On December 31, 1974, MIR militant Carlos Eduardo GUERRERO GUTIERREZ was detained by DINA agents who were occupying the home of a friend of his in the commune of Ñuñoa. The homeowner was also detained in the "mousetrap" [ratonera], remained at Villa Grimaldi with Carlos Guerrero, and was subsequently released.

The same group of DINA agents detained Socialist militants Jaime Robotham and Claudio Thauby on that same day.

There are several testimonies confirming Guerrero’s presence at Villa Grimaldi, from where he disappeared while in the custody of the DINA. The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of State agents, who thereby violated his human rights.

Carlos Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez, 20 years old, single, a History student at the University of Chile and a militant of the MIR, was detained by DINA agents on December 31, 1974, while he was heading to the home of Manuel Alejandro Cuadra Sánchez, located at Calle Domingo Faustino Sarmiento 310, Ñuñoa.

Upon arriving, he saw that the house was being raided and attempted to flee; he was followed by civilians and an Army Officer, who shot and wounded him in the leg. They detained him there and placed him into a van, which departed for an unknown destination.

Since mid-October 1974, Carlos Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez had been sought by security agencies. On November 7, two individuals in civilian clothes arrived at his home, identifying themselves verbally as "Alberto" and "Marcelo." They left a telephone number, 710648, which turned out to correspond to the Carabineros Investigation Service (SICAR).

Olga María Sánchez Acosta, mother of Manuel Cuadra Sánchez, declared during the proceedings that on December 31, 1974, around 10:00 A.M., while she was heading out to do some shopping, she saw Carlos Guerrero.

Later, while she was at a butcher shop near the house, she heard gunfire and saw the victim again, running while being followed by four civilians and the Army Officer. Halfway down the block, he was caught by these individuals; he was wounded, and they loaded him into a van and drove off in the direction of the Carabineros Hospital.

She returned to her home and found the same captors there; she would later learn that the Army Officer was "Lieutenant Pablo." They were looking for her son, Manuel Cuadra, who arrived at 14:30 and was also detained. At 22:00, they detained her daughter-in-law, Lucrecia Brito, Manuel's wife, who was returning to the house.

These individuals remained in her home until 10:00 A.M. on January 1, 1975. Days later, the same DINA agents, among whom she recognized Osvaldo Romo, returned to the home on January 4, 1975, to look for her son's tools, assuring her that they would return them as soon as possible. They never did, nor did they provide any information about the detainees.

Through investigations conducted by the Visiting Judge (Ministro en Visita) Servando Jordán, it was established that the Army Officer known as "Lieutenant Pablo," under whose orders this clandestine organization dependent on the DINA operated, was Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko.

Fernando Miguel Sánchez Babarovich related that on December 31, 1974, he was accidentally wounded in a shooting that occurred at midday at Simón Bolívar 1977, in front of his home. He witnessed a group of civilians chasing a young person, about 26 years old.

This young man tried to get him to take him in his car; facing the bullets, they took refuge behind a tree, where they were both wounded. He states that he witnessed the detention of the individual who was fleeing.

Through multiple witness statements, it was learned that Carlos Guerrero remained detained at the secret facility of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) known as Villa Grimaldi. He was removed from that facility on approximately January 25, 1975, in very poor physical condition as a result of his wounds and the torture to which he was subjected; he was never seen or heard from again.

Among the witnesses to his imprisonment was his friend Manuel Alejandro Cuadra Sánchez, who was detained that same day and shared his confinement at Villa Grimaldi. In his account, he stated that he was with Carlos Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez in a "cajonera" (drawer-like cell); there, he was able to see directly that he had "infected bullet wounds, and electricity had been applied to them."

In his statement, the witness described the "cajoneras" as a place where prisoners were held incommunicado; they were cells approximately one meter per side, where one could only stand or sit in a crouched position, with the aggravating factor that there were often several people in each one.

Another witness, Hugo Ernesto Salinas Farfán, declared that while he was held at Villa Grimaldi, he saw Carlos Guerrero on January 12, 1975, while they were having lunch in the courtyard. He spoke with him, and he told him the details of his detention.

