Venda Sexy, also known as La Discothèque, was a clandestine detention and torture center operated by the DINA secret police during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Located at 3037 Iran Street in the Macul district of Santiago, Chile, it functioned from late 1974 to mid-1975 as one of the principal clandestine detention sites in the capital. The site became notorious for the systematic use of sexual violence against political prisoners, particularly women. Its name, Venda Sexy ("Sexy Blindfold"), referred to the practice of keeping inmates blindfolded at all times while subjecting them to sexual abuse — a term allegedly coined by the perpetrators. It was also called La Discothèque because music was played at high volume to mask the sounds of torture. Approximately 80 people were held at the site between 1974 and 1981, roughly one third of them women; most of those detained were members of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), and the majority of those who disappeared have never been accounted for. Declared a Historic Monument in 2016, the property remained in private hands for years and was sold to a real estate company in 2019, prompting an outcry from survivor organizations. Under President Gabriel Boric, the Chilean state expropriated the site in 2023 as part of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup. Also in 2023, Chile's Supreme Court confirmed the convictions of three former DINA agents for crimes of aggravated kidnapping and torture with sexual violence committed at the site. The formal title transfer to the state was completed in July 2024, and in September 2025 the government granted the Asociación de Memoria y Derechos Humanos Irán 3037 — an organization led by survivors — a 25-year concession to administer the property as a dedicated memory site.
Background On September 11, 1973, a military junta staged a violent coup against Chile's democratically elected government, with the support of the Nixon administration. Socialist President Salvador Allende died under disputed circumstances during the assault on the presidential palace. During the first years of the junta's 17-year rule, it ruthlessly persecuted perceived opponents — trade unionists and members of liberal, socialist, and communist organizations. Torture was a daily occurrence. To this end, the junta established more than 1,200 secret prisons and torture sites across the country, utilizing military and police premises as well as seized and expropriated private property. The head of the DINA secret police was Manuel Contreras, who had been trained at a military intelligence unit at Fort Benning, Georgia, in the United States. Contreras maintained relationships with the CIA and received payments from it. Operating from an office in downtown Santiago, he regularly visited the various detention and concentration camps under DINA's control, among them Villa Grimaldi (Terranova Barracks), 38 London Street (Yucatan Barracks), 1367 José Domingo Cañas Street (Ollagüe Barracks), and Venda Sexy at 3037 Iran Street, along with others. In Santiago alone, there were more than 220 secret prisons and torture centers. Contreras was later convicted of crimes against humanity; at the time of his death, he was serving 59 unappealable sentences totaling 529 years in prison.
Description of the estate The house had two floors and a basement and was surrounded by a garden. The floors were in parquetry and the staircase in marble. The basement served as the primary site of interrogation and torture. Initially the property of a communist family, the owners fled political repression in 1974. The estate subsequently became the property of a corporation owned by Carabineros de Chile officer and DINA agent Miguel Eugenio Hernández Oyarzo, who initially used it as a dormitory for DINA agents. In 1981, it was sold; the first prospective buyer, a neighbor who had initially planned to house students and operate a nursery, refused the purchase after learning how the estate had been used. Another buyer then acquired the property.
Operation as a torture center
Naming The site operated as a DINA detention center from late 1974 to mid-1975, in parallel with Villa Grimaldi. It was staffed by a team distinct from that of Villa Grimaldi, and it operated only during office hours; conditions, including food, were reportedly somewhat better than at other detention sites. The detention center was given two nicknames. It was called Venda Sexy ("Sexy Blindfold") because inmates were kept blindfolded at all times while being subjected to sexual abuse by guards and DINA agents — a name allegedly coined by the perpetrators themselves. It was also called La Discothèque because music was played continuously while inmates were tortured.
Detention and political sexual violence Between November and December 1974, DINA agents carried out a large number of arrests targeting members of the leftist guerrilla organization Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), who were then held at the site. From 1974 to 1981, approximately 80 inmates — roughly one third of them women — passed through the facility, with activity peaking in 1974. The majority of those detained have since been classified as disappeared. According to the Valech Report:
"Those who were held at the Venda Sexy reported being subjected to interrogations and torture carried out in the basement of the building. In this facility, sexual torture was practiced with particular emphasis. Sexual abuse and rape of male and female detainees were commonplace, including the use of a trained dog." Methods of torture included rape by guards, the taking of nude photographs, and the use of a German Shepherd named Volodia — named after Volodia Teitelboim — that had been trained to sexually assault female inmates. The dog was associated with Ingrid Olderock, a Carabineros de Chile major who became a DINA agent and was nicknamed "the woman of the dogs." Inmates were required to remain naked at all times. Survivor and feminist activist Beatriz Bataszew, a member of the Colectivo de Mujeres Sobrevivientes Siempre Resistentes ("Collective of Surviving Women Always Resisting" and the Coordinadora Feminista 8M ("March 8 Feminist Coordinating Committee"), has devoted much of her post-dictatorship activism to publicizing the political sexual violence endured by women detained at the center. She has stated:
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