Around September 10, 1974, Claudio Santiago VENEGAS LAZARO, an 18-year-old student and militant of the PS, was detained by members of the DINA. In the days that followed, and while holding the detainee Claudio Venegas in their custody, DINA agents detained various other individuals. His whereabouts have remained unknown since that date.

The Commission is convinced that his disappearance was the work of State agents, who thereby violated his human rights.

Claudio Venegas Lazzaro, a 17-year-old minor who was in his third year of secondary school in the evening session at the Liceo José Victorino Lastarria while also working as an assistant at a supermarket, and a socialist militant, was detained by DINA agents on September 10, after 8:30 p.m., presumably in the vicinity of his home.

In fact, that day he left his house at 4:30 p.m. and went to the home of his uncle, Santiago Lazzaro, located at Pasaje Fernández Concha, 6th floor, Apartment 606, from where he left at 8:30 p.m., never returning home.

Two days later, on September 12, around noon, two civilians who verbally identified themselves as officials from the Investigations police (Investigaciones) arrived at his home and asked for Claudio Venegas's mother.

They told her they were going to raid the house in search of "Marxist books." After a brief search, which lasted half an hour, they left, taking the glasses the young man used. Before leaving, they told his mother, María Luisa Lazzaro, that the minor was at the Investigations headquarters and that it was not necessary to bring him clothes or food, as he had everything he needed.

As they left, she noticed that the agents were traveling in a new turquoise-blue car, which stopped in front of No. 1498 on the same street, Portugal, where they detained the young man Juan Carlos González. His sister managed to see the vehicle's license plate: DC 22.

The arrest and subsequent disappearance of Claudio Venegas Lazzaro were part of a DINA operation intended to dismantle a Socialist Party structure in the 10th Commune, which culminated in the detention of a group of militants.

The first of them was precisely the young man in question; then, on the 11th—the first anniversary of the Military Coup—Víctor Olea Alegría and Leonardo Rivas Balmaceda were detained. On the 12th, they continued with Juan Carlos González Sandoval, and on the 14th with Bernardo De Castro López, Agustín Holgado Bloch, Luis Olivares Toro, Luis Ahumada, and his spouse, who was released the same day.

On the 16th, they continued with Mario Carrasco, and days later, on September 23, Juan Luis Tapia and the Spanish citizen residing in Chile, Helios Figuerola Pujol, were detained; the latter had to turn himself in when his mother, Clara Pujol, was arrested.

Finally, on the 24th of that month, Eduardo Aliste González was detained, whom the agents had been waiting for at his home since the previous day. Of this entire group, Olea, Carrasco, Aliste, De Castro, and Venegas remain forcibly disappeared, while the rest regained their freedom on different dates, with almost all of them being expelled from the country.

When they went to arrest Eduardo Aliste, Juan Luis Tapia, and Helios Figuerola, the agents had Claudio Venegas with them. Aliste's relatives noted that the young man looked physically ill. Tapia and Figuerola reported something similar after being released.

The group of detainees, including the victim, were taken first to the Central Investigations Headquarters, where they were interrogated and fingerprinted. On September 16, they were transported, blindfolded, in a Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck to the DINA interrogation center known as "Venda Sexy," which was a house located at Calle Irán 3037, at the corner of Los Plátanos in the commune of Macul, where they were placed in the same room.

Later, Juan Luis Tapia and Helios Figuerola also arrived at this facility. In this place, they were interrogated and tortured. According to the account of Agustín Holgado, those who suffered the most systematic torment and appeared most affected were Víctor Olea, Mario Carrasco, and the young Claudio Venegas, all of whom are disappeared.

Among the DINA agents recognized as participating in these operations was Osvaldo Romo Mena, better known as "Guatón Romo." Furthermore, the vehicles that appeared repeatedly at the homes of those affected were a greenish car, the turquoise-blue Chevy Nova with license plate DC 22 that went to the Venegas house, and a red Chevrolet C-10 pickup truck.

As established in the legal proceedings investigating Venegas's disappearance, the plate DC 22 corresponded to a black Chevy car belonging to the Investigations Directorate, under the Information Department.

On September 25, they were taken to the 4 Alamos Camp, also under DINA control, where they were placed in separate rooms. Between the 28th and the 30th of the same month, they were transferred to the "free talk" section of Tres Alamos, except for the five detainees who remain disappeared, among them Claudio Venegas.

According to Agustín Holgado, he learned that his companions who remained at 4 Alamos stayed there until mid-October 1974, the date after which he stopped receiving news.

Another detainee in the same group, Juan Carlos González, recounted when he was already in the "free talk" section at Tres Alamos on October 10, that his young friend remained held incommunicado at Cuatro Alamos.

Roberto Hernán Maturana Silva, who was at Cuatro Alamos until October 19, 1974, also saw him there. Maturana noted that the young man was in poor physical condition and was crying constantly.

Claudio Venegas was an only child and lived alone with his mother, who went constantly to Tres Alamos with the hope of learning something about him. One day in November 1974, she believed she recognized the young man as the person being carried inside an ambulance that left the facility, which caused her to faint.

Mrs. Lazzaro sent letters to various authorities. One of the responses, from the former Secretary General of Government, Colonel Pedro Ewing Hodar, stated that even though she expressed that her son was a good boy—what many mothers said—these individuals had turned out to be extremists and had later appeared in clandestine activities in other countries or were simply hiding.

He added that he was inclined to think that her son was involved in other activities and was likely hiding or outside of Chile.

Despite all the efforts made to try to locate Claudio Venegas Lazzaro—a minor—he remains forcibly disappeared since he was detained by DINA agents, presumably on a public street, on September 10, 1974. It should be added that the victim was being treated for a depressive reaction and a prolonged adolescent crisis.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On September 17, 1974, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed before the Santiago Court of Appeals, case file 112-74. The Investigations Prefecture reported that he was not detained in their facilities, nor had he been previously.

Both the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Defense also responded negatively regarding the detention of the victim or the existence of any order affecting him. On March 31, 1975, six months after it was filed, the Court rejected the amparo in favor of the young man, without considering the testimonies of the prisoners who reported that the victim was being held incommunicado at Cuatro Alamos.

Meanwhile, his mother filed a complaint for alleged disappearance on October 2, 1974, before the 4th Criminal Court of Santiago, case file 106.223.

In the inquiries carried out by the civil police, it was established that the license plate of the vehicle that went to his home two days after he was detained corresponded to a black Chevy car owned by the Investigations Directorate, under the Information Department.

However, there were no records of the victim in that Department. Once again, the Ministry of the Interior responded negatively regarding the detention of Venegas. The National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) responded in the same way.

With this information, on November 8, 1975, the summary investigation was closed and a temporary dismissal of the case was issued because the crime could not be proven, a resolution that was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals on December 18 of the same year.

On August 22, 1978, the reopening of the summary was requested, for which new information was provided, consisting of the identification of witnesses who were with the victim at Cuatro Alamos. Despite the fact that the sister of Eduardo Aliste and the mother of Helios Figuerola Pujol gave statements before the Court, having seen the victim when the agents went to arrest their relatives, the Judge considered that no new information had been provided to justify reopening the summary and ordered the case to be archived again.

On August 9, 1979, a criminal complaint for the kidnapping of the minor was filed against Osvaldo Romo and other members of the DINA who were found responsible, before the Visiting Minister Servando Jordán López, appointed by the Santiago Court of Appeals to investigate cases of the disappearance of persons detained by security services.

On October 19 of the same year, Minister Jordán processed the complaint and consolidated it with the case that had been archived in the 4th Court, continuing the investigation. Relatives of Aliste and Juan Luis Tapia testified before the Minister, through whose testimonies it was established that the young Claudio Venegas had been brought to their respective homes when their relatives were detained.

Everyone saw him in poor physical condition.

Despite these testimonies, the authorities systematically denied the arrest of the young man, and in January 1980, the then-Minister of the Interior, Sergio Fernández Fernández, informed Minister Jordán that the CNI had no records of the victim, nor of Olea, Carrasco, or Aliste, although it did have records of Juan Luis Tapia and Helios Figuerola.

It should be noted that Minister Fernández gave the date of the Decree ordering the detention of Pujol as October 29, 1974, even though it took place on September 23 of that year.

The Chief of the 4 Alamos Camp at that time, Orlando José Manzo Durán, also testified before the Court, stating that Claudio Venegas "could or could not" have remained detained in that facility, as he did not recognize his features in the photo shown to him by the Court. He added that he could have been there under an assumed name.

On April 21, 1980, Minister Jordán, based on the merits of the case, the record of his visit, and the resolution in the complaint against the former Director of the DINA and other officers of that organization followed in the 2nd Military Prosecutor's Office of Santiago under case file 553-78, declared himself incompetent and sent the information to the 2nd Military Court.

This resolution was appealed, but the appeal was not granted. On June 12, 1980, the Military Judge accepted jurisdiction and assigned it case file 410-80 in the 1st Military Prosecutor's Office.

The Military Court was requested to investigate the DINA agent Osvaldo Romo, his address, and the license plates of the vehicles that had been identified. The Prosecutor ordered Investigations to go to the address Romo had registered on Calle Los Limoneros, where they stated that he did not live there nor did they know him, but the utility bills for the property were in his name.

On the other hand, the Prosecutor considered a request to summon the Carabineros Sergeant who had carried out a procedure—in another case—of delivering a summons to Romo to be irrelevant. This officer had gone to the same address on Calle Los Limoneros, where he located the agent, who replied that he would not appear in Court since he had to be summoned through the Military Intelligence Service to which he belonged.

Once again, Minister Sergio Fernández responded that the CNI, successor to the DINA, had no records of Venegas. The Directors of the Intelligence Services of the Army, the Air Force (FACH), and the Carabineros reported the same.

On October 7, 1981, the Prosecutor closed the summary and issued his opinion requesting that the case be temporarily dismissed because the crime could not be proven. To support this request, he relied only on the negative responses from the Minister of the Interior and the Directors of Intelligence of the Armed Forces, discarding the other information gathered over the years.

On the 13th of the same month, the Military Judge accepted the Opinion and decreed the temporary dismissal, considering that neither the crime nor the fact that the alleged perpetrators were personnel of the Armed Forces had been proven. This resolution was appealed, but on November 25 of the same year, the Martial Court approved the ruling issued.

On October 16, 1989, the Military Prosecutor General Enrique Ibarra Chamorro intervened in the process, requesting its reopening and the application of the Amnesty Decree Law 2191, issued in April 1978 by the Military Junta, and consequently, that the total and definitive dismissal of the case be decreed.

Prosecutor Ibarra requested the same in other cases that were temporarily dismissed by the Military Justice system, related to investigations of forcibly disappeared persons. The Military Judge, Carlos Parera Silva, accepted this request and on October 30 of the same year issued the definitive dismissal by virtue of said Decree Law, which granted amnesty to those who might be found guilty of these disappearances.

This resolution was appealed, and on November 28, 1991, its definitive dismissal under DL 2.191 (Amnesty) was confirmed.

In November 1992, the former DINA agent Osvaldo Romo Mena was arrested after being expelled from Brazil. In July of that year, he was located within the framework of several proceedings ordered by Judge Gloria Olivares of the 3rd Criminal Court of Santiago, in the case regarding the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce.

Romo had resided in Brazil since the end of 1975; he had gone to that country on instructions from the DINA in the face of the repeated summons he was receiving in cases involving forcibly disappeared persons.

The security agency provided him with false identity documents for himself and his family; the agent's new name was Osvaldo Andrés Henríquez Mena. Following his location in July 1992, Brazilian authorities first decreed his imprisonment and then his expulsion from the country.

Since his arrival in Chile, Romo has been interrogated in several cases involving forcibly disappeared persons, and in 6 of them, he has been charged. Unfortunately, in the case of Claudio Venegas Lazzaro, he could not be summoned, as the dismissal under the Amnesty Law prevents it. It only remains to hope that agent Romo says what he knows about this forcibly disappeared detainee in another case.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad