Address: Girasol 6259, Población Joao Goulart, San Miguel, Santiago. Marital Status: Single Occupation: Shoemaker Repressive Status: No information Date of Detention: October 3, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Florentino Aurelio Rodríguez Aqueveque, 16 years old at the time of the events, single, a shoemaker by trade, and a resident of the Población Joao Goulart, was detained on October 3, 1973, by a military patrol along with his brother, Juan Enrique Rodríguez Aqueveque, 20 years old, married, father of one, and of the same trade and address.

Both were taken from their home to an unknown destination. After 15 days of fruitless searching, the family was informed that Juan Enrique had died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds and had been admitted to the Legal Medical Institute, from where he was sent to Patio 29 of the General Cemetery, while Florentino Aurelio’s whereabouts remained unknown.

Florentino Aurelio Rodríguez Aqueveque may have been buried as an unidentified person (N.N.) in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery and could correspond to an unidentified body found in the same place and on the same date as his brother, also suffering from gunshot wounds, whose identification had not been possible to determine because his fingerprints were not registered at the Identification Cabinet.

This body was buried as an indigent N.N. in grave No. 1732 of Patio 29 in the General Cemetery. The situation of Florentino Aurelio has not yet been clarified; his family is awaiting the results of the forensic analysis being conducted at the Legal Medical Institute following the judicial exhumation in September 1991 of a total of 108 graves in Patio 29 of the aforementioned cemetery, which contained remains very possibly belonging to the forcibly disappeared buried as N.N., including grave No. 1732.

Adriana del Carmen Gatica Loyola, the spouse of Juan Enrique, provided detailed information regarding the circumstances of both arrests to the Court; they had been married for one year at the time of the events and lived with her brother-in-law, Florentino Aurelio.

On September 30, 1973, at approximately 6:00 PM, Juan Enrique arrived home in a state of intoxication and proceeded to beat his wife, as he usually did when he drank. Faced with this, she left the home and went to her parents' house, located about 10 blocks away, where she remained.

Two days later, on October 2, around 9:00 PM, Juan Enrique went to his father-in-law's home and, with arrogance and under threat, forced his wife to return home. At the house, he proceeded to beat her again, all of which was witnessed by Florentino Aurelio, who refrained from intervening.

Under these circumstances, Adriana Gatica's father arrived at the home, accompanied by a group of soldiers. He had been intercepted by the military during curfew hours on a public street, and upon being questioned, he felt the need to explain that he was on his way to assist his daughter, who at that moment was very possibly being mistreated by her husband.

Given this explanation, the soldiers decided to accompany him, all traveling together in a military vehicle. Once they arrived at the young couple's home, the military took charge of the situation, immediately proceeding to detain Juan Enrique and his brother Florentino Aurelio.

From that day on, nothing more was heard of the two brothers. Later, on October 18, as a last resort and given that neither of them had returned, Juan Enrique's wife went to the Legal Medical Institute, where she was informed that Juan Enrique had been found dead at the corner of Guillermo Mann and Lo Encalada streets, together with another individual who was not identified but who, based on the description of the clothing, was likely her brother-in-law Florentino Aurelio, adding that both bodies had already been buried.

However, there is no official record of the death of Florentino Aurelio Rodríguez Aqueveque.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On October 3, 1973, in report No. 369, the Sub-commissioner of Ñuñoa informed the 8th Criminal Court of the discovery by Carabineros personnel of 2 bodies that carried no documentation and were lying on a public street, both having gunshot wounds in different parts of their bodies.

Under case file No. 9587-1, proceedings were initiated for the discovery of unidentified bodies. On October 27 of the same year, the Homicide Brigade of the Santiago Prefecture of the Investigations Police submitted a detailed report on the information gathered.

It stated that one of the bodies subject to this investigation was identified by the dactyloscopy section of the Central Identification Cabinet as Juan Enrique Rodríguez Aqueveque, while regarding the other body, "based on statements from the relatives of the former, which appear later in this report, regarding his clothing, he was identified as Florentino Aurelio Rodríguez Aqueveque, Chilean, native of Chillán, 18 years old, single, no trade, primary education, residing at Pasaje Girasol 6244, Población La Castrina."

The report concluded by noting that, according to autopsy protocol No. 3072 of the Legal Medical Institute, the cause of death for Juan Enrique Rodríguez Aqueveque was multiple gunshot wounds, and according to autopsy protocol No. 3073, the cause of death for the male N.N., identified through forensic expertise as Florentino Aurelio Rodríguez Aqueveque, was numerous gunshot wounds.

On April 26, 1974, Juan Enrique's wife testified, affirming that the detention had been carried out by soldiers, of which she had been a witness.

On April 26, 1974, the Directorate of the Legal Medical Institute informed the Court that autopsy reports No. 3072 and 3073 had been sent to the 2nd Military Prosecutor's Office. The Court sent an official letter to the Prosecutor's Office to inquire whether a summary proceeding had been initiated for the deaths of Juan Enrique and Florentino Aurelio Rodríguez Aqueveque; the response received by the Court stated that no such summary had been initiated nor had the autopsy reports mentioned in the letter been received.

On July 15, 1974, the Civil Registry and Identification Service sent death certificate for an unknown person No. E2822 to case file 9587-1 in response to the Court's request for the death certificate of Florentino Aurelio Rodríguez Aqueveque.

Despite having received sufficient information that allowed the Court to conclude military responsibility in both homicides, and without having judicially clarified the identity of the victim registered in the Civil Registry as "Unknown," despite clear evidence that it corresponded to Florentino Aurelio Rodríguez Aqueveque, the Court declared the summary closed on August 19, 1974, and temporarily dismissed the case. "Bearing in mind: that with the various antecedents gathered in the case files, the existence of the reported crime is justified, and there are not sufficient indications to accuse specific persons as author, accomplice, or accessory"...

The resolution was issued by Judge Juan Rivas Larraín on October 23, 1974. The Court of Appeals approved the consulted resolution, returning the file to the original Court and proceeding to archive it.

In August 1991, case 4449-AF was initiated in the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago, presided over by Judge Andrés Contreras C., upon the processing of a complaint filed by the Vicariate of Solidarity of the Archbishopric of Santiago regarding the mass and irregular burial of bodies—which, according to the information gathered by said organization and delivered to the Court, corresponded to the forcibly disappeared, listed to date as N.N. and buried solely in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery.

In September 1991, the Court ordered the exhumation of 108 graves corresponding to N.N. in the aforementioned patio, among which was included grave 1732, which would correspond to Florentino Aurelio Rodríguez Aqueveque.

Anthropometric data of the victim were added to this judicial investigation. At the time of this writing (late 1992), the exhumed remains were undergoing forensic analysis by the Legal Medical Institute in order to clarify the identities of the victims.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

Testimonies, photographs, letters, and other documents that families and friends provided or wrote specifically for publication are incorporated into the book "Breaking the Silence of Children and Adolescents Who Were Political Executions During the Civil-Military Dictatorship 1973-1990," which was produced by the Association of Relatives of Political Executions (AFEP) with the support of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage, through the Culture, Memory, and Human Rights Unit, and the Human Rights Chair of the University of Chile.

The publication, based primarily on the Report of the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (1991) and the Report of the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (1996), seeks to reconstruct in a comprehensive and careful manner each of the lives and stories of the victims.

During the research, access was granted to the archive of the Association of Relatives of Political Executions, where documents that families have preserved over the years are kept. Illustrations by Álvaro Gómez were also included.

The creation process was a complex challenge that involved combining delicacy, respect, and methodological rigor to state a painful and inescapable truth in this work.

Source: cultura.gobierno.cl 20/4/2023

Date: 04-20-2023