During the Pinochet dictatorship, fear was the most instrumental tool used by the authorities to maintain control. This was achieved through two main tactics: torture, and 'enforced disappearance.'

Pinochet, through the DINA secret police organisation, made sure that every person in Chile knew someone- friend, colleague, neighbour, family member, who had been tortured. In this way, although far fewer people were tortured than in Argentina, the fear of torture was universal, and so the state maintained an iron grip on the population.

But worse still were the disappearances. Essentially, members of the secret police would arrest people, murder them, and dispose of the bodies. A great many were thrown off bridges into rivers or directly into the sea, but in most circumstances nobody knew what had happened to those who had been arrested and disposed of; they literally disappeared. The emotional impact this had on the friends and relatives of the disappeared is incalculable, and even today there are hundreds of families looking for closure. It is estimated that 3,197 people were murdered or 'disappeared' by the state during the military regime. However, there are likely to be others whose lives and identities were taken who had nobody to search for them or tell of their disappearance (people would shout out their names in the street as they were arrested in hope that someone would hear and give word to their families), and it is almost certain that the Latin American secret police network, known as Operation Condor, is also responsible for murdering Chileans outside the country's borders.

It is likely that many people will never find out what happened to their loved ones. In their own way they had as much taken from them as the people who were taken, and those left behind will have neither answers to their questions nor bones to bury.