Sexual violence was an institutionalised aspect of torture under Pinochet and has been reported by nearly all female survivors. But perhaps as a result of society’s failure to fully reckon with this legacy, post-transition Chile has also been slow to prevent political sexual violence.

In November 2016, the Chilean Parliament passed a law on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Although this law makes reference to pain or suffering of a sexual nature, women survivors have lobbied successive governments since 2014 for separate legislation classifying political sexual violence as a distinct crime. Bataszew, one of the leaders of the Colectivo Mujeres Sobrevivientes Siempre Resistentes (Collective of Always Resisting Women Survivors), insists that such a law is necessary to prosecute past crimes and prevent them from being repeated today.

The Colectivo is perhaps the most vocal survivors’ group reclaiming Venda Sexy as a site of memory and denouncing its recent sale. Survivors’ groups, academics, and activists, among others, have proposed several ideas for the future of the property if the State manages to acquire it and make it available as a site of memory, similar to Londres 38, another former torture house. Bataszew imagines that Venda Sexy would be primarily run by women and envisages a broad consultation among survivor and feminist groups to decide the use of the building in detail.

The Colectivo is campaigning side-by-side with the Coordinadora Feminista 8M (Feminist Coordinator 8M). The latter is an eclectic group of females of all ages, from secondary school pupils to retirees, demanding women’s rights and gender equality. Formed in 2018, the Coordinadora has organised a “Feminist General Strike” on International Women’s Day (8th March) for two years running. This year’s demonstration, named “Super Feminist Monday”, involved targeted actions such changing the names of metro stations to prominent women often airbrushed from Chilean history as well as a march in Santiago that attracted 800,000 people, according to organisers. Demands for justice and truth regarding historical human rights violations are also stated in the ten-point programme of the Coordinadora Feminista 8M.

Bataszew is proud that the issue is of interest to other groups. “We women survivors of the Pinochet dictatorship are inheritors of past struggles, and connect with current struggles”, she told me. “That is why we need an active memory”. Demolishing Venda Sexy, or further sequestering it away in private hands for decades to come, would deny survivors and activists the opportunity to transform this sinister building into a space that can prompt society to reflect on the violations to human rights committed under Pinochet and the ways in which gendered state violence is still pervasive.

Javiera Manzi, a spokeswoman for the Coordinadora Feminista 8M, told me that the Chilean State continues to use political sexual violence against girls and women protesting for equal rights. “This is a systematic practice that unequally affects women”, she argued. A recent example of this was the detention of a group of female farmers, girls and a pregnant woman, who were forced to strip and were kept in a yard overnight without clothes, food or water. “There is a need for memory now and for the future,” Manzi added.

Protests for the recuperation of Venda Sexy continue. Last month, a multitudinous event outside the house featured speeches, performances of cueca sola (a variant of the national dance of Chile, danced by women whose loved ones are missing) and the theatre play Yo amo los perros (I Love Dogs, based on the story of an agent who trained dogs to rape women inmates at Venda Sexy). The event also included the unveiling of a tile commemorating women victims, which was created collectively.