Alejandro Robinson Mella Flores, single, 19 years old, a militant of the MIR, was detained on September 19, 1973, around 09:00 hours, in the city of Linares, by members of the Investigations police at the home of the Montesino Parra family—where he was staying temporarily—in the presence of the homeowners and their children.

Among his captors, Sub-commissioner Luis Espinoza Weber and detectives Juan Manuel Véjar Varas and another surnamed Olivares were identified; they took him to the Investigations Barracks located on Calle Manuel Rodríguez in that city.

The following day, he was placed at the disposal of the State of Siege Zone Headquarters and transferred to the Army Artillery School, where he was placed under the charge of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) operating within that facility.

This group was led by Captain Claudio Lecaros Carrasco and consisted of Lieutenants Luis Arce Bulo and Raúl Díaz Jara, First Sergeant Antonio Aguilar Barrientos, Carabineros Captain Sergio Gallardo López, and Investigations officials Héctor Torres Guajardo, Nelson Mery Figueroa, Carlos Neves Acosta—who was part of the San Javier detachment—and the officers who had detained Mella Flores.

At the Artillery School, detainees were kept primarily in two areas: one was a classroom known as the "television room" because there was a set there. In this room, there were about 30 prisoners who remained on benches, without blindfolds or bindings, but forbidden from speaking to one another; from there, they were taken for interrogations and torture.

Another section consisted of isolated and boarded-up cells, located in a different area of the School, where those held incommunicado were kept. Alejandro Mella was held here, where he shared a cell for a few days with Nelson Castillo Gómez, an official from the Ministry of Education who was later released.

He was also seen at this facility by Norma Montesino Parra, at whose home he had been detained.

On December 22 of that year, he was visited by his mother, who was shocked by how thin, pale, gaunt, and sad he appeared. About fifteen days later, she returned to the School, but on this occasion, they did not allow her to see him; however, they gave her a pair of pants and a sweater belonging to her son and accepted other clothing and food from her.

On December 25, he was taken to the Linares Prison at the request of the International Red Cross, whose delegation visited the prisoners at the School that day; however, the following day he was returned to the same place.

He was also seen at "Rabones," a military training camp and Army firing range that was used as a torture center. Finally, before New Year's, he was removed from the Artillery School along with other prisoners: Anselmo Cancino Aravena, María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, Héctor Contreras Cabrera, Guillermo del Canto, and José Gabriel Campos Morales, all of whom have been forcibly disappeared since then.

Alejandro Flores lived in a "mediagua" (shanty) in the "Luciano Cruz" camp in Linares, which was subsequently burned down along with all his belongings.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On December 4, 1973, a Writ of Amparo (Habeas Corpus) was filed before the Talca Court of Appeals, case file 133.107, which declared itself incompetent because "it was filed against an organ of military jurisdiction."

On March 22, 1976, case file 42.198 was initiated in the Linares Criminal Court following a complaint of alleged disappearance filed by his mother.

The Linares Investigations unit informed the Court that there was a record in that unit of the detainee's arrest by order of the State of Siege Zone Headquarters "for being a member of extremist movements." It stated that he was placed at the disposal of that Headquarters the day after his arrest, at 10:30 hours, at the Artillery School.

In compliance with an investigative order, the civil police reported that "based on inquiries made to the Military Intelligence Service," it was learned that Alejandro Mella "was authorized to visit his relatives on his word of honor to return, which he did not do," and that he was therefore a fugitive.

The National Detainee Service (SENDET) attached an official letter from the Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Artillery School, Major Sergio Pérez Hormazábal, indicating that during the week between December 21 and 28, 1973, six detainees were released "due to a lack of evidence against them," and Alejandro Robinson Mella Flores appeared on that list.

This letter is dated December 28, 1973. It should be noted that in the case investigating the disappearance of the former Governor of Constitución, Arturo Riveros, the Artillery School denied that any officer surnamed Pérez was part of its staff at that time, despite the fact that the officer himself testified in that case, stating that he served as the Secretary of Studies of that Military Institute in September 1973.

The Warden of the Linares Prison reported, for his part, that Alejandro Mella entered that prison as a detainee on October 31, 1973, held incommunicado by order of the Military Prosecutor's Office of that city, in an unnumbered case filed against him "for the crime of extremist politician." He remained in that condition until December 26 of that year, the date on which he was released on parole under bail, according to a resolution from the same court.

Despite this information, the Linares Military Prosecutor's Office reported that the affected party did not appear as prosecuted in their books.

Furthermore, on July 26, 1976, the Director of the Artillery School stated that there was no record of the victim's detention and that there was no "Logbook of Detainee Entries and Exits" in that unit, nor had there been one during 1973.

Even though the School authority indicated that such records had not existed, Captain Luis Arce testified before the Court that his specific duty, until December 10, 1973, was to maintain the index card system for the detainees and register them in the respective files.

Of the detainees mentioned to him, the only one he remembers is Cancino Aravena, due to his notoriety. He does not remember Alejandro Mella. He stated that his hierarchical superior was Captain Claudio Lecaros.

For his part, Captain Claudio Lecaros testified that in his position as Security Officer, it was his duty to check the backgrounds of about one hundred and fifty people daily and classify who would return to their homes or who should be interrogated by specialized personnel, which is why he does not remember Mella Flores.

He added that the Firing Range was no longer used as a place of detention in December and that at the end of that month, no one remained staying at the School because there was an order for detainees to eat and sleep in the prison. He also says he remembers the visit of the Red Cross delegation, who visited the facilities and his office.

Of the detectives, only Sub-commissioner Nelson Mery remembers the victim's arrest.

On August 10, 1977, the summary proceedings were closed, and on the same date, the judge of the Linares Court, Luis Miranda Guzmán, temporarily dismissed the case on the grounds that the existence of the crime had not been sufficiently proven, a resolution that was upheld by the Talca Court of Appeals.

His mother met on one occasion with General Carlos Morales Retamal, who told her that her son had been authorized to spend the New Year's holiday with her, with the commitment to return to the School, and since he had not returned, he assumed he had left the country to join the guerrillas in Argentina.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad

Testimonies, photographs, letters, and other documents that families and friends provided or wrote specifically for publication are incorporated into the book "Breaking the Silence of Children and Adolescents Who Were Political Executions During the Civil-Military Dictatorship 1973-1990," which was produced by the Association of Relatives of Political Executions (AFEP) with the support of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage, through the Culture, Memory, and Human Rights Unit, and the Human Rights Chair of the University of Chile.

The publication, based primarily on the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (1991) and the Report of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (1996), seeks to reconstruct each of the lives and stories of the victims in a comprehensive and careful manner.

During the research, the archive of the Association of Relatives of Political Executions was accessed, where documents that families have preserved over the years are kept. Illustrations by Álvaro Gómez were also included.

The creation process was a complex challenge that involved combining delicacy, respect, and methodological rigor to state a painful and inescapable truth in this work.

Source: cultura.gobierno.cl 20/4/2023 Date: 20-04-2023

Social Science Students Commemorated the International Day of the Forcibly Disappeared

In the framework of the International Day of the Forcibly Disappeared—which was established in 2011 thanks to an initiative by the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Detained-Disappeared (Fedefam) and the support of the UN—representatives of the Sociology Coordinator and the Popular Anthropology Collective of the University of Concepción (UdeC) carried out interventions to remember classmates who were victims of the military dictatorship.

Interrupted Sociology

With an art installation that attempted to simulate a classroom, the Sociology Coordinator of the University of Concepción paid tribute to 17 students of the program who suffered political execution or forced disappearance between 1973 and 1990.

"Today we are facing a denialist onslaught that seeks to hide the crimes against humanity committed by the State of Chile during the civil-military dictatorship. That is why, as Sociology students at the University of Concepción, we want to remember our classmates who are missing, who were students like you and me, and whose families could not even bury their bodies," the Sociology Coordinator stated in the leaflets handed out to students who approached to witness this space of memory.

