Occupation: Architecture graduate, Professor at the School of Architecture, Universidad de Chile, Valparaíso campus. Political Affiliation: Militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) Date of Detention: September 20, 1974

Carlos Alfredo Gajardo Wolff, married, one daughter, architecture graduate, and MIR militant, left his home on Calle José Domingo Cañas in the city of Santiago, where he resided with his sister Mónica Gajardo Wolff, on September 20, 1974, at approximately 13:30 hours. He stated that he would return before 16:00 hours, which did not happen; he has been forcibly disappeared to this day.

The victim lived in Valparaíso and was a student leader for the MIR at the School of Architecture of the Universidad de Chile, Valparaíso campus. He graduated in 1973 and, although he did not manage to receive his professional degree, he taught classes at the same institution.

He was heavily sought after in Valparaíso from the first days of the Military Coup: at his mother-in-law's house in Viña del Mar, at his own home at Pasaje Leyton 157, apartment 41, Cerro Alegre, and even at his father's house in Concepción.

His spouse, Eliana Cerrani Bórquez, was detained in October-November 1973 due to the search for the victim.

For these reasons, Carlos Gajardo moved to Santiago to his sister Mónica's house, located on Calle José Domingo Cañas, in June 1974.

On September 20, 1974, the victim left the house at 13:30 hours to meet with another MIR militant, warning his sister that he would be back before 16:00 hours. This did not happen, and it is well-founded to presume that his detention occurred on that day and occasion.

Although there are no eyewitnesses to the apprehension, it is known through the testimonies of former detainees that he was held at the DINA facility known as 4 Alamos.

Cristián Van Yurick Altamirano stated that "...among the people I saw in October 1974 in room 13... (referring to Cuatro Alamos) was Carlos Gajardo Wolff, 'pelao', an architect...". In the same vein, Manuel José Salinas Letelier recounted that "...between August and October 1974, I was in room 13 with DINA detainees, many of whom appeared on the list of the 119 MIR members killed in clashes abroad...

I remember... Carlos Gajardo...".

For his part, Hermann E. Schwember Fernández stated that "...around October 25, 1974, a group of prisoners from room 13 was taken to an unknown destination. Among them, in addition to Antonio Llidó, I remember Ariel Salinas and Carlos Gajardo Wolff, an architect."

His name was included on July 23, 1975, on the list of Chileans allegedly killed abroad, which was reproduced by national media from an Argentine publication, the magazine "LEA." The magazine's circulation was limited to a single issue, with no responsible editor, and it published a list of 60 people, all of whom were actually Chileans detained by the Chilean military government's security services who remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On October 15, 1974, his mother filed a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) with the Santiago Court of Appeals, which was registered under No. 1265. During the processing of the writ, inquiries to various authorities were met with negative responses.

On November 5, 1975, the then-Minister of the Interior, General César Raúl Benavides, reported that he was not in detention and that the Ministry was unaware of his whereabouts. On November 21, 1974, the Ministry of National Defense reported that Carlos Gajardo W. had not been reported to the Military Justice system and "has no records." On November 25, 1974, the Court issued an order to the Chief of the 3 Alamos camp requesting information about the detainee; it reiterated the order on December 26, 1974, and upon receiving no response, ordered an order to be sent on February 3, 1975, to the Minister of National Defense, noting that the Camp Commander had not provided the report. Finally, on February 14, 1975, the Court received a response from the Ministry of Defense stating that the National Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET) had no records of this person.

For her part, the mother of the detainee, Mrs. Mary Wolff de Gajardo, stated in a document dated February 19, 1975, that her son had been transferred from "3 Alamos" to the Polytechnic School under the Army's Maintenance Factory (FAMAE), located on Calle Pedro Montt in Santiago, and requested that the Chief of that institution be ordered to verify this information.

The Court accepted the request and issued an order on February 21, 1975, and similarly ordered an inquiry to the Ministry of the Interior on March 5, 1975. On March 14, 1975, Colonel Hernán Ramírez Ramírez, Chief of Staff of the State of Siege Zone Headquarters, responded that this Headquarters "has no records of Carlos Gajardo Wolff" and noted that "in the future, I would appreciate it if this Illustrious Court would send amparos to this Headquarters and not process them through military departments and/or units that are dependent on this Headquarters, as these are matters that do not concern them."

On April 2, 1975, Raúl Benavides Escobar, Minister of the Interior, responded that, according to inquiries made by that State Secretariat, there was no Polytechnic School dependent on FAMAE.

Finally, on April 4, 1975, the writ of amparo was rejected by the Court, "taking into account the reports from the consulted authorities, all of which were negative," and it ordered the records to be sent to the First Criminal Court of Santiago to initiate proceedings to investigate the disappearance of Carlos Gajardo Wolff.

On April 15, 1975, it was ordered to initiate a summary investigation in the case registered under No. 106.822 of the First Criminal Court of Santiago. The judge issued an investigation order and requested information from the Legal Medical Institute, emergency clinics, and the National Health Service Headquarters to see if the disappeared person had been admitted to any of those establishments.

The Investigations police reported on May 12, 1975, that inquiries made at SENDET, the Legal Medical Institute, the Civil Registry, the Public Jail, various emergency clinics, and other sources of information yielded no positive results.

The Legal Medical Institute responded in the same manner on May 6, 1975, as did the Chief of Public Assistance, Dr. Emilio Salinas. By virtue of these records, the summary was declared closed on May 29, 1975, and because the existence of the crime was not legally proven, the case was temporarily dismissed—a resolution that was approved by the Court of Appeals on July 28, 1975.

However, in the first half of 1975, case A 637 75 was initiated in Valparaíso, where the War Council's sentence dated March 29, 1976, mentions Carlos Gajardo Wolff as an accused declared in rebellion. Others named in the same situation included: Fabián Ibarra Córdova, Horacio Carabantes Olivares, Antonio Llidó Amengual, Carlos Rioseco Espinoza, Juantock Yanctog Guzmán, Mario Calderón Tapia, and Alfredo García Vega, all of whom are forcibly disappeared, just like the victim.

They all shared a common political militancy and the city where they practiced it, Valparaíso; furthermore, they were all detained between the second half of 1974 and the first three months of 1975.

No further official news was ever received about any of them, and they remain forcibly disappeared to this day.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad

Tribute to Máximo Gedda, Yactong Juantok Guzman, Carlos Gajardo Wolf, Mario Calderon Tapia, Ricardo Solar Miranda, Rabito, Cesar, and Amador Del Fierro Liliana.

My memory of David is warm, like those summer nights of '72 when we fervently sang the Spanish poets in the songs of Paco Ibañez. We were unaware then of what the future held for us. Our hearts beat to the same pulse, and carried away by our ideas, we spent hours talking, leaning on one another: romantic, idealistic, committed. "When nothing personally exciting is expected anymore, one pulses and continues beyond consciousness, fiercely existing, blindly affirming like a pulse that strikes the darkness." "When one looks directly into the dizzying clear eyes of death, the truths are told, the barbaric, terrible, loving cruelties... Poetry for the poor, poetry necessary like daily bread, like the air we demand thirteen times a minute... It is not a drop-by-drop thought-out poetry, it is not a beautiful product, it is not the perfect fruit, it is the most necessary thing, that which has no name, they are shouts in the sky and on earth, they are acts" (Poetry is a weapon loaded with the future: Gabriel Celaya). "We are who we are, enough of history and stories, let the dead bury their dead as God commands. We do not live in the past, nor do we wind up the memory... We nourish ourselves from all that was, transforming ourselves we grow, and so we are who we are, blow by blow, dead by dead... To the streets, for it is time to walk in the flesh and show that, since we live, we announce something new..." (Spain in March: Gabriel Celaya). "They will call me, they will call us all... We will turn into a ring of crystal before death, ... and you will expose yourself, we will all expose ourselves, to being shattered... !Zap! By a bullet. You know it well, they will come for you, for me, for everyone. No one is saved here, not even God: they murdered him..." (They will call me: Blas Otero). We were concentrated for 2 weeks, so close to one another that separating, each returning to their own affairs, made us search for each other until we found ourselves in others. "From the depths of you, and kneeling, a sad child, like me, watches us... I love the love of sailors who kiss and leave... One day they lie down with death in the bed of the sea" (Farewell, Pablo Neruda). Sometimes I do not perceive his call from my winged tower of a lonely old man, but there are days I feel the sex awaken and I go to the female, to beg for a kiss; and I know then that I will never kiss the soul of one who cannot call me comrade... I know that the perfumes of pure values will fill my mind with fertile wings. I know that I will leave the agnostic pleasures of copulating ideas without practical functions. (fragment: Ernesto Che Guevara). From that time whose warmth endures to this day, I keep this poem that Maximo wrote on the back of a document from the era: "The painting, the backbone of the revolution" (Ernesto Che Guevara). Comrade, you have not awakened with me as could be expected according to the natural course of rivers, or according to the orientation of the wind. Either you have not waited for me, or perhaps I arrived late, when you were no longer waiting. When you imagined me in the midst of the clear ideology that drives us or in the midst of the bustle of engines and horns. And the distance became a reason, a concrete word, and it was not possible to deny it, despite the hands squeezed with insistence, despite the hurried kisses, despite your profile and mine and the long farewells and the short encounters in the middle of the road. "Opening the way to the history of our people and a new stage in our lives..." As you say. "!Bound!"-As I say. Maximo Gedda, Arica, March '72. If I have lost my life, time... everything that was mine and turned out to be nothing, if I have reaped the shadows in silence, the word remains for me. If I opened my eyes to see the pure and terrible face of my homeland, if I opened my lips until they tore, the word remains for me... (The word remains for me: Blas Otero).

Source: archivochile.com, undated

"...An undetermined day in the month of October 1974" and a judicial ruling 47 years later unite two men who share more than just the last time they were seen alive in a dictatorship detention and torture center.

