On September 15, 1973, two university students of Bolivian nationality were forcibly disappeared in Santiago:

Enrique Antonio SAAVEDRA GONZALEZ, 18 years old, single, and

Ramiro Carlos GONZALEZ GONZALEZ, 18 years old, single.

That day, both left the Hotel Sao Pablo, where they were residing, together. According to their families' accounts, these young men were seen at the Estadio Nacional and were subsequently seen by a credible witness at a detention center in San Felipe.

Despite the multiple efforts made by the families of both victims, no further news regarding their whereabouts was ever obtained. It is confirmed that they did not leave the country.

The Commission reached the conviction that the disappearance of Enrique Saavedra and Ramiro González was the responsibility of state agents in violation of their human rights, considering it proven that they were detained, that they were held in detention facilities, and that since that time, there has been no information regarding their whereabouts or fate.

Enrique Antonio Saavedra González, 18 years old, of Bolivian nationality, a student at the School of Economics of the Universidad de Chile, and his cousin Ramiro Carlos Gonzáles Gonzáles, 18 years old, Chilean, a student of Medicine at the Universidad de Chile, were forcibly disappeared on September 15, 1973.

That day, the young men left the Hotel Sao Paulo, where they were residing, to buy food after four days of curfew. Since that date, their whereabouts and the circumstances surrounding their disappearance remain unknown.

This version is confirmed by the manager of the Hotel Sao Paulo, also a Bolivian national, Dorbeo Hanssen Torrico, who declared to the Investigations police: "Indeed, in 1973, for a period of approximately one month, the young men Ramiro Gonzáles and Antonio Saavedra were staying at the hotel, having been recommended to me by their mothers.

I must add that the last time I saw these boys was on September 15, 1973, when at approximately 4:00 PM they went out for a walk in the vicinity of the hotel, never to return. I do not know what may have happened to them, as I never heard from them again, and I informed their mothers of this situation." Another witness, José Morales Pereira, who also worked at the hotel as a messenger, adds: "On September 11, 1973, these young men were at the hotel.

Everyone in the hotel spent 4 days without leaving. On September 15, 1973, between 2:30 PM and 3:00 PM, I saw these young men go out into the street; they spoke with me before leaving. When they left, they left everything at the hotel.

I advised them not to go out yet because it was dangerous, but they did not listen. I never saw them again. Some time later, the parents of these boys arrived at the hotel to find out where they might be, but they had no positive results.

These young men were always together; they did not get involved with anyone." Indeed, their families did not immediately learn of the disappearance. After the events of September 11, 1973, they tried to communicate with their children by telephone, but communications were interrupted.

It was not until a week after the disappearance that they contacted people at the hotel. They traveled to Santiago and began making inquiries to locate their children. They contacted their Embassy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Red Cross, and visited various detention centers.

They also placed notices in the national press in October and December 1973. They also went to the Estadio Nacional, where an official who claimed to belong to the International Red Cross told them that the victims were detained there and that they should send them clothing.

She added that she had seen their names in handwritten notes. Later, the judicial investigation established that the person mentioned as an International Red Cross official had not worked there and was not registered in the Identification Cabinet, nor in the College of Nurses and Nursing Assistants.

This information contradicts the response received by the parents from the Minister of the Interior, General Oscar Bonilla B., who, on July 9, 1974, replied "that he had conducted an exhaustive investigation and interrogation of persons, with the purpose of providing a complete answer." In this response, it is stated "that Ms.

Edith Bravo Tudezca, a nurse, was interviewed, who, while collaborating at the Estadio Nacional, had told the parents that they were detained there. The note adds that the aforementioned nurse based her statement on a non-official, handwritten note." Finally, it concludes by adding "that it has been impossible to determine their current location and it only remains that they may have left the country under other names.

Otherwise, and if they are not in Chile under assumed names, there would be no other possibility than that these young men were victims of some type of attack by terrorists who have caused considerable casualties among innocent civilians and military personnel." During the investigation, it was not possible to determine which authority held the lists of detainees who passed through the sports facility, which was used as a detention site.

Thus, the Minister of Defense, through the Minister of the Interior at the time, responded to the investigating judge that in the first months of the military government, there were no official lists of detainees.

They added that temporary lists were created for logistical and purely administrative purposes. It is also asserted that the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI) had some of these lists. Subsequently, the CNI denied having these lists in its possession.

Likewise, it was verified by the Universidad Católica and the Universidad de Chile that both young men attended classes regularly during the first semester, thus not finishing their academic year. Ramiro Gonzáles was born in Arica in 1955.

Because his parents were of Bolivian nationality, he always lived in that country. In 1973, he wanted to obtain Chilean citizenship and came to study in Santiago, along with his cousin Enrique Saavedra. Despite the multiple efforts made by their relatives, to this date, the whereabouts of the victims remain unknown.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On April 7, 1975, a Writ of Amparo (Habeas Corpus) was filed on behalf of both victims before the Santiago Court of Appeals. The processing of this writ is unknown as there is no copy of the respective file.

On December 14, 1978, the respective mothers of the detained young men, Norma González de González and Enriqueta González de Saavedra, both of Bolivian nationality, filed a complaint for kidnapping before the First Criminal Court of Santiago, which was registered under No. 113.160-V.

Once the complaint was filed, it was accepted for processing, and it was ordered to issue official letters to the Identification Cabinet, the Ministry of the Interior, the Visiting Judge Adolfo Bañados (who investigated the discovery of bodies in Lonquén), hospitals, International Police, and the Universidad Católica.

On December 28 of the same year, the Minister of the Interior at the time, Sergio Fernández Fernández, replied that both young men did not appear on the list of detainees. Equally negative reports were received from the consulted Health Services, the Department of Immigration and International Police, the Legal Medical Institute, among others.

In April 1979, following a presentation by the Bishops to the President of the Supreme Court and the Minister of the Interior regarding the situation of a group of forcibly disappeared persons, the plenary of the Supreme Court appointed Judge Servando Jordán to carry out the investigation of forcibly disappeared persons in the Santiago Department.

The Extraordinary Visit began in April. Indeed, on the 4th of that month, the case was referred to Judge Servando Jordán, who continued the investigation and ordered new official letters to the Ministry of the Interior, hospitals, the Universidad de Chile, and the Universidad Católica.

During the proceedings, witnesses who last saw the young men before they disappeared testified, and responses from different services arrived, which again provided no information on the victims' whereabouts.

On April 3, 1980, their mothers filed a criminal complaint for the crime of kidnapping, which was consolidated into the case. The judge did not accept the request of the plaintiffs to ask the Ministry of Defense for the list of detainees at the Estadio Nacional starting from September 11.

The argument for the rejection was that the Minister of the Interior had already replied that the detention was not recorded and "it is the Minister of the Interior who centralizes all information regarding detainees." Eleven days after the complaint was filed, the judge declared the summary phase closed.

The plaintiffs appealed, citing pending investigative steps to find the victims' whereabouts. The Court of Appeals revoked the judge's resolution and ordered that the steps be taken. The case was returned to the summary phase.

Information on detainees at the Estadio Nacional was requested from different agencies. Thus, at the end of June 1980, the Minister of the Interior, Sergio Fernández F., replied that there was no national list of detainees in the possession of the National Defense General Staff.

He added in his response: "it has been determined that during the first months of the current government, some unofficial temporary lists were prepared containing the names of detainees for logistical and purely administrative purposes.

The Central Nacional de Informaciones had some of these lists, which in turn were transferred to the computer system it uses, for internal information purposes, without them having an official character." This response was reaffirmed by the Minister of National Defense at the time, Lieutenant General Raúl Benavides Escobar.

Subsequent and new official letters of response from the same Minister of the Interior, requesting information from the Central Nacional de Informaciones regarding who held the list of detainees at the Estadio Nacional during 1973, stated: "the Directorate of said Central has stated that it does not have the list in question in its possession and does not know who might possess it at present." On July 14 of the same year, the Investigating Judge declared the summary phase closed, and on September 10, he temporarily dismissed the case, a resolution that was confirmed by the Supreme Court.

In January 1991, the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation forwarded the records to the Duty Court in San Felipe. Upon reviewing the entry logs of the two courts in that city, no such official letter appeared.

Likewise, the entry log of the 1st Criminal Court was reviewed, which yielded negative results. It should be noted that although both families reside in Bolivia, their mothers have regularly traveled to Chile in search of an answer regarding the fate of their children.

The anthropometric data of Enrique Saavedra González and Ramiro Gonzáles Gonzáles 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 awaited.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad