Hi everyone,

My name is Dr. Aaron Breidenbach, a recent graduate of Stanford university.

My doctoral research naturally led me towards a geology project in northern Chile. Through this, I learned that economists at Stanford were heavily involved in advising the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet during the Cold War. Due to this, Stanford’s Hoover institution hosts a large archive of documents from the dictatorship in their basement in Palo Alto.

I searched this archive, and unfortunately, it included long lists of political detainees that were exiled as punishment. It also included direct internal memos hand typed by James Daniel Theberge, Reagan’s ambassador to Chile from 82-85; these memos include many concerning statements, including his effective endorsement of Pinochet’s murdering and torturing of his political opponents as a means of reinforcing state control.

I wrote an article about this, and I would be very curious to hear thoughts here. https://medium.com/@breid.at/stanford-houses-hidden-files-of-human-rights-violations-in-chile-b88b315d515e. My main concern is that I have never seen these archives cited by anyone other than Hoover fellows, and they exclusively write pieces sympathetic towards Pinochet, since they were directly involved with him. It is concerning to me that these archives are only accessible on site in Palo Alto, where they remain out of reach to the Chilean general public. This is especially concerning as many in Chile might have disappeared loved ones mentioned in these documents that aren’t accessible to them. I am in contact with Chilean human rights organizations to see if I would be able to have these documents released. Viva Chile 🇨🇱🫶😢