Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared / Background
caption_attribution_description: Español: Mujeres de la Agrupación de Familiares Desaparecidos se manifiestan frente al Palacio de Gobierno durante el Régimen Militar de Pinochet
context_page_description: The Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared, is a Chilean human rights group that formed in Santiago in 1974 in the wake of detentions and disappearances of thousands of people by the authoritarian military regime of General Augusto Pinochet.
  The main focus of the group was to maintain awareness of the desaparecidos in the public eye, and to pressure the government to release information about them. The goals and pressure brought to bear by the Association played an influential role in the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the reestablishment of democracy in Chile and the 1989 election of President Patricio Aylwin.
context_section_description: On 11 September 1973 a military junta toppled President Salvador Allende in a coup d'état and installed General Augusto Pinochet as head of the new regime. This was a dictatorial, authoritarian regime which trampled on human rights with the use of torture, disappearances, illegal and secret arrest, and extrajudicial killings.  Thousands were being detained, and hundreds killed by the regime.  It was in this context, that the first opposition to the Pinochet regime appeared in 1973, when several religious groups led by the Archdiocese of Santiago organized the Committee of Cooperation for Peace in Chile in 1973 in order to support human rights of those persecuted by the regime of General Augusto Pinochet.
caption: Women of the Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared demonstrate in front of La Moneda Palace during the Pinochet military regime.
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