After General Pinochet seized power in September 1973, arbitrary detention, torture, and disappearance became synonymous with his regime. In the early months, thousands of people were imprisoned by the junta in newly set up detention centres.
Cuatro Alamos, the focus of this arpillera, was one such centre that no one outside the DINA (Chilean National Intelligence Directorate) had access to, except personnel from other intelligence agencies. There are survivors who could give testimony of their times in this place.
In this arpillera Aurora Ortiz is outspoken about Chile’s infamous history of torture, which was long unknown in the wider world. She graphically represents a person on a stretch bed being tortured. Four poplars (álamos) surround the bed. The Andean mountains set the scene.
Chile’s second national Truth Commission Report on Torture and Political Imprisonment (Valech II) published in August 2011, states that the total number of people officially registered as torture victims, from the Pinochet era, was then 38,254. Memoria Viva - Proyecto Internacional de Derechos Humanos | 