He said that his limp was noticeable, as he had been shot in the leg and heel. He related that on January 25, 1975, a group of detainees, including the victim, was taken away; from that date on, he never saw him again.

María Alicia Salinas Farfán, also detained at Villa Grimaldi in January 1975, declared that she saw Carlos Guerrero between January 3 and January 10, 1975. She would see him when he was being taken to the bathroom from one sector of the facility to another.

Angeles Beatriz Alvarez Cárdenas also saw the victim on January 6, 1975, while she was detained at Villa Grimaldi. That same day, December 31, the group of agents conducting the operation at Alejandro Cuadra's house—where Carlos Guerrero was arriving when he was detained—also detained Jaime Eugenio Robotham Bravo and Claudio Francisco Thauby Pacheco on the public street near that address.

Both friends were walking at the intersection of Calle Sucre and Miguel Claro when the Army Officer, Fernando Adrián Laureani, recognized Thauby, with whom he had been a classmate at the Military School, and proceeded to detain them. Both detainees were taken, like Carlos Guerrero, to the DINA facility at Villa Grimaldi, from where they disappeared.

From the statements obtained, it is known that Carlos Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez was removed from the Villa Grimaldi facility along with other people on January 25, 1975, among whom were Patricio Urbina Chamorro, Claudio Enrique Contreras Hernández, and Luis Humberto Piñones Vega.

Since that date, his whereabouts remain unknown.

Judicial and/or Administrative Actions

On January 8, 1975, Mariano Guerrero Santa Cruz, the victim's father, filed a Writ of Amparo (Habeas Corpus) with the Santiago Court of Appeals, registered under No. 3575. After issuing official letters to the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the Commander-in-Chief of the State of Siege Zone Headquarters, and the Commander of the Aviation Command, investigations were initiated to determine the whereabouts of Carlos Guerrero Gutiérrez.

To all the official requests submitted and reiterated, the administrative authorities responded negatively; there were no records of the detention of Carlos Guerrero Gutiérrez, nor any warrant against him.

Given the evidence, the Court of Appeals declared the Writ of Amparo filed on behalf of the victim inadmissible on April 4, 1975, and referred the case to the appropriate Criminal Judge to investigate the possible commission of a crime.

The Eighth Criminal Court of Santiago was assigned to conduct a summary investigation for "Presumed Misfortune" (Presunta Desgracia). On April 14, 1975, the case was registered under No. 11.9822. The Judge ordered an investigation, and the victim's father reiterated his complaint in the first proceeding.

The Investigation Service responded by reporting that it had made inquiries to the Legal Medical Institute, the Homicide Brigade, hospitals, emergency clinics, the Detainee Office, Border Control, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Defense.

All of these yielded negative results.

On June 11, 1975, the Judge requested reports from the Carabineros Hospital, which responded that the victim had no records at that medical facility. Taking into account the gathered reports, the Judge declared the summary closed and temporarily dismissed the case on October 24, 1975, and sent it for review to the Court of Appeals.

In his report, the Prosecutor approved the dismissal but clarified: "It is true that the Director of the Carabineros Hospital should have been asked whether or not a person with a gunshot wound was treated at the Carabineros Hospital at midday on December 31, 1974; however, it does not seem that such a measure would be effective in finding the disappeared person."

With the appointment of Servando Jordán as Visiting Judge to investigate the disappearance of persons, a new stage of investigation began.

On July 9, 1979, Carlos Guerrero Gutiérrez's father filed a criminal complaint before the Visiting Judge against a clandestine organization dependent on the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), which was commanded by an individual known as "Lieutenant Pablo," who, according to the information available, was Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko.

He also requested the reopening and consolidation of the case, along with other measures aimed at advancing the search for the victim's whereabouts. Other witnesses testified in the process, among them Angeles Beatriz Alvarez Cárdenas, who confirmed having seen the victim during her time at the DINA facility known as Villa Grimaldi.

In that place, the witness was violently tortured to force her to provide names of people belonging to the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). She declared that the person in charge of the facility was Marcelo Moren Brito, a member of the Army nicknamed "el Ronco" (the Hoarse One).

Olga María Sánchez Acosta, mother of Manuel Alejandro Cuadra Sánchez, also testified and ratified her previous statement regarding the victim's detention. She reported what her son had told her regarding the state of the wounds Carlos Guerrero had during his detention, adding that her son was in exile in France at that time.

She also declared that she saw "Lieutenant Pablo" (Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko) in uniform while he was carrying out the detentions of Guerrero Gutiérrez, her son Manuel Cuadra, and her daughter-in-law Lucrecia Brito.

Among the measures requested by Judge Jordán, the request for the criminal records of the victim and the identified agents, Miguel Krassnoff and Marcelo Moren, stands out.

Responses were received from various institutions consulted, including the Public Assistance, the Legal Medical Institute, the Catholic, Metropolitan, Israelite, and General Cemeteries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Information Center (CNI). All responses were negative: there was no record of the victim.

On September 6, 1979, the Ministry of Defense responded to the Visiting Judge that Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko belonged to the Army and was serving at the War Academy. Also, on September 10, 1979, the Ministry of the Interior responded that the National Information Center had no record that Carlos Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez had been detained.

On that same date, the Ministry of the Interior also responded to the request regarding the Carabineros Hospital, informing that two people were treated that day: Fernando Sánchez Babarovich and Julio Esquivel Taborga, 30 and 67 years old, respectively.

On October 8, 1979, the Judge summoned the mentioned agents and the people treated by the Carabineros Hospital. On October 19, 1979, Marcelo Luis Manuel Moren Brito, an Army Colonel, appeared and declared that he was indeed a relative of Alan Bruce Catalán, currently a forcibly disappeared person, and that he belonged to the DINA from the end of 1973 until November 1977.

He stated that the institution was a collection of Intelligence Groups, each group having a chief who was not necessarily an Army Officer, and they rotated permanently through the place known as Londres 38. When asked if these units corresponded to the designations of "Aguila" group, "Vampiro" group, etc., he stated he did not remember.

He acknowledged that his immediate superior was General Manuel Contreras. He maintained that the facilities at Calle Londres 38 and Villa Grimaldi were transit points for detainees, for filing and document control for intelligence analysis. He stated that he was rotating at Villa Grimaldi from January 1974 until the end of 1975; in 1976, he was out of the country.

Regarding Osvaldo Romo Mena, he noted that "he was handled as an informant for the DINA," as was Marcia Alejandra Merino Vega. He declared that he did not know them personally, but he identified Marcia Merino in the photographs when they were presented to him.

He declared that Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko belonged to the DINA and that he did not have the name "Lieutenant Pablo." The Court noted that the declarant, Marcelo Moren, has a characteristic "hoarse voice."

On October 19, 1979, Fernando Miguel Sánchez Babarovich appeared to testify. He attested to having been wounded in the back on December 31, 1974, around midday. He was in front of his home on Calle Simón Bolívar when he witnessed a group of civilians following a person on foot, a young individual of about 26 years old; he did not notice if the young man had been wounded.

He was running and tried to get him to take him in his vehicle; "facing the bullets, we both took refuge behind a tree, and on that occasion, we were wounded." Upon being shown the photograph, he could not say definitively if it corresponded to the person who was fleeing, because everything happened very quickly.

On that same day, October 19, 1979, the statement of Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko was taken. He reported that he became part of the DINA in mid-1974 as an agent; at that time, he was an Army Lieutenant, and he was later promoted to Captain on August 1, 1974. He remained until 1977 and reported directly to General Manuel Contreras.

Within his duties, he was involved in the detention of people; he was at Villa Grimaldi and José Domingo Cañas. They were transit places for detainees; there, they were interrogated and sent to Cuatro Alamos. He claimed to be unaware of who was the chief of that place.

He claimed he did not know if the detained persons who were in transit remained more than one day at Villa Grimaldi; he never saw detainees there. He only saw the officials under his command; he did not know if it was a military facility.

He declared that there were no permanent chiefs in those places; DINA officials rotated there, but he was never assigned to act temporarily as Chief of those locations. He stated that to belong to the DINA, it was not necessary to express interest; these were ordinary assignments that occur in the Army.

He stated categorically that no type of torture was ever applied at Villa Grimaldi or José Domingo Cañas. When a person was detained, it was done with a written order signed by the head of the DINA.

Miguel Krassnoff stated he did not know if the current Army Colonel Marcelo Moren Brito served at times as chief at Villa Grimaldi or José Domingo Cañas. He declared that he saw him at the General Headquarters but did not know if he belonged to the DINA.

Regarding Osvaldo Romo Mena, he declared that he had never seen that man and had no reference that he had been a DINA informant. He insisted that there was never a permanent chief at Villa Grimaldi.

He was read the list of the disappeared and stated he did not know any of them. On December 14, 1979, the Visiting Judge, Servando Jordán López, declared himself incompetent to continue the proceedings and therefore referred the case files to the Second Military Institutional Court.

The Third Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago continued the processing of the case. The relatives of Carlos Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez appealed the declaration of incompetence. The Prosecutor of the Santiago Court of Appeals, in his report, considered that:

The acts imputed to an Army Officer in the expository part are so repugnant that it would be necessary to reject them outright as having been perpetrated by an Army Officer, whether acting personally, ordering their execution, or allowing them, being able to avoid them, since his condition as an Officer does not make it possible, except for evidence that forces one to accept it, they are categorically opposed to him having carried them out.

That in the event that he did carry them out, they could not have been ignored by his hierarchical superior, who was Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, General of the Army (Ret.), former head of the DINA. Either he did not know, which does not appear acceptable.

Or, they were not committed.

Nor is it legally appropriate to accept the determination made by the Judge, since: "in no way or manner is there any evidence that the often-cited Army Officer acted in his capacity."

He therefore requests: "That the resolution of December 14 of last year, written on page eighty-one, be revoked, and that it be declared that the Ordinary Justice system must continue to hear this file initiated to investigate whether or not a criminal act was committed in the disappearance of Carlos Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez." "There are not a few measures that it is necessary to decree; this is not the opportunity to highlight them, and besides, His Honor the Judge of the case will notice them."

Nevertheless, on May 5, 1980, the Court of Appeals confirmed the resolution of December 14, 1979.

The Second Military Court received the records on September 13, 1980. Without decreeing new measures, on November 4, 1980, the case was temporarily dismissed because "despite the investigation being exhausted, it has not been possible to fully justify the disappearance and presumed misfortune of Carlos Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez."

This resolution was appealed to the Martial Court, which confirmed the dismissal on August 18, 1981.

Subsequently, the military judge decreed the final dismissal of this case through the application of Decree Law 2191 of 1978, the amnesty law. As of December 1992, a complaint appeal filed with the Supreme Court was still pending.

Along with the judicial efforts, his father, who passed away in 1988, made countless attempts to obtain information about the fate or whereabouts of his son; because of this, he received false information more than once regarding possible places where he could be found. To this date, the whereabouts of Carlos Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez remain unknown.

DINA agent Osvaldo Romo Mena, whose status as an agent had been denied by officers of that security agency, was arrested on November 16, 1992, following statements made to Visiting Judge Servando Jordán in the case regarding the disappearance of Carlos Guerrero.

The former agent was located after a series of measures decreed in the case of the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce; Romo Mena had been living in Brazil since the end of 1975. At that time, he was being summoned by several courts handling cases of forcibly disappeared persons.

As of December 1992, the aforementioned Romo had acknowledged his status as a DINA agent and the collaboration of that security agency in his transfer to Brazil; among other means, it provided him with false identity documents for him and his family; his new name was Osvaldo Andrés Henríquez Mena.

On the other hand, he had been charged in six cases of forcibly disappeared persons and had as many pending summonses in court.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity