On October 13, 1973, Carlos Patricio FARIÑA OYARCE, 13 years of age, a student with no political affiliation, was forcibly disappeared.

That day, he was detained in front of witnesses during a raid carried out in the La Pincoya neighborhood by members of the Army, Carabineros, and Investigaciones. During the same events, another minor was detained who later appeared dead from gunshot wounds.

The young Fariña was taken from his home and brought to the soccer field in the same neighborhood. According to the account of his relatives, they learned that the minor was taken to the Infantry Regiment No. 3 of San Felipe, which was, at that date, stationed in Quinta Normal.

The family made countless efforts to determine his whereabouts, but since that day, October 13, 1973, there has been no further news regarding his whereabouts.

This Commission, considering especially that his detention has been proven and that another minor detained alongside him appeared executed, has reached the conviction that the detention and subsequent disappearance of Carlos Patricio Fariña is the responsibility of State agents, all of which constitutes a grave violation of human rights.

Carlos Patricio Fariña Oyarce, a 13-year-old student, was detained on October 13, 1973, at his home in the La Pincoya neighborhood during a raid carried out in said area by members of the Army, Carabineros, and the Investigations police.

The minor's mother, Josefina Oyarce, widow of Fariña, recounted the events in the amparo (habeas corpus) appeal filed on his behalf: "...At 09:30 hours, my modest home was surrounded by numerous soldiers and Carabineros.

Two Carabineros, four soldiers, and two people in civilian clothes burst into my house and demanded that I hand over Carlos Patricio. I tried to explain, but they did not listen to me. Two Carabineros pulled the boy from his bed and one of them—from the Conchalí police station—dealt him a strong blow with the butt of a rifle to the chest, causing the boy to fall.

They dragged him almost all the way to the soccer field. At the field, suspicious persons had been gathered; the soldiers let some go and kept others detained. I approached the officer commanding the troops, begging him to hand over the boy because he was sick and telling him that I would take him to court as soon as he recovered.

The officer replied that I should get away and that he would return the boy to me when he was grown up."

"In a military jeep, held at gunpoint by two soldiers, they took my son to an unknown destination. Since then, I have not seen him again." It should be noted that the military personnel who acted in the described operation belonged to the Infantry Regiment No. 3 of San Felipe, which at that time was stationed at the Quinta Normal facility.

Regarding the day of the events, according to the victim's mother, she was informed by a bus driver, a friend of the family—whose vehicle had been momentarily requisitioned and ordered to transport troops to the regiment stationed in Quinta Normal—that the minor Carlos Patricio Fariña was being held inside that location, and he even managed to exchange a few words with him.

It should be noted that days earlier, Carlos Patricio had been taken by his mother to the Juvenile Court after he accidentally fired a pistol that had been given to him by an older boy, apparently a habitual criminal, which resulted in the wounding of a 6-year-old child, the son of a neighbor.

According to the aforementioned amparo appeal, this neighbor allegedly denounced the minor Fariña to the military forces that were surrounding the raided sector.

The events in which the neighbor's child was wounded occurred at the end of September. The minor Fariña, along with his two brothers aged 14 and 3, had been left alone at home for some time. Their father had died suddenly the previous year, and the mother, at that same time, fell ill with cancer and also had to leave the home for work reasons.

The children suffered the impact of this situation, and under these circumstances, the aforementioned person asked Carlos Patricio to keep the weapon for him; apparently, the criminal feared his house would be raided, a common situation in those days.

The minor, out of curiosity, went out to show the weapon to other neighborhood children and accidentally wounded the 6-year-old boy; the child suffered a wound that did not affect vital organs. The minor, upon seeing the wounded child, ran away from his home.

When his mother arrived home and learned of the events and that the neighbor had filed a complaint with the Carabineros, she went out to look for him. Together with the boy and on the recommendation of the Carabineros, she presented herself to the Juvenile Court, and this Tribunal ordered his admission to the Juvenile Home.

In that facility, the minor was a victim of sexual abuse, which caused him to leave and return to his home. He arrived with a high fever. His mother hoped he would recover so she could inform the Juvenile Judge of these serious events. The neighbor, who apparently did not know why the boy had returned, reported his presence to the uniformed officers who were raiding the sector.

Another minor detained under similar circumstances in the La Pincoya neighborhood, Víctor Iván Tejeda Vidal, appeared executed at the Legal Medical Institute.

It is worth mentioning that the mother made countless efforts during the first two years of her son's disappearance. Every day she went to some place to locate his whereabouts or learn of his fate at the hands of his captors; unfortunately, all were in vain.

Mrs. Josefina Oyarce, widow of Fariña, passed away from cancer on November 22, 1977, without knowing the whereabouts or fate of her son. Her younger brother resumed the search when he came of age.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

The minor's mother went to the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees (SENDET), to various Carabineros stations in the capital, and to the Tacna, Buin, and San Bernardo regiments in search of her son's whereabouts, without positive results. She also made inquiries at the Legal Medical Institute.

On April 2, 1974, she filed an amparo appeal before the Santiago Court of Appeals, registered under number 299-74. In it, various official requests were made to obtain information about the detainee: to the Minister of Defense, in order to identify the regiment that had its headquarters inside the Quinta Normal on October 13, 1973; to the Prefect of Carabineros of Santiago; to the Chief of the Juvenile Police; and to the National Executive Secretariat for Detainees.

Without decreeing any of the proceedings, the appeal was added to the extraordinary docket on April 2, 1974. On April 3, the court ordered that, in order to begin consideration of the appeal, the Minister of the Interior be requested to report if the person was detained, without decreeing the proceedings requested by the petitioner.

Only on May 30, 1974, did General Oscar Bonilla, Minister of the Interior, respond to the official request, stating that Carlos Fariña "is not detained and that this Ministry is unaware of his current whereabouts."

On June 15, the Court sent an official request to the Ministry of Defense, an agency that responded to the judicial requirement on October 24, 1974, in the following terms: "as these are persons reported to the Military Justice, the corresponding reports were sent to the Ministry of the Interior." Ultimately, on November 14, 1974, seven months after the amparo was requested, the Court declared the habeas corpus inadmissible, referring the case files to the corresponding Criminal Court.

On June 14, 1976, Mrs. Oyarce filed a complaint for the kidnapping of her son Carlos Patricio Fariña before the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago, a Tribunal that ordered the files sent to the 10th Court because the reported events had been perpetrated within its jurisdiction.

On June 21, the 10th Criminal Court accepted jurisdiction and ordered the corresponding summary investigation. Among the succession of negative reports from the different authorities requested, the one from the Undersecretary of War, dated July 14, 1976, stands out, in which it is stated that it was the Mountain Infantry Regiment No. 3 Yungay, of San Felipe, that was stationed in the Quinta Normal from September 11, 1973, until the end of that year.

The Commander of that Unit corroborates the information, although he limits the presence of the Regiment in the Quinta Normal only until the month of November 1973 and, in relation to the detention of the minor Fariña Oyarce, denies that it took place.

On September 6, 1976, the Judge temporarily dismissed the case, and the Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the resolution on October 13 of the same year.

The Government of Chile informed the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that the affected person "has no legal existence," despite the fact that the identity of the minor Carlos Patricio Fariña Oyarce was duly and irrefutably established with his corresponding duly registered birth certificate and family booklet.

He did not have an identity card, as minors did not obtain that document at that time.

The anthropomorphic data of Carlos Patricio Fariña Oyarce were attached to case 4449-AF of the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago for the crime of illegal burial in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery of unidentified persons who died between September and December 1973.

The Investigating Judge of the case ordered the excavation of 108 graves in September 1991. From there, 125 bodies were exhumed and sent to the Legal Medical Institute. Currently (late 1992), the expert identification reports are pending.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity