Date of Birth: 27-09-47, 27 years old at the time of his detention. Address: Población Osmán Pérez Freire, Manzana B, Lote 1, Cerro Mariposa, Valparaíso. Marital Status: Married, 5 children. Occupation: Laborer. Political Affiliation: Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). Date of Detention: January 27, 1975.

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Abel Alfredo Vilches Figueroa, married, father of 5, laborer, and member of the MIR, was detained on January 27, 1975, around 16:00 hours, while walking up the Lomas de Chorrillos slope in Viña del Mar.

The detention was carried out by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who had traveled specifically from Santiago to the area with the objective of dismantling the activities of the regional MIR.

Days earlier, on January 20, 1975, his spouse—María Isabel Gutiérrez Meléndez—was at the Hospital Deformes in Valparaíso, giving birth to their youngest child. When she returned to her home on January 25 of the same year, she found two armed DINA agents inside, who had been occupying the residence for a day.

The four young children and the victim's mother were forbidden from leaving. The agents stated they were looking for Abel Vilches, remaining in the home until January 26.

The following day, the victim was detained and taken to the N°2 "Maipo" Regiment in Playa Ancha, Valparaíso. At this military facility, on that same January 27, Abel Vilches was confronted with Reinaldo Antonio Erick Zott regarding their respective activities in the MIR.

At the Regiment, the victim was seen by witnesses, all of whom agreed that on January 28, 1975, Abel Vilches was loaded onto a refrigerated truck along with other detainees and transported to Santiago, where he was taken to Villa Grimaldi. Hernán Horacio Brain Pizarro recalls seeing him arrive at the Regiment on the afternoon of January 27 and being taken together to Santiago the following day.

During his time at Villa Grimaldi, Abel Vilches was also seen by witnesses. Sergio Antonio Vásquez Malebrán and Lilian Jorge testified before the Court that, on one occasion, they were taken out of that detention center along with the victim, Horacio Carabantes (forcibly disappeared), Alfredo García (forcibly disappeared), and Carlos Rioseco (forcibly disappeared), and driven to a place near San Antonio (they could hear the sound of the sea).

Here, they were kept for four days, locked in seaside-style cabins, tied up, and blindfolded with adhesive tape. After that time, the detainees were returned to Villa Grimaldi, with Alfredo García and Horacio Carabantes remaining at that coastal location, returning only two days later.

For his part, Miguel Angel Montecinos noted that he had remained with the victim in the sector known as "La Torre" until February 20, 1975, the date on which Vilches and other prisoners were taken out of Villa Grimaldi to an unknown destination.

This fact was corroborated by the testimonies provided by other people, who all agreed in confirming Vilches's stay at the DINA facility until that February 20.

The victim's detention was part of a DINA operation carried out in the Valparaíso and Viña del Mar area in January 1975. This operation resulted in the detention of about twenty people, the forced disappearance of 8 of them, and the death of Alejandro Delfín Villalobos Díaz, known as "Mickey." (Further background in the case of Horacio Neftalí Carabantes Olivares).

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

Various writs of amparo (habeas corpus) were filed on behalf of the victim. In the Court of Appeals of Valparaíso, a writ was filed (case file 71-75), which was rejected on March 27, 1975. Subsequently, on October 2, 1975, an amparo was filed in the Court of Appeals of Santiago (case file 1256-75), denouncing the fact of Abel Vilches's transfer to that city.

During its processing, the Minister of the Interior and Division General Raúl Benavides Escobar informed the Court on October 9, 1975, that the victim was not being held by order of that Secretariat, insisting on the exact same point on October 15 of the same year. Based on this information, the amparo was rejected on October 23, 1975.

On December 20, 1976, the relatives of Abel Vilches and Elías Villar (forcibly disappeared) filed a new amparo in the Court of Appeals of Valparaíso (case file 120-76), which, after negative reports from the authorities, was rejected on December 28, 1976.

Collective amparos were also filed for the 8 people who were forcibly disappeared in January 1975 in Valparaíso. During the processing of one of them in 1977, the DINA, through its Director Manuel Contreras, acknowledged for the first time the detention of the victim.

The then-Colonel Contreras added in an official letter to the Court the acknowledgment of the execution of Villalobos Díaz and the detention of the 8 from Valparaíso. In effect, he stated: "as a result of a confrontation with the second-in-command of that MIR Regional, Alejandro Villalobos Díaz (a) 'Mickey', who resulted dead.

Following this action," Contreras added, "Neftalí Carabantes was detained... and subsequently the rest of the members of the Regional," which, according to the DINA Director, included María Isabel Gutiérrez, Elías Villa, Abel Vilches, Carlos Rioseco, Alfredo García, Fabián Ibarra, and Sonia Ríos, who were "released immediately," while Horacio Carabantes was released in Santiago.

With this information, the Supreme Court, instead of investigating the evident contradictions in the official responses, resolved to confirm the resolution of the Court of Valparaíso, rejecting the Writ of Amparo.

The case of Abel Vilches was also investigated during the processing of case file N°11.226 in the 4th Criminal Court of Valparaíso. This court investigated the disappearance of 8 people resulting from the operation that the DINA carried out in Valparaíso in January 1975: Fabián Ibarra, Sonia Ríos, Horacio Carabantes, Alfredo García, María Isabel Gutiérrez, Elías Villar, Carlos Rioseco, and the victim.

Source: Corporación report

Abel Vilches Saavedra, a forestry worker from Neltume, lives a drama difficult to forget. His son, Abel Alfredo Vilches Figueroa, was detained by the DINA in Viña del Mar on January 25, 1975. Father and son worked in gardens and green spaces (Parque O'Higgins, Cerro Blanco, UNCTAD gardens, etc.).

They lived in the Pepe Vila settlement. "My son was one of the forcibly disappeared from Valparaíso and Viña. He led a JAP (Supply and Price Board) in his neighborhood. I told him to go to Santiago to work with me.

Things looked bad and I wanted to protect him. I don't know what party he was in. He asked me what ideas I had, and I told him I was a socialist, but reserved; opinions are one's own. He smiled."() "My son was very young: 27 years old.

They detained him getting off a bus on the Viña del Mar-Gómez Carreño route. He lived in the 'Salvador Allende' camp, which is now called Glorias Navales. We looked for him for a long time. They mocked us, they sent us to various places.

My wife was the one who understood the paperwork through the Red Cross. They detained her too: she was disappeared for days. They found her all beaten up, and she died from the aftermath. They told me it was the CNI.

It was she who was looking for my son. My wife's name was Georgina Figueroa Olea." "As long as God keeps me in this life, I have hope that justice will be served and my son will appear. At the Codepu in Valdivia, they handle my legal proceedings.

Thanks to them, I have healthcare. A transfer was made to the Panguipulli court. The judge told me that I would receive a reparation pension. In February, I did the paperwork out of necessity since I was fired from Neltume Carranco by the contractors." "My son was a hard worker; he liked my trade.

In the summer, he sold ice cream in Viña del Mar and Reñaca, he painted cars, he didn't rest. He had small children; I don't know anything about them. The last we knew was that they were in Quilpué at a priest's school, around 1986.

But I haven't seen them. About my son's wife, we knew she was imprisoned; I don't remember her name. I don't know if she is alive or dead. I would like to know about them, for someone to help me, that is my anguish." A.G.P. () Abel Vilches Figueroa appears in the Rettig Report as a victim of forced disappearance by the DINA.

He was seen at the Maipo Regiment in Playa Ancha and at Villa Grimaldi, from where he was taken on February 20, 1975, to an unknown destination. He was a member of the MIR. Punto Final Edition 442, April 1, 1999

Source: archivoschile.com

Abel, my father, was born in Viña del Mar in 1947. The son of Georgina and Abel, he grew up in Viña with his mother and his brother Bruno. Of very poor origins, from a young age he managed to work at various things.

People remember that he made himself liked by being a collaborator, that he brightened lives, liked to dance, and was funny. They remember, especially, that he was protective and responsible, and that he had political and social interests.

Very young, he met María Isabel, and they quickly started a family. They were two young people taking care of each other. He had five children: Claudio, Abel, Cristian, Luciano, and me. They participated in the Salvador Allende settlement in Viña, then they obtained a plot of land on Cerro Mariposas in Valparaíso, where we grew up during our first years.

He was thin, tall, and curly-haired; the only photo I have of him is when he was selling ice cream on the beach. My brothers and I remember that he made candied apples that he sealed in plastic to sell on the street.

My memories of him are in our house on Cerro Mariposas, the utopias he followed, the dreams for everyone. Or of his affection when he arrived home and we gathered to eat what he brought us. He was a member of the MIR; his comrades remember him as committed to his political choice.

In the midst of the resistance in the first years of the Dictatorship, they detained him in Viña del Mar, and while detained, he asked his comrades to take care of us; those who survived took charge of his children. He was Abel Alfredo Vilches Figueroa, forcibly disappeared on January 27, 1975. I am his daughter, María José Martínez, and I remember him. Remember him yourself, remind others.

Technical sheet

To create this micro-biography, María José Martínez was interviewed; she recorded this radio capsule in January 2014 at the Radio Juan Gómez Millas studios, where it was mixed. Subsequently, it was broadcast through Radio Universidad de Chile.

Source: loslatidosdelamemoria.cl

January 1975 was a tragic month for the Valparaíso region; eight young Chileans were detained and subsequently forcibly disappeared by the dictatorship's security services: Sonia Ríos Pacheco (30), Fabián Ibarra Córdova (27), Horacio Carabantes Olivares (21), Carlos Rioseco Espinoza (26), Alfredo García Vega (30), María Isabel Gutiérrez Martínez (26), Abel Vilches Figueroa (27), and Elías Villar Quijón, 19 years old.

Army Lieutenant Fernando Laureani, along with other agents of the "Vampiro" group of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), were sent from Santiago to carry out the detentions, for which they had the support of the Intelligence Service of the N° 2 "Maipo" Infantry Regiment.

An indeterminate number of people were taken there, interrogated, tortured, and locked up. Some were transferred to the "Almirante Alberto Silva Palma" Barracks; the rest, about 20, were driven in refrigerated vans from "Pesquera Arauco" to the Villa Grimaldi detention center in Santiago.

Many witnesses saw them in that place, specifically in the torture site called "La Torre." On February 20, numerous witnesses saw how Carlos, Alfredo, Abel, Elías, María Isabel, Sonia, Fabián, and Horacio were taken out of the detention center.

They were never seen again. Among them were some couples starting their lives, such as Sonia and Fabián; María Isabel Gutiérrez was detained along with her boyfriend Hernán Brain, who was also taken to Villa Grimaldi and survived the detention.

Horacio Carabantes was also detained along with his wife Liliana Castillo and their 2-year-old daughter Lilian. Liliana was pregnant; her labor was induced, and her twin daughters were born in the regiment's infirmary. Horacio managed to meet them and say goodbye to his partner and his eldest daughter.

Source: Vicaria de la Solidaridad

Retired Army Captain Rubén Fiedler Alvarado was detained today in Viña del Mar. He had been a fugitive from justice since February of this year, when he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for the case of the aggravated kidnapping of 4 people.

Rubén Fiedler was a fugitive, escaping a court sentence that convicted him for the kidnapping of Horacio Carabantes Olivares, Alfredo García Vega—seen by numerous witnesses at the Maipo Regiment and later at Villa Grimaldi, where it is said he was locked in a wooden cell and then in La Torre; his name appeared in the Operation Colombo montage—María Gutiérrez Martínez, and Fabián Ibarra Córdova, an event that took place on January 17, 1975, in the city of Viña del Mar, where other people also disappeared: Sonia Ríos Pacheco, Carlos Rioseco Espinoza, Abel Vilches Figueroa, and Elías Villar Guijón, which is known as the case of "the 8 from Valparaíso." They were members of the MIR or close to it. On January 17, 1975, Sonia Ríos and Fabián Ibarra were detained, and shortly after, Carlos Rioseco and Alfredo García. 4 days later, on January 21 of that year, Horacio Carabantes was detained; on the 24th, in Quilpué, María Isabel Gutiérrez was detained; the following day, Abel Vilches; and finally, Elías Villar. It is known that the 8 people were transferred to the Maipo Regiment and later to the Villa Grimaldi detention and torture center in Santiago, where their trail is lost. Retired Captain Rubén Fiedler lived in Villa Alemana, and after learning of the ruling, he escaped, remaining a fugitive for six months. According to news agencies, he had hidden with the help of a brother who is also a former Army officer, which demonstrates once again the networks of complicity for impunity that exist. Fiedler was part of a DINA patrol along with other agents, such as Daniel Cancino Varas, for acts of repression. Ricardo Lawrence Mires, convicted for the case of the murder of DINA chemist Eugenio Berríos, still remains a fugitive.

Source: La Izquierda diario - August 21, 2015 Date: 21-08-2015

Valparaíso Socialist Party inaugurated a memorial to remember disappeared militants

Among the commemorative activities following the 40th anniversary of the military coup, the regional leadership of the Socialist Party inaugurated a memorial this Wednesday morning to remember the militants from the region who were forcibly disappeared and executed during the dictatorship.

The tribute was held with a simple ceremony attended by party authorities, militants, and supporters. Reinaldo Rivera, acting regional president of the Socialist Party, indicated that this was a pending debt they had with the fallen of the collective so that they would not be forgotten.

Ana Ponce, a social worker present at the inauguration of the memorial, described it as essential to keep the memory of those who died as victims of the dictatorship present, especially "so that these events do not happen again," she noted.

The memorial consists of an acrylic plaque that remembers 22 names of people who were members of the collective and were forcibly disappeared and executed during the military government. The plaque was installed at the Party's Central headquarters in Valparaíso.

Source: biobiochile.cl 11/9/2013 Date: 11-09-2013

Conviction issued for human rights violations in the "Eight from Valparaíso" case committed in 1975 by Carlos Villavicencio

The Supreme Court issued the sentence regarding crimes against humanity committed by State agents during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, which took place in 1975 in Valparaíso. In this way, the Second Chamber of the highest court determined in the final ruling for the "Eight from Valparaíso" case, regarding the kidnappings of Horacio Neftalí Carabantes Olivares, Alfredo Gabriel García Vega, María Isabel Gutiérrez Martínez, Fabián Ibarra Córdova, Sonia del Tránsito Ríos Pacheco, Carlos Ramón Rioseco Espinoza, Abel Alfredo Vilches Figueroa, and Elías Ricardo Villar Guijón.

In a split decision, the Criminal Chamber accepted the cassation appeal filed against the ruling of the Court of Appeals of Santiago, reducing only to 541 days of imprisonment the sentence issued against Pedro Herrera Henríquez, in his capacity as an accomplice in two of the aggravated kidnappings.

Meanwhile, it confirmed the sentences of 10 years and one day of imprisonment issued against Rolf Wenderoth Pozo and Daniel Cancino Varas for their responsibility as perpetrators; 5 years and one day of imprisonment for Rubén Fiedler Alvarado (as an accomplice); and 3 years and one day of imprisonment for Fernando Lauriani Mauturana as a perpetrator.

In the civil aspect, the conviction was ratified, ordering the State to pay, for moral damages, compensation of $30,000,000 to Josefa Martínez Ruiz, mother of María Isabel Gutiérrez Martínez; Liliana María Castillo Rojas, spouse of Horacio Neftalí Carabantes Olivares; and Hilda Elena Espinoza Figueroa, spouse of Carlos Ramón Rioseco Espinoza.

Additionally, $20,000,000 to Claudio Abel Vílchez Gutiérrez, Abel Alberto Vilches Gutiérrez, María José Martínez Saavedra (formerly María Georgina Vilches Gutiérrez), and Cristián Ernesto Vilches Gutiérrez, all children of Abel Alfredo Vilches Figueroa; and to Esteban Rodolfo Rioseco Espinoza, son of Carlos Rioseco Espinoza.

Finally, $10,000,000 to Nibaldo Humberto Ríos Pacheco, brother of Sonia del Tránsito Ríos Pacheco; and to Olga Adriana Sánchez Martínez, Cecilia Elvira Sánchez Martínez, and Irene Gloria Sánchez Martínez, sisters of María Isabel Gutiérrez Martínez.

Source: biobiochile.cl 14/4/2015