Between December 1973 and January 1974, four cases of forced disappearance occurred at the Escuela de Artillería de Linares. The version received by the families and provided to the Courts of Justice stated that all of them had been released or had never been detained. However, there are multiple testimonies from people who saw them held at the aforementioned military facility.

The victims of these episodes are

María Isabel BELTRAN SANCHEZ, 21 years old, music student, member of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR).

She was detained by Ejército personnel along with another person at her home in the city of Santiago on December 16, 1973, taken to the Escuela Militar, and subsequently transferred to the Escuela de Artillería de Linares.

Her detention was acknowledged in June 1974 by the Jefatura de Plaza of the Province of Linares. It stated that the affected person was released in mid-January of that year to undergo specialized medical treatment, as she had suffered a miscarriage during her confinement.

For this reason, she was let go "with the promise to report to the Comandancia de Guarnición in Linares once discharged, a promise that to this date has not been fulfilled." The official allegation that she had been released in January 1974 is contradicted by the absolute lack of news regarding her since that same month and year, when she was last seen at the aforementioned regiment.

To this date, the fate or whereabouts of María Isabel Beltrán remain unknown.

Alejandro MELLA FLORES, 19 years old, student, member of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR). Detained on September 19 by Investigaciones personnel from Linares, taken to the Central Headquarters of that agency and subsequently to the Escuela de Artillería, where he was placed at the disposal of the Servicio de Inteligencia Militar.

On October 31, he was transferred to the Cárcel Pública de Linares, recording his release on December 26, 1973, under conditional liberty. In the judicial investigation into his disappearance, Investigaciones stated that Mella Flores had been released on December 26, "to visit his relatives, with the word to return, which he did not do, being currently considered (sic) a fugitive, it being presumed that he left the country through an uncontrolled border crossing." The report does not explain the reasons why it is presumed he left the country, nor why it is claimed that this was carried out through "an uncontrolled border crossing." In July 1976, the Directorate of the Escuela de Artillería de Linares informed the Court investigating his disappearance that the victim was not registered as having been detained in that military unit.

To this date, the fate or whereabouts of Alejandro Mella Flores remain unknown.

Anselmo CANCINO ARAVENA, 25 years old, agricultural worker, member of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR). He was detained by Ejército personnel on December 8, 1973, at a sawmill in Cauquenes, where he was hiding as he had been summoned by military decree to present himself to military authorities.

During his search by the authorities, as a way to pressure him to surrender, his parents, his spouse, and his sister were detained and released only once Cancino was captured. His detention at the Escuela de Artillería de Linares is accredited before this Commission, which was able to review consistent and credible statements from Ejército officers who so declare.

The victim remains disappeared to this date.

Héctor Hernán CONTRERAS CABRERA, 21 years old, official of the Corporación de Reforma Agraria (CORA), Regional Chief in Parral of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR). He was detained in Santiago at the home of relatives on December 8, 1973, by Ejército personnel.

Previously, his sisters living in Parral had been detained and interrogated to provide information on Héctor Contreras's whereabouts. He was transferred to the Escuela de Artillería de Linares, a place where, according to his relatives, his detention and presence were not acknowledged. However, this Commission received credible testimonies that confirm his presence at said facility.

The four aforementioned detainees shared the same detention facility. All were members of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria and worked in the same area. It should be noted that none of the four were prosecuted by any court or accused of a crime that would justify their detentions, leading the Commission to conclude that their disappearance had an exclusively political motivation.

It is implausible that all of them would have been set free without subsequently attempting to make contact with their families; and that, under the political conditions the country was experiencing at that time, known members of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) in the area would be set free by the same military authority that had kept them under a severe regime of deprivation of liberty and subjected them to intense interrogations under torture.

With the detention of all of them being accredited and having disappeared while they were held in custody, this Commission is convinced that they were victims of a grave violation of human rights for which State agents are responsible.

Anselmo Antonio Cancino Aravena, married, 1 posthumous child, agricultural worker, union leader, and member of the MIR, was detained on December 8, 1973, under the circumstances described below: due to the conditions experienced after the 1973 Military Coup, Anselmo Cancino and his girlfriend, Silvia Sepúlveda Bueno, decided to temporarily leave the shack they occupied in the "Luciano Cruz" Camp, located next to the Linares stadium.

On September 14, 1973, both were summoned to present themselves to the authorities via Bando No. 14, which was broadcast by local newspapers and the radio stations of Linares, San Javier, and Parral.

Anselmo Cancino suggested to Silvia Sepúlveda that she turn herself in, as she was two months pregnant. Silvia Sepúlveda finally decided to do so because "they had taken her parents, as well as Anselmo's parents and a younger sister, as hostages."

Indeed, on the night of September 13, 1973, armed military personnel detained José del Carmen Cancino Yáñez and Clotilde Aravena Aravena, Anselmo Cancino's parents, as well as Eunice Cancino Aravena, his 14-year-old sister.

The couple was held for 19 days in the jail, while the girl remained deprived of liberty, also in the Linares jail, for a month and a half. Silvia Sepúlveda presented herself to the Mother Superior of the Buen Pastor Women's Correctional House in Linares on September 22, 1973; the nun decided to call the Bishop of that city so that he could present her to the authorities.

Silvia Sepúlveda remained incommunicado for 58 days at the Linares Artillery School and was later held for more than a year and a half at the Buen Pastor. During the period of incommunicado detention, she was intensely tortured and frequently threatened that they would kill her child, who was born on April 11, 1974.

Meanwhile, Anselmo Cancino sought refuge in various homes of friends and supporters of the deposed government, all of whom were subsequently detained for having helped him. Among them were Viviana Montecinos, Elsa Arcoverde, Olivia de Rodríguez, César Bravo, and the latter's youngest daughter, María Inés Bravo.

César Bravo sheltered the fugitive in his home and later transported him to a sawmill in Cauquenes, where he was detained on December 8, 1973. Detective Héctor Torres Guajardo participated in his detention and also took part in the interrogations and duress to which Silvia Sepúlveda was subjected.

The latter stated that Anselmo Cancino was seen at the Linares Artillery Regiment or School by numerous people, including Viviana Montecinos, Norma Montecinos, and Norma Rodríguez. Physical education teacher Alejandro Robinson Méndez Morales also saw and spoke with him; years later, he would provide his testimony to the Tribunal investigating the victim's disappearance.

Silvia Sepúlveda identified the person who tortured her the most as Captain Claudio Lecaros Carrasco, who is also pointed out by other witnesses as the primary interrogator of Anselmo Cancino. When they appeared before the court, both Detective Torres and Officer Lecaros denied their participation in the events.

Representatives of the International Red Cross visited Anselmo Cancino when he was held incommunicado at the Linares Artillery Regiment and, later, when judicially requested, they placed this fact on record.

They also visited Silvia Sepúlveda, who asked them about him; the representatives replied that they had been with Cancino, that he was being held incommunicado but was in good condition, that he was, in turn, asking about her, and that his incommunicado status would be lifted.

For her part, Viviana Montecinos Parra declared under oath that, starting on December 14, 1973, she saw Anselmo Cancino at the Artillery Regiment for five days: "he remained sitting on the floor and was in very poor physical condition; I only saw him try to stand up once, only managing to do so enough to sit on a bench."

In 1974, a member of the Artillery School informed the family that Anselmo Cancino had been taken out of the school at night along with Guillermo del Canto, María Isabel Beltrán Sánchez, Alejandro Mella Flores, Hernán Contreras Cabrera, and José Gabriel Campos Morales, all of whom are currently forcibly disappeared. Since that date, the whereabouts of Anselmo Cancino Aravena remain unknown.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On January 22, 1980, José del Carmen Cancino Yáñez filed a complaint for the alleged disappearance of his son, Anselmo Cancino Aravena, before the Second Criminal Court of Linares, which was registered under case file No. 5227 of that tribunal.

On January 30, 1980, Minister of the Interior Enrique Montero Marx stated that his State Secretariat possessed no records regarding that person.

Viviana Montecinos Parra appeared on February 8, 1980, and stated that she had spent five days with Anselmo Cancino at the Linares Artillery Regiment. Later, on June 7, 1990, she expanded her statements to say that while she was at the Artillery Regiment, she heard Anselmo's screams and moans while he was being interrogated, and that those doing so were Detective Torres and Captain Lecaros.

However, the Acting Director of the Linares Artillery School, Gustavo Larraín Agüero, stated on January 31, 1980, that Anselmo Antonio Cancino Aravena "has never been detained in this Military Institute." That report was ratified by the titular Director of that Institute on December 26, 1980.

For her part, Silvia Inés Sepúlveda Bueno, Cancino's girlfriend, testified extensively on March 14, 1980, corroborating everything she knew about the victim's detention, and was later summoned several more times during the proceedings, appearing for the last time on June 7, 1990.

In support of the latter, the International Committee of the Red Cross informed the Tribunal on March 10, 1980, that Anselmo Cancino had been visited by delegates of that organization on December 15, 1973, at the Linares Artillery School.

Detective Héctor Torres Guajardo, after being repeatedly summoned, appeared before the tribunal on December 10, 1980, to say that "I have never interrogated the person mentioned, whom I do not know, and I have never had him standing at the Linares Artillery School, as is pointed out to me."

Captain Claudio Lecaros, identified as one of Cancino's main interrogators, did not initially appear in case file 5227 of the Second Criminal Court of Linares. However, he did so in another case that the Tribunal reviewed regarding the disappearance of Alejandro Mella Flores (case file 42.198 of the First Criminal Court of Linares) and stated that he did not remember the people detained at the Linares Artillery Regiment "due to their lack of political importance." In contrast, in that same trial, Raúl Abelardo Díaz Jara, an Army Lieutenant who served at the Regiment from August to December 1973, said: "my specific task was to keep the index card file of the detainees. My hierarchical superior was Captain Claudio Lecaros. The only one I remember is the detainee Cancino Aravena due to his notoriety."

On April 14, 1981, the Tribunal declared the summary closed and immediately issued a temporary stay of proceedings because the crime had not been proven. The Talca Court of Appeals approved that resolution on April 30, 1981.

On May 9, 1989, the reopening of the summary was requested, with the victim's father filing a criminal complaint. Attached to it were newspaper clippings from the time of the Military Coup that published Bando No. 14 and photographs of Anselmo Cancino; new evidence was provided, and numerous investigative steps were requested.

The Court immediately ordered the investigation to be reopened and also ordered the unarchiving of the case regarding the disappearance of Alejandro Mella Flores for review.

The International Red Cross confirmed, once again, on May 29, 1989, the visit its delegates made to Anselmo Cancino on December 15, 1973.

On August 10, 1989, the Minister of Defense reported that Major Raúl Abelardo Díaz Jara was currently serving at the General Command of the Army Garrison of the Metropolitan Region and that Claudio Lecaros Carrasco had retired from that branch of the Armed Forces.

Having located the latter's address through the Civil Registry, he was summoned to appear on November 14, 1989, and declared extensively that at the time of the Military Coup, he performed administrative duties, and his only responsibility was to review the detainees' records.

María Inés Bravo Torres, who had been detained and sent to the Linares Artillery Regiment for having sheltered people sought by military authorities in her home along with her father, appeared before the tribunal on June 7, 1990.

She recalled that "one day in one of the hallways of the Linares Artillery School, I spotted Anselmo Cancino; I saw him from behind, he was wearing a black wool poncho, and when I was going to the bathroom, he turned around and I saw his face and recognized him as Anselmo Cancino; he was sitting and I saw him looking very pale.

I must add that, during the days I remained in the galleries, I heard screams and moans of pain from men, and I believe they came from rooms adjacent to those used to take our statements."

On June 21, 1990, Darko Jaime Tapia Alvarez, a former MIR militant who, in that capacity, knew Anselmo Cancino in Linares, appeared before the Tribunal. He was detained on September 25, 1973, and taken to the Linares Artillery Regiment, where he remained until the end of December 1973.

While waiting to be interrogated, on one occasion he saw two people leading Anselmo Cancino, each holding an arm, as the prisoner had his hands tied behind his back, entering a room with him. "Next," he adds, "I only heard Anselmo's screams and laments inside that room, and after a while, they brought him out between two men, dragging him; they took him into another room, leaving the door only slightly closed, and through a gap in the door, I could see that Anselmo was lying there on the floor." He corroborated that the detective surnamed Torres and Captain Lecaros participated in the duress and interrogations of Cancino, as well as a Sergeant Aguilar and a Commander Cabezas.

On that same day, June 21, 1990, Gabriel del Río Espinoza, who served as Director of the Linares Artillery School on September 11, 1973, appeared before the Court. He acknowledged that he drafted Bando No. 14, which ordered the presentation of Cancino and other people, and noted that the denunciations were often made by private individuals.

Due to the shortage of personnel in his regiment, Carabineros and Investigations officers collaborated in the detentions and interrogations, and he does not remember the name of Anselmo Cancino due to the number of people interrogated.

On June 28, 1990, Alejandro Robinson Méndez Morales, who was a MIR sympathizer at the time of the Coup d'État, appeared before the tribunal. He was detained in October 1973 at the Artillery Regiment, and on one occasion, while sitting facing the wall, he discovered a hole and, in his words, "I looked to the other side and there was Anselmo Cancino in a room, alone and standing; Detective Torres realized I was looking to the other side, so he ordered me to turn back toward the windows that faced the patio; a while later, they made me enter a room where Anselmo Cancino was also present, and we exchanged a few words." Later, an official took him to another room where, according to his testimony, "another of our comrades was; it was Guillermo del Canto, with whom I also had the opportunity to exchange a few words."

On July 23, 1990, Claudio Lecaros Carrasco appeared again and denied ever having interrogated the detainees. By that date, the Tribunal had summoned Raúl Abelardo Díaz Jara no fewer than fifteen times, without achieving his appearance.

On August 2, 1990, the Third Military Court of Concepción asked the Second Criminal Court of Linares to refrain from continuing to hear case file 5227 because military personnel were potentially involved in the events. On August 30, 1990, the Civil Court did not accept the incompetence and sent the proceedings to the Supreme Court.

On October 26, 1990, the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court submitted an extensive report to that tribunal stating that the case should continue to be heard by the Second Criminal Court of Linares. However, on December 11, 1990, the Supreme Court decided that the III Military Court of Concepción was the competent body to continue the processing of the case.

On December 27, 1990, the proceedings were transferred to the Military Prosecutor's Office of Talca under case file 800 90.

The latter Tribunal did not carry out any investigative steps and, on May 13, 1991, declared the summary closed. On May 15, 1991, it issued a temporary stay of proceedings because the crime had not been proven.

However, the III Military Court set aside that resolution and ordered the reopening of the proceedings, ordering a series of investigative steps, including a new interrogation of Héctor Torres, official letters to the Civil Registry, International Police, Legal Medical Institute, International Red Cross, etc. (the latter organization responded, in the same sense as it had twice before, on August 7, 1991).

Héctor Torres was summoned repeatedly and was finally arrested so that he would appear on October 23, 1991, to repeat what he had said previously.

On October 24, 1991, the Military Prosecutor's Office of Talca again declared the summary closed and issued a temporary stay of proceedings on October 31 of that year, which was approved by the III Military Court on December 13, 1991.

The Martial Court heard the appeal against the temporary stay of proceedings and, on April 21, 1992, revoked the stay and ordered the Talca Prosecutor's Office to reopen the summary. As of the date of this report, the case remained in progress.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity