We address you in our capacity as human rights organizations of Temuco, in order to responsibly express a situation of extreme gravity in which, we believe, that University must assume a decisive role by clarifying it and adopting measures that are in full accordance with its severity, thereby providing society in general—and not just the human rights community—with a very clear and unequivocal signal regarding the matter in question, which we will outline below.

Without it being our purpose to dwell or elaborate on the role that Universities, in every era and in every place, have played and continue to play in the development of societies as centers of learning, knowledge, and the development of a deeply humanist and tolerant spirit, we wish to state our conviction that you and we share a similar assessment regarding this role of Universities.

Through a very responsible and objective account of the facts that concern us, we want you to be informed of them, to weigh and value them on their merits given their gravity, and to adopt the corresponding measures, as one of those involved is part of the academic staff of that institution of higher learning.

On Thursday the 21st of last week, the Temuco Court of Appeals, by resolution of one of its Chambers, agreed to keep three former members of the Central Nacional de Informaciones (C.N.I.) detained at the Tucapel Regiment and granted release on bail to Dr.

Luis Burgos. All of them are accused of the crime of torture; the first three prosecuted as perpetrators of said crime and the latter as an accomplice. This resolution of the Court of Appeals was adopted while reviewing case file Rol 113075, which is being processed by the Visiting Judge, Mr.

Fernando Carreño, who, as a result of the investigation he is conducting following the complaint filed by several victims on October 15, 2003, has determined the responsibility that the four accused bear in the commission of the crime of torture against political prisoners.

Our purpose in providing you with this background is to focus on the case of Dr. Luis Burgos and to explore the reprehensible conduct in which he has engaged. From the information emerging from the ongoing proceedings, his direct participation in the torture applied against a group of people who had been detained by the C.N.I. and who remained in a secret facility of this repressive agency in January 1986 is clear and unequivocal.

Torture—and on this we have no doubt that we will fully agree with you, Mr. Rector—is an unacceptable and reprehensible practice, as it is considered a crime against humanity and must, therefore, be confronted, denounced, and combated with particular force and vehemence by every member of society and every segment thereof; this is the only way to eradicate it and to preserve the social body from its infestation.

And it seems to us even more unacceptable and more condemnable when such practice is carried out by doctors, which unfortunately occurred in our country during that period of recent history that so deeply marked, damaged, and divided us.

This is the case of Dr. Luis Burgos, a professional trained and prepared by a Chilean University to care for and preserve human life, to watch over the health of his fellow human beings, but who, irreversibly violating the Hippocratic Oath, destroying ethical and moral precepts at their very foundations, and overturning every scale of values, practiced torture with impunity as a doctor for the Central Nacional de Informaciones.

We do not believe we are mistaken if we maintain that the situation of Dr. Burgos has characteristics of even greater gravity and is more reprehensible than that of the other three defendants. This is because he, as a doctor, directed the actions of the torturers, indicating to them how long to apply the torment, where to focus the torture, and when to stop it.

He, with his knowledge of the human body, graduated and dosed the application of the torments. He was, in fact, the master of the situation that was being experienced and the superior responsible for what occurred there.

He, as a doctor, placed his medical knowledge at the service of torture. From that moment on, and forever, he opted for death, for the suffering of others, for pain, for denigrating and mocking the human person.

He thus renounced, from that moment on, the defense of human life; he abdicated his duty to always preserve the health of others and denied the dignity inherent to them as persons endowed with rights that are their own by virtue of their condition.

Mr. Rector, these are the facts in which Dr. Luis Burgos is involved, and if we bring them to your attention, it is because we have learned with concern and alarm that he serves as an academic in the Faculty of Medicine at the Universidad de La Frontera.

As a conclusion to all of this, an irrepressible question arises and settles in the collective consciousness: How is it possible that he has served and continues to serve as an academic at the University?

How is it possible that someone who has demonstrated in an undeniable way the most absolute contempt for non-negotiable ethical and moral values still has responsibility today in the training of future doctors?

Society as a whole, Mr. Rector, expects answers to these questions, and the tremendous responsibility rests with you and all the academic authorities of that institution of higher learning to provide clear, powerful, and instructive signals that demonstrate that you are not willing to make room in your classrooms for those who have gravely violated human rights, as is the case of Luis Burgos.

Sincerely, CARLOS OLIVA TRONCOSO, President of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared and Political Executions. ENRIQUE PÉREZ RUBILAR, President of the Association of Former Political Prisoners.

JUAN AYENAO CATRENA, Ethical Commission Against Torture.

VÍCTOR MATURANA BURGOS, Coordinator of the Center for Research and Promotion of Human Rights (CINPRODH).

Source: AFDD, AFEP, and the Association of Former Political Prisoners, June 27, 2007

4 former CNI agents convicted for illegal coercion against UFRO students

The military personnel accused of committing illegal coercion against a group of students from the Universidad de La Frontera were convicted by the judge investigating human rights violations. The 4 retired military personnel were part of a command of the feared Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) in Cautín.

They are former officers Jorge Palacios Mery and Pedro Guzmán Olivares, as well as non-commissioned officers Erasmo Segundo Bravo and Benito Rapimán Saavedra, who were accused of the crime of illegal coercion against a dozen students from the Universidad de La Frontera that occurred in 1986 at the CNI headquarters in Temuco.

When consulted by the radio, Judge Álvaro Mesa, who succeeded the cases investigated by Judge Fernando Carreño, specified that these are ratified and fully enforceable convictions. All of the retired uniformed personnel were prosecuted for torture in an event that affected 13 young leftists, detained in January 1986 in the commune of Lautaro and subsequently transferred to the CNI headquarters, located on Calle Miraflores in Temuco, where they were subjected to episodes of physical and psychological violence.

In this same case, and in his capacity as an accomplice, Dr. Luis Burgos San Juan was prosecuted, and for humanitarian reasons, the Temuco Court of Appeals previously released the former army official Isaías Rubilar, who eventually died of cancer.

Source: Radio Bio-Bio.cl, July 11, 2012