In 1983, as Chilean demonstrations against Pinochet's military regime gathered strength, the government seized upon the strange story of 14-year-old street teen Miguel Angel as a means of diverting attention from the public's growing discontent. In Peñablanca, not far from Valparaíso, the charismatic Angel swore he could see the Virgin Mary at the top of a local hill and, with the government doing all it could to promote this "miracle", hundreds of thousands of people made the pilgrimage to the "holy" spot.