The individuals remembered this Thursday were: – Juan Carlos Gómez Iturra – Nelson Herrera Riveros – Luis Pincheira Llanos – Héctor Sobarzo Núñez – Héctor Velásquez – Ana Luisa Peñailillo Parra – Elizabeth Cabrera Balarritz – Carlos Fernández Zapata – Jorge Fuentes Alarcón – Sergio Riffo Ramos – Roberto Chaer Vásquez – Ariel Salinas Argomedo – Manuel Villalobos Díaz – Washington Cid Urrutia – Sergio Lagos Marín – Alejandro Robinson Mella Flores

In Honor of the Fallen Women

Another demonstration that took place in the Faculty of Social Sciences was carried out by students of the Anthropology program, who set up a banner with the faces of female students who were pregnant at the time of suffering forced detention.

"Throughout history, women have been displaced to the private sphere and their political participation has been limited to minor positions; their active role in transformations has not been recognized, and their struggle has been made invisible.

Here we have sufficient evidence that positions us as protagonists of the armed struggle and highlights the convictions of each of those who gave their lives for this cause—all of them women, students, workers, and mothers who were repressed, tortured, murdered, and disappeared for political reasons, for being militants, for being combative, and for daring to believe in a project that aimed at a real transformation of society.

Each of them was a fundamental part of their movement and resisted firmly until their final moments, and we must remember them not only as victims of the dictatorship but as martyrs who sowed rebellion in the new generations," the Popular Anthropology Collective UdeC communicated in a summary shared during the intervention.

The women commemorated by the students were: -Jacqueline Paulette Droully Yurich -María Cecilia Labrín Saso -Michelle Peña Herreros -Cecilia Miguelina Bojanic Abad -Diana Frida Aron Svigilsky -Gloria Esther Lagos Nilsson -Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza -Elizabeth Mercedes Rekas Urra -Nalvia Rosa Mena Alvarado -Gloria Ximena Delard Cabezas

Source: udec.cl 30/8/2018 Date: 30-08-2018

Memorial for Victims of the Dictatorship Inaugurated at Concepción Cemetery

118 forcibly disappeared and political execution victims during the military dictatorship finally have a memorial at the General Cemetery of Concepción. The Bautista van Schouwen Association, however, criticized the omission of 34 people.

These are concrete panels with 118 names engraved, corresponding to the forcibly disappeared and political execution victims of the area. The memorial was erected in the Concepción General Cemetery and will serve as a space for reflection for their relatives, explained Elizabeth Velásquez, coordinator of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared.

The monument had a total cost of 90 million pesos; 60 of which were contributed by the Municipality and the other 30 by the Semco corporation, which is in charge of the cemetery.

Mayor Álvaro Ortiz reiterated that it is fundamental to have a space where we can rescue our memory and not forget what happened.

However, 34 names are missing from this memorial, asserted Robinson Silva of the Bautista van Schouwen Association. The leader accused the authorities of discretion. In the list provided by the association, it is noted that at least eight of the people died in Concepción. María Candelaria Acevedo, of the Association of Former Political Prisoners, acknowledged an organizational problem among them.

From today, the relatives of the forcibly disappeared and political execution victims will have a place to remember those who left—as they said—only for thinking differently.

Source: biobiochile.cl 17/3/2015 Date: 17-03-2015

Relatives of Forcibly Disappeared Do Not Rule Out Recourse to International Human Rights Court Over Ruling in "Linares Episode"

The leaders of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared of Linares did not rule out appealing to the International Court of that instance, with the aim of denouncing the definitive ruling of the Supreme Court regarding the disappearance of militants and left-wing sympathizers during the government of Augusto Pinochet.

The spokesperson for that entity, Juana Soto, indicated that "we are very disappointed to learn of the justice system's resolution, and although we highlight the diligent work of Minister Solís, who we believe got to the bottom of the investigation, we do not think the same of the judges."

Soto harshly criticized the position of President Piñera's government, stating that "we are in a right-wing government, and for that same reason, what more could we expect from such a delicate issue as Human Rights; on the other hand, today, although the Judiciary is independent of the Government, with connections (pitutos), things are often achieved, even impunity."

On the other hand, the daughter of María Isabel Beltrán, whose case is one of the most emblematic in the southern Maule region, Tamara Callejas, stated: "There is a bias of impunity in these decisions.

My hope remains alive to know what really happened to my mother, but I believe that just as there are people who I am sure have collaborated in these houses that Minister Solís investigated, I cannot rule out that there are those who did not tell everything they know."

In a split decision, the ministers of the Second Chamber of the highest court determined to acquit Gabriel Del Río Espinoza due to a lack of responsibility; while they sentenced Juan Hernán Morales Salgado, Claudio Abdón Lecaros Carrasco, and Antonio Aguilar Barrientos to 5 years in prison for their responsibility as authors of kidnappings, granting them the benefit of supervised release; and three years in prison with the benefit of conditional remission to Humberto Lautaro Julio Reyes.

It must be remembered that the Supreme Court issued a final sentence in the investigation into the qualified kidnappings of Arturo Enrique Riveros Blanco, Jaime Bernardo Torres Salazar, Jorge Bernabé Yáñez Olave, José Saavedra Betancourt, José Gabriel Campos Morales, Anselmo Antonio Cancino Aravena, Alejandro Robinson Mella Flores, María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, and Héctor Hernán Contreras Cabrera, which occurred starting in September and December 1973 in the city of Linares.

Source: Tuesday, May 3, 2011, La Tercera Date: 03-05-2011

Five Military Officers Sentenced for Qualified Kidnappings of 9 Disappeared During Dictatorship

The Supreme Court issued a final sentence in the investigation into the qualified kidnappings of Arturo Enrique Riveros Blanco, Jaime Bernardo Torres Salazar, Jorge Bernabé Yáñez Olave, José Saavedra Betancourt, José Gabriel Campos Morales, Anselmo Antonio Cancino Aravena, Alejandro Robinson Mella Flores, María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, and Héctor Hernán Contreras Cabrera, which occurred starting in September and December 1973 in the city of Linares, Maule Region.

In a split decision, the ministers of the Second Chamber of the highest court, Nibaldo Segura, Jaime Rodríguez, Rubén Ballesteros, Hugo Dolmestch, and Carlos Künsemüller, determined the following sentences:

-Gabriel Del Río Espinoza

Acquitted of his responsibility as an author of the kidnappings of María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, Anselmo Antonio Cancino Aravena, José Gabriel Campos Morales, Héctor Hernán Contreras Cabrera, and Alejandro Robinson Mella Flores, due to lack of participation.

-Juan Hernán Morales Salgado

5 years in prison for his responsibility as an author of the kidnappings of Arturo Enrique Riveros Blanco, Jaime Bernardo Torres Salazar, Jorge Bernabé Yáñez Olave, José Saavedra Betancourt, and José Gabriel Campos Morales. He was granted the benefit of supervised release.

-Claudio Abdón Lecaros Carrasco

5 years in prison for his responsibility as an author of the qualified kidnappings of María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, Anselmo Antonio Cancino Aravena, José Gabriel Campos Morales, Héctor Hernán Contreras Cabrera, and Robinson Mella. He was granted the benefit of supervised release.

-Antonio Aguilar Barrientos

5 years in prison for his responsibility as an author of the qualified kidnappings of María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, Anselmo Antonio Cancino Aravena, Hernán Contreras Cabrera, and Alejandro Robinson Mella Flores. He was granted the benefit of supervised release.

-Félix Renato Cabezas Salazar

5 years in prison for his responsibility in the qualified kidnappings of Anselmo Antonio Cancino Aravena, José Gabriel Campos Morales, and Alejandro Robinson Mella Flores. He was granted the benefit of supervised release.

-Humberto Lautaro Julio Reyes

3 years in prison for his responsibility in the qualified kidnapping of María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez. He was granted the benefit of conditional remission.

Regarding the civil aspect, the claim for compensation for damages filed against the Chilean State was rejected due to the absolute incompetence of the court.

Regarding the criminal aspect, the sentence was adopted with the dissenting vote of ministers Segura and Ballesteros, who were in favor of accepting the statute of limitations for criminal action. Meanwhile, in the civil aspect, the decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of ministers Dolmestch and Künsemüller, who were in favor of accepting the claims.

With this conviction, 100 sentencing rulings in human rights violation cases have been completed, issued by the Supreme Court since 2005. In the same period, 112 sentences have been issued, with the remainder corresponding to acquittals.

Source: biobio.cl April 28, 2011 Date: 28-04-2011

MELLA FLORES ALEJANDRO ROBINSON

Forcibly Disappeared. Linares, December 1973. Alejandro Mella, 19 years old, single. High school student at Liceo 1 in Concepción. Militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR). He was detained on September 19, 1973, by Investigations agents, transferred to the Linares Artillery School, and subsequently to the Linares Public Prison.

From this location, he was removed by a military patrol, along with other detainees, to an unknown destination on December 26, 1973. Since this date, his whereabouts remain unknown.

Source: archivoschile.com

Former Pinochet Foreign Minister Sentenced to Ten Years in Prison

The justice system sentenced the former foreign minister of Augusto Pinochet, retired officer Humberto Julio Lagos, to ten years in prison for participating in the kidnapping and disappearance of peasants between 1973 and 1974.

With this event, following judicial progress, the majority of the members of the military regime are detained or under indictment.

The first-instance ruling by judge Alejandro Solís also sentenced five other uniformed officers to 15 years in prison, four of them former officers, according to the case lawyer, Loreto Mesa.

The judicial resolution is in addition to another 150 prosecutions and convictions issued against former repressors after the death of Pinochet in December 2006, who was never sanctioned for these crimes.

Along with the former head of the military regime's diplomacy, officers Gabriel del Río, Juan Morales Salgado, Claudio Lecaros, and Félix Cabezas were sentenced. They were joined by non-commissioned officer Antonio Girard.

All the accused participated, with varying degrees of responsibility, in the detention of nine peasants and local left-wing leaders in the province of Linares, about 300 kilometers south of Santiago.

The military regime governed the country's destiny between 1973 and 1990, a period in which 3,000 Chileans were executed or disappeared, including children under 13 years of age, according to official reports issued in democracy. Also, some 50,000 citizens suffered torture, including two-year-old infants.

CONVICTIONS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS CASE IN LINARES

Meanwhile, Solís, who has been handling the so-called "Linares process" since 2002, sentenced a total of six of those involved in the process, in the 99th sentence issued by the courts of justice in human rights cases.

The judicial resolution records for Juan Morales Salgado: 15 years and one day for 5 qualified kidnappings; for Claudio Lecaros Carrasco: 15 years for 5 qualified kidnappings; for Gabriel del Río Espinoza: 15 years for 5 kidnappings; Antonio Aguilar Barrientos: 15 years for 4 kidnappings; Félix Cabezas Salazar: 15 years for 3 kidnappings; and for Humberto Julio Reyes: 10 years for 1 kidnapping.

The Magistrate issued a conviction for the crimes of qualified kidnapping of Arturo Enrique Riveros Blanco, Jaime Bernardo Torres Salazar, Jorge Bernabé Yáñez Olave, José Saavedra Betancourt, José Gabriel Campos Morales, María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, Anselmo Cancino Aravena, Héctor Hernán Contreras Cabrera, and Alejandro Robinson Mella Flores, against the former Army officers.

The president of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared of Linares, Juanita Soto, told La Tercera.com that "the ruling, although it is a first-instance one, is a source of satisfaction for what our relatives had to suffer.

Hopefully now, in the remaining steps of the process, they will not be granted any benefits, as this would be like a slap in the face from the Justice system to those of us who have suffered so much over these years."

Source: https://www.latercera.com/ 08 APR 2008