Chile's National Monuments Council declared Patio 29 a National Monument on 13 July 2006[1] at the request of a group of Chamber of Deputies legislators.[2] The Council chose the site for its proof of the Pinochet military government's elaborate procedures used to conceal the disappeared's bodies and their identities.[3] At the ceremony, Patio 29 was described as a symbol of the country's painful history and an educational place for human rights.[4] As a national monument, the site will be conserved and maintained by government funds unless ordered otherwise by the courts.[4] It is the first cemetery to become a national monument in Chile.[5]