The nebulous "undetermined day" from which they remain disappeared, as the ruling in both cases points out, is not the only thing Carlos Gajardo Wolff and Luis Guendelman Wisniak share. Those close to these idealistic architects do not have proof that they knew each other before their detention.

However, one in Valparaíso and the other in Santiago, each chose the path of building a new and more just society.

Carlos Gajardo, grandson of German immigrants, was born on July 26, 1940, in Concepción, to a "secular, provincial, austere middle-class family with a great sense of social responsibility," describes his life partner Eliana Ceriani.

A classmate, Edgardo Enríquez, would become a close friend and, later, a fellow militant. After finishing his sixth year of humanities, he left for Valparaíso to be part of the pioneering generation of the new faculty—at first, a "course"—of architecture at the Universidad de Chile in Valparaíso.

He is remembered as having a luminous personality, outstanding both for his physique—tall, light brown hair, thick old-fashioned mustache—and for his human quality, solidarity, and leadership, which was confirmed by his election in 1961 as president of the student center and his subsequent re-election for two more terms. "Carlos had an undeniable influence on many of us.

Without him, the dreams that inflamed us in that era probably would not have been as intense, and we would not have the feeling today that, above all the pain, it was worth living those agitated university years in the old School on Calle Blanco," affirms a fellow architect.

Source: elclarin.cl, 16/11/2021 Date: 16-11-2021

Santiago Court Orders the State to Compensate Brother of Forcibly Disappeared Person

The Santiago Court of Appeals ordered the State to pay compensation of $50,000,000 (fifty million pesos) to the brother of CARLOS ALFREDO GAJARDO WOLFF, who has been a forcibly disappeared person since September 20, 1974.

In the ruling (case file 1.898-2020), the Fourth Chamber of the appellate court—composed of judges Juan Cristóbal Mera, Lilian Leyton, and Tomás Gray—revoked the challenged ruling issued by the Twenty-Eighth Civil Court of Santiago, which had denied the claim by considering that the statute of limitations had expired.

"Regarding the exception of the statute of limitations raised by the State of Chile in its response to the lawsuit, it is sufficient to cite the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on the matter, which this Court of Appeals shares and adopts, and which changes the old criterion that that court maintained in this regard," the ruling states.

The resolution adds: "The Supreme Court has said that 'the issue of fundamental rights constitutes a system built on particular criteria, inherent to the nature of the act, and for that reason, it is not possible to interpret the norms that regulate them in isolation, because any conclusion reached in such circumstances will necessarily be contrary to this legal system.

When the aforementioned norm is not applied, it is violated, and the article 5 of the Political Constitution of the Republic is also infringed, which, along with recognizing the binding nature of International Law instruments, establishes that the exercise of sovereignty recognizes as a limitation the respect for essential rights that emanate from human nature, and the duty of State organs to respect and promote fundamental rights, among which must also be understood the right to compensation that has been invoked in these proceedings' (file 2080-08), adding that the right that victims and their families have regarding human rights violations and political violence by State agents to receive compensation carries with it the reparation of all damage they may have suffered, 'which is made possible by the reception of International Human Rights Law into Chilean Domestic Law, in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned article 5 of the Political Constitution of the Republic,' which is why it can only be concluded that it is not correct to resolve the dispute by adhering solely to the general rules established in the Civil Code regarding the statute of limitations for common civil actions for damages on which the ruling is based, as they contradict those norms of International Human Rights Law that protect the right to receive Reparation."

"Among these latter norms, it is worth citing articles 5, second paragraph, and 6 of the Political Constitution of the Republic, in relation to articles 1.1 and 63.1 of the American Convention on Human Rights, which stipulate that the State's responsibility for this type of event is subject to International Law provisions and cannot remain unfulfilled under the pretext of prioritizing other domestic law precepts," it adds.

"The Supreme Court has also pointed out in a ruling issued in case file 22.856-15, in a doctrine that this appellate court adopts, that in the case of a crime against humanity, as is the case of the detention and subsequent disappearance of Mr.

Carlos Alfredo Gajardo Wolff, whose criminal prosecution is imprescriptible, 'it is not coherent to conclude that the correlative civil compensation action is subject to the statute of limitations norms contemplated in domestic civil law, since this contradicts the express will manifested by international Human Rights regulations, which are part of the national legal order, in harmony with the second paragraph of article 5 of the Fundamental Charter, which establishes the right of victims and other legitimate holders to obtain due reparation for all damages suffered as a consequence of the illicit act, and even by domestic law itself, which, by virtue of Law No. 19.123, explicitly recognized the undeniable existence of the damages and also granted economic or pecuniary benefits to the families of those classified as forcibly disappeared and political executions, due to human rights violations in the 1973-1990 period,'" it concludes.

Decision adopted with the dissenting vote of Judge Mera, who was in favor of confirming the challenged ruling.

Source: adprensa.cl, September 8, 2020 Date: 08-09-2020

FAU Inaugurates Patio of Memory in Tribute to Victims of September 11

Nine members of the community of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the Universidad de Chile were detained and subsequently disappeared following the 1973 military coup. In their tribute, a commemorative act was held in which the Patio of Memory was inaugurated in their honor.

One student, seven graduates, and one academic, mostly under 30 years of age, were the victims of human rights violations that occurred after the 1973 Coup d'État. Some were detained and disappeared a few days after September 11, while others were detained and executed or disappeared in the course of 1973, 1974, and 1976.

In the commemorative act held on September 11, 2019, at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU), Dean Manuel Amaya recounted his experience and testimony of September 11, 1973. As a student, on the 11th itself, he headed to the Faculty of Architecture of the Universidad de Chile, but in the center of Santiago, he could not continue his usual route due to the movements of military personnel and civilians and the great tension at La Moneda and its surroundings.

Trying to take refuge in a nearby house, he could hear shots, military jeeps traveling at high speed through the streets, and witness the ferocity of the events by seeing a large number of people wounded and killed by bullet impacts.

Along with his testimony, Dean Amaya noted that "memory is the capacity to remember that marks and leaves a trace of its work in a silent, yet persistent way. In this act, we want to honor the memory of those who lost their lives, suffered torture, lost their jobs, saw their families broken, had to go into exile, or suffered the disappearance of some of their own."

During the act, which included the participation of academics, staff, and students, the Patio of Memory was inaugurated through a plaque that reads: "A memory of all those who have been part of our community, whose dreams and ideals enriched the FAU, September 11, 2019."

In this regard, the Dean noted that: "we have proposed naming this place the Patio of Memory which, with its trees, shadows, and silences, stimulates reflection, hope, and promotes understanding."

Finally, the highest authority of the FAU noted that "I believe that as a society, University, and Faculty, we must promote the construction of a collective project where dialogue and mutual respect predominate; let us project a more just, tolerant, and fraternal country."

Throughout the day, FAU students carried out various activities and interventions in tribute to the members of the FAU community who were forcibly disappeared and executed, as well as to all the students of the Universidad de Chile who were victims of the military dictatorship.

Our tribute and memory to all those who are no longer with us but who enriched the FAU with their ideals, struggle, and example:

Mario Peña Solari, Student of the School of Architecture of the Universidad de Chile, detained on December 9, 1974. Luis Guendelman Wisniak, Graduate of the School of Architecture of the Universidad de Chile, detained on September 2, 1974.

Yactong Juantok Guzmán, Graduate of the School of Architecture of the Universidad de Chile, Valparaíso campus, detained on September 12, 1973. Ida Vera Almarza, Architect of the Universidad de Chile, detained on November 19, 1974.

Carlos Gajardo Wolf, Graduate of the School of Architecture of the Universidad de Chile, Valparaíso campus, detained on September 20, 1974. Leopoldo Benítez Herrera, Architect of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, murdered on September 17, 1973.

Alejandro Rodríguez Urzúa, Architect of the Universidad de Chile, detained on July 27, 1976. Francisco Aedo Carrasco, Architect of the Universidad de Chile, detained on September 7, 1974. Freddy Taberna Gallegos, Geographer of the Universidad de Chile, murdered on October 30, 1973.

Source: fau.chile.cl, 12/9/2019 Date: 12-09-2019

Event seeks to perpetuate the memory of Carlos Gajardo, Yactong Juantok, and Francisco Aedo.

The Faculty of Architecture held an emotional tribute to alumni CARLOS ALFREDO GAJARDO WOLFF and Yactong Juantok Guzmán, and to academic Francisco Aedo Carrasco, who have been forcibly disappeared since September 1973.

The tribute consisted of planting a cherry tree in the courtyard as a way to perpetuate their memory. In 2016, the Universidad de Valparaíso awarded posthumous degrees to the graduates and an academic distinction to Professor Aedo.

The ceremony was attended by family and friends of the forcibly disappeared, along with UV authorities, including Osvaldo Corrales, Secretary General; Cristián Moyano, Internal Comptroller; and David Carrillo, Director of Extension and Communications.

Speeches were delivered by Carlos Lara, Secretary of the Faculty of Architecture; Juan Luis Moraga, Dean; Camila Satt, representing the Faculty's student body; Osvaldo Bizama, Director of the School of Architecture; Cristóbal Sepúlveda, from the FEUV Human Rights and Legal Defense Office; and Eliana Ceriani, widow of Carlos Gajardo.

The event also brought together academics, students, and staff, who laid floral offerings at the Faculty's memorial.

Memory to understand the present

Eliana Ceriani, widow of Carlos Gajardo, stated that “for the family and for the profession, these permanent reminders held by the School of Architecture are very important, because the bereaved and the closest community gather seeking the persistence of memory, which helps us understand the present.

What happened in Chile must be a wake-up call to new generations, so that this never happens again.”

Dean Juan Luis Moraga indicated that “the meaning of this tribute is to remember the quality of the people they were and the way they lived. All three had a commitment to the country and society, a very intense family loyalty, and a great intellectual obligation to their profession and to art. They were exemplary people, and today's youth should approach them and get to know them.”

Nina Satt, a Film student and representative of the Faculty's students, noted that “this event is profoundly shocking, because it is not only about people who are no longer here, but about those who were inhabiting the space we are in now. But that moment of closure is over; now other revisions are coming.”

Poetry written in confinement

Within the framework of the so-called Week of Memory, the UV Student Federation held a cultural intervention at the Comprehensive Student Care Center (CIAE), hanging poems written by people imprisoned during the dictatorship.

Valeria Verdejo, Secretary General of the FEUV, spokesperson for Confech, and Sociology student, noted that “we believe it is necessary for UV students, staff, and academics to remember what happened 45 years ago.

We are interested in people understanding that the struggle of these people was not in vain and that we must continue on that path, deepening democracy and the participatory processes that we want to carry out both at the university and at the national level.”

Meanwhile, Matías Barrientos, Executive Secretary of the FEUV and Law graduate, indicated that “in Chile, people fought for a political project dichotomous to capitalism, and that is why people died. If we stand up today and take up the banners of those who fell, we must do so with that certainty.

In our country, not only were human rights transgressed, but dreams were also violated. If we want to build a country, we first need justice.”

Source: pdn.uv.cl September 14, 2018

Date: 09-14-2018

U. de Chile to award posthumous degrees to alumni murdered during the dictatorship

The symbolic recognition will be in memory of its students who lost their lives during the military regime.

The Universidad de Chile was authorized by the Office of the Comptroller of the Republic to award posthumous and symbolic degrees to alumni who were victims of political executions, as well as those who became forcibly disappeared during the military dictatorship.

The ceremony will take place next Monday the 11th at 12:30 at the Casa Central and will be led by the university rector, Ennio Vivaldi.

The list consists of 104 former students of the university who were murdered between 1973 and 1989. Among the victims is Jécar Nehgme, who is known for being the last person murdered by the dictatorship; he was found dead on September 4, 1989, on Calle General Bulnes.

Here is the complete list of decorated alumni:

1. Almonacid Dumenez, Luis Jorge. Social Work student. Forcibly disappeared. 2. Aldoney Vargas, Jaime. Journalism student. Political execution. 3. Andreoli Bravo, María Angélica. Nutrition and Dietetics student.

Forcibly disappeared. 4. Aranda Schmied, Pablo Ramón. Medicine student. Forcibly disappeared. 5. Araneda Pizzini, Dignaldo Herminio. Economics student. Forcibly disappeared. 6. Arredondo Andrade, Gabriela Edelweiss.

Pedagogy student. Forcibly disappeared. 7. Avello Avello, Oscar Eduardo. Medicine student. Forcibly disappeared. 8. Barrios Duque, Álvaro Miguel. English Pedagogy student. Forcibly disappeared. 9. Beltrán Sánchez, María Isabel.

Music Pedagogy student. Forcibly disappeared. 10. Binfa Contreras, Jacquelina del Carmen. Social Work student. Forcibly disappeared. 11. Boettiger Vera, Octavio Julio. Graduate of the School of Political and Administrative Sciences.

Forcibly disappeared. 12. Boncompte Andreu, Juan José. Economics student. Political execution. 13. Bustillos Cereceda, María Teresa. Social Work student. Forcibly disappeared. 14. Caldes Contreras, Jaime Humberto.

Political Science student. Political execution. 15. Castro Salvadores, Cecilia Gabriela. Law student. Forcibly disappeared. 16. Chanfreau Oyarce, Alfonso René. Philosophy student. Forcibly disappeared. 17.

Cid Urrutia, Washington. Sociology student. Forcibly disappeared. 18. Cornejo Campos, Raúl Guillermo. Psychology student. Forcibly disappeared. 19. Cortés Castro, Bernardo del Tránsito. Pedagogy student.

Political execution. 20. Cuevas Moya, Carlos Alberto. Geology student. Political execution. 21. De la Jara Goyeneche, Felix Santiago. History Pedagogy student. Forcibly disappeared. 22. Díaz Darricarrere, Carmen Margarita.

Nursing student. Forcibly disappeared. 23. Donoso Palacios, Sara de Lourdes. Nursing student. Forcibly disappeared. 24. D’Orival Briceño, Jorge Humberto. Veterinary Medicine graduate. Forcibly disappeared. 25.

Drouilly Yurich, Jacqueline Paulette. Social Work and Theater student. Forcibly disappeared. 26. Duran Rivas, Luis Eduardo. Journalism student. Forcibly disappeared. 27. Elgueta Diaz, Luis Enrique. Music Pedagogy student.

Forcibly disappeared. 28. Elgueta Pinto, Martín. Economics student. Forcibly disappeared. 29. Escobar Salinas, Ruth María. Dance student. Forcibly disappeared. 30. Espinoza Henríquez, Mamerto Eulogio. Former Technical Drawing student.

Forcibly disappeared. 31. Espinosa Méndez, Jorge Enrique. Philosophy student. Forcibly disappeared. 32. Figueras Ubach, Félix Francisco. History, Geography, and Civics student at the Pedagogical Institute.

Political execution. 33. Flores Garrido, José Edilio. Public Administration student. Political execution. 34. Flores Ponce, Sergio Arturo. Philosophy student. Forcibly disappeared. 35. Fuentes Riquelme, Luis Fernando.

Biology student. Forcibly disappeared. 36. GAJARDO WOLFF, CARLOS ALFREDO. Architecture graduate. Forcibly disappeared. 37. García Vega, Alfredo Gabriel. Social Work graduate. Forcibly disappeared. 38. Guajardo Zamorano, Luis Julio.

Engineering student. Forcibly disappeared. 39. Guendelman Wisniak, Luis Alberto. Architecture graduate. Forcibly disappeared. 40. Guerrero Gutiérrez, Carlos Eduardo. History Pedagogy student. Forcibly disappeared. 41.

Herrera Manríquez, Guillermo Hernán. Social Sciences student. Political execution. 42. Ibarra Echeverria, Carlos Leonardo. Pedagogy student. Political execution. 43. Ibarra Toledo, Juan Ernesto. Social Work student.

Forcibly disappeared. 44. Jorquera Encina, Mauricio Edmundo. Sociology student. Forcibly disappeared. 45. Joui Petersen, María Isabel. Economics student. Forcibly disappeared. 46. Juantock Guzmán, Yactong Orlando.

Architecture graduate. Forcibly disappeared. 47. Lagos Salinas, Carlos Eduardo. Pedagogy student. Political execution. 48. Lazo Rojas, Alonso. Spanish Pedagogy student. Forcibly disappeared. 49. Leiva Vargas, Juan Alberto.

Philosophy student. Forcibly disappeared. 50. Liendo Vera, José Gregorio. Former Agronomy student. Political execution. 51. López Stewart, María Cristina. History Pedagogy student. Forcibly disappeared. 52.

Matus de la Maza, Diego. Engineering graduate. Political execution. 53. Maza Carvajal, Enrique Antonio. Electrical Engineering student. Political execution. 54. Medina Hernández, Rodrigo Alejandro. Philosophy student.

Forcibly disappeared. 55. Meneses Reyes, Juan Aniceto. Economics student. Forcibly disappeared. 56. Montecinos Alfaro, Sergio Sebastián. Former Engineering student. Forcibly disappeared. 57. Montiglio Murua, Juan José.

Biology Pedagogy student. Forcibly disappeared. 58. Moreno Fuenzalida, Germán Rodolfo. Law student. Forcibly disappeared. 59. Munita Castillo, Patricio. Law student. Political execution. 60. Muñoz Andrade, Leopoldo Daniel.

Civil Construction student. Forcibly disappeared. 61. Muñoz Bizama, José Miguel. Music Conservatory student. Forcibly disappeared. 62. Nehgme Cristi, Jécar Antonio. History Pedagogy student. Political execution. 63.

Núñez Rojas, Luis Hernán. Pedagogy student. Forcibly disappeared. 64. Ortiz Moraga, Jorge Eduardo. Medicine student. Forcibly disappeared. 65. Palominos Rojas, Luis Jaime. French Horn student at the Music Conservatory.

Forcibly disappeared. 66. Parada González, Alejandro Arturo. Former Veterinary Medicine student. Forcibly disappeared. 67. Parada Valenzuela, Javier Ernesto. Agronomy student. Forcibly disappeared. 68.

Peña Solari, Mario Fernando. Architecture student. Forcibly disappeared. 69. Peña Solari, Nilda Patricia. Biology student. Forcibly disappeared. 70. Pérez Molina, Sergio Alfredo. History Pedagogy student.

Forcibly disappeared. 71. Pérez Vargas, Aldo Gonzalo. Sociology student. Forcibly disappeared. 72. Pérez Vargas, Iván Renato. Sociology student. Political execution. 73. Pérez Vargas, Mireya de Lourdes.

Pedagogy student. Political execution. 74. Quiroz Nilo, Patricia Angélica. Classical Languages student. Political execution. 75. Radrigán Plaza, Anselmo Osvaldo. Former Engineering student. Forcibly disappeared. 76.

Reyes González, Agustín Eduardo. Philosophy student. Forcibly disappeared. 77. Reyes Navarrete, Sergio Alfonso. Economics graduate. Forcibly disappeared. 78. Ríos Soto, Herbit Guillermo. History Pedagogy student.

Forcibly disappeared. 79. Robotham Bravo, Jaime Eugenio. Former Sociology student. Forcibly disappeared. 80. Ropert Contreras, Enrique. Economics student. Political execution. 81. Salamanca Morales, Ernesto Guillermo.

Philosophy student. Forcibly disappeared. 82. Salas Paradisi, Jorge Miguel. Mathematics Pedagogy student. Political execution. 83. Salazar Aguilera, José Alberto. Former Social Work student. Forcibly disappeared. 84.

Salcedo Morales, Carlos. Sociology student. Forcibly disappeared. 85. San Martín Vergara, Luis Dagoberto. Agronomy student. Forcibly disappeared. 86. Sarmiento Sabater, Hernán. Medicine student. Forcibly disappeared. 87.

Schneuer Yubero, Walter Carlos. Economics student. Political execution. 88. Sepúlveda Contreras, Daniel Mauricio. Labor Technician student. Forcibly disappeared. 89. Sepúlveda Guajardo, Renato. Medicine student.

Forcibly disappeared. 90. Sepúlveda Troncoso, Marcela Soledad. Audiophonology student. Forcibly disappeared. 91. Silva Saldívar, Gerardo Ernesto. Statistics student. Forcibly disappeared. 92. Silva Soto, Ricardo Cristian.

Chemistry and Pharmacy student. Political execution. 93. Soliz Poveda, Rosa. Nursing student. Forcibly disappeared. 94. Soto Cerda, Juan Ramón. Law student. Political execution. 95. Teruggi Bombatch, Frank Randall.

Student at the Center for Economic and Social Studies. Political execution. 96. Thauby Pacheco, Claudio Francisco. Sociology student. Forcibly disappeared. 97. Valenzuela Leiva, Luis Oscar. Sociology student.

Forcibly disappeared. 98. Vallejo Ferdinand, Guillermo Osvaldo. Law graduate. Political execution. 99. Vergara Toledo, Eduardo Antonio. History Pedagogy student. Political execution. 100. Victoriano Veloso, Gilberto de las Mercedes.

Social Work graduate. Political execution. 101. Videla Moya, Lumi. Sociology student. Political execution. 102. Villar Quijón, Elías Ricardo. Labor Technician student. Forcibly disappeared. 103. Zerega Ponce, Víctor Osvaldo. Bachelor in Economics. Political execution. 104. Ziede Gómez, Eduardo Humberto. Sociology student. Forcibly disappeared.

Source: t13.cl 09/09/2017

Date: 09-09-2017

Judge Guzmán strikes another blow against the DINA

In one of the prosecutions that ended up dismantling one of the main fabrications of the past dictatorship, investigating judge Juan Guzmán indicted ten former DINA agents, several of them from its senior staff, including former chief Manuel Contreras, for eight victims disappeared in what is known as Operation Colombo.

This is the second indictment issued by Judge Guzmán for this fabrication that occurred in 1975, the first being the one decreed on September 2, when the magistrate prosecuted 16 former agents for 37 victims of Colombo.

The resolutions adopted by Judge Guzmán in this episode constitute, as a whole, the most massive prosecution issued to date by this judge, and one of those covering the largest number of victims and defendants in the trials being conducted for human rights violations.

The accused, all retired and declared defendants as authors of qualified kidnapping, are, in addition to Contreras, the former chief of the DINA's Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade, General César Manríquez Bravo, brother of Mario, a colonel (R) charged as the intellectual author of the crime of Víctor Jara; the former second-in-command of the DINA, Brigadier Pedro Espinoza Bravo; the former chief of Villa Grimaldi, Colonel Marcelo Moren Brito; the former chief of the DINA facility Cuatro Álamos, Gendarmerie officer Orlando Manzo Durán; the former chief of the DINA's Halcón group, Brigadier Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko; the former chief of the Army Intelligence Directorate's Secret Service and former member of the DINA's senior staff, Colonel Francisco Ferrer Lima, who is serving a sentence in Punta Peuco for the crime of union leader Tucapel Jiménez; the former chief of the DINA facility Tres Álamos, Carabineros officer Conrado Pacheco Cárdenas; Army non-commissioned officer Basclay Zapata Reyes; and former civilian agent Osvaldo Romo Mena.

The eight new victims of Colombo are: Aldo Pérez Vargas, Roberto Aranda Romero, Jorge Müller Silva, Modesto Espinoza Pozo, Carlos Pérez Vargas, Carmen Bueno Cifuentes, Rodrigo Ugas Morales, and Carlos Gajardo Wolff. The last five appear on the list of the 119 disappeared by this operation, but the first three do not.

The fabrication

The so-called Operation Colombo was born in the first months of 1975, when the DINA and the former dictator Augusto Pinochet himself, as well as other of his military ministers, began to spread information that the MIR was preparing “guerrillas” in different Argentine cities to have them enter Chile clandestinely through border crossings to fight the military regime.

The newspapers El Mercurio, La Tercera, Las Últimas Noticias, and the evening paper La Segunda were in charge of publishing them.

The peak of the fabrication occurred between July 17 and 19, 1975, when first the Brazilian newspaper O Dia, which had a short circulation, reported that 59 Chileans had been executed in Argentina by their own leftist comrades, attributing the deaths to political “score-settling.” On the 19th, the Argentine magazine Lea published in its only issue that the same had happened to another 60 Chileans, most of them from the MIR.

In April 1975, a body destroyed by an explosion appeared in a basement in Buenos Aires with a sign that read “discharged by the MIR.” It was said to be the forcibly disappeared communist David Silberman.

However, it was not him. On July 12, 1975, two other bodies appeared in Buenos Aires, shot and burned with a similar legend. The dictatorship reported that they were those who had been listed as disappeared in Chile, Jaime Robotham Bravo and Luis Guendelman Wisniak. This also turned out to be false.

On July 24, 1975, La Segunda published on its front page perhaps the most representative headline of the invention: “Exterminated like rats: 59 Chilean MIR members fall in military operation in Argentina.”

Objective and origin of the action

The objective of Operation Colombo was to make people believe that dozens of people, who in Chile were considered forcibly disappeared by their families, lawyers, and churches, had in reality clandestinely left for Argentina to train in guerrilla warfare to return to Chile to fight.

And that in the meantime, they had settled political scores abroad by killing each other or falling in military operations in Argentina, a country that was experiencing political and military turmoil in the final months before the March 1976 coup d'état.

Regarding the origin of the name Operation Colombo, it refers to statements by former civilian DINA agent Enrique Arancibia Clavel, who admitted in Buenos Aires in 1978—accused of “espionage”—that in 1975, agent Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann (former chief of the DINA Foreign Department and current retired general) arrived in that capital to make a “Chilean subversive” named “Simelman or something similar” appear dead in Argentina.

It was Silberman. According to Arancibia Clavel, Iturriaga told him that it was Operation Colombo, in which they had the collaboration of, among others, the Argentine civilian and member of the Triple A (Argentine Anticommunist Alliance) Martín Ciga Correa.

Source: La Nación, January 4, 2004

Date: 01-04-2004

Supreme Court confirms convictions of 13 DINA agents for the crime of two other Operation Colombo victims

The Supreme Court convicted 13 agents of the dissolved National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) militants Carlos Gajardo Wolff and Luis Guendelman Wisniak, crimes committed in September 1974, in Santiago, within the framework of the so-called “Operation Colombo.”

In the ruling (case file 3.452-2018), the Second Chamber of the highest court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, Jorge Zepeda, and lawyer (i) Pía Tavolari—rejected the cassation appeals filed against the ruling of the Santiago Court of Appeals, resolved in December 2017, which sentenced former Army officers César Raúl Manríquez Bravo and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and former agents Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González and Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis to 10 years and one day in prison.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Víctor Lawrence Mires, Hermon Helec Alfaro Mundaca, Nelson Alberto Paz Bustamante, José Abel Aravena Ruiz, Claudio Enrique Pacheco Fernández, Nelson Aquiles Ortiz Vignolo, and Raúl Juan Rodríguez Ponte must serve 5 years and one day in prison.

The ruling of the Second Chamber also mentions the convictions of Gerardo Meza Acuña and José Nelson Fuentealba Saldías, but these criminal agents died between the ruling of the appellate court and this Supreme Court sentence.

The decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of Minister Jorge Zepeda Arancibia, who was in favor of accepting the cassation appeals of three of the convicted and, consequently, invalidating the appellate court's sentence and issuing a replacement sentence.

Other criminals convicted in the first-instance ruling issued in July 2015 by Minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse, whose convictions had been confirmed by the Court, also died during the course of the process; among them Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Orlando José Manzo Durán, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, and Demóstenes Eugenio Cárdenas Saavedra, who remain unpunished regarding these two crimes.

In the first-instance resolution, Minister Hernán Crisosto Greisse managed to establish that architect Luis Alberto Guendelman Wisniak, a militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), was detained at his home on the night of September 2, 1974, by agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who took him to the clandestine detention center called 'José Domingo Cañas', located at No. 1367 of that street, in the commune of Ñuñoa.

Subsequently, Guendelman Wisniak was seen by different witnesses at the clandestine DINA detention barracks called 'Cuatro Álamos', located inside the "Tres Álamos" prisoner camp, on Calle Canadá at the 3000 block, in the commune of Santiago, which was guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access.

Meanwhile, the also architect and MIR militant, CARLOS ALFREDO GAJARDO WOLFF, was detained on September 20, 1974, after leaving his home, by DINA agents who took him to an unknown location. Subsequently, Gajardo Wolff was seen by different witnesses at the clandestine DINA detention barracks 'Cuatro Álamos'.

The last time Gajardo Wolff and Guendelman Wisniak were seen alive by other detainees occurred on an undetermined day in the month of October 1974, and both have been disappeared since then. The name of Carlos Alfredo Gajardo Wolff appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the Argentine magazine 'Lea', dated July 15, 1975, which reported that Gajardo Wolff had died in Argentina, along with 59 other people belonging to the MIR, due to internal disputes that arose between those members.

The publications that declared Gajardo Wolff and the other people dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad, as part of the criminal extermination operation.

Source: resumen.cl August 1, 2021