Repressive Context : Militant of the Communist Party. Until 1973, he was the Secretary to Luis Corvalán Lepe (General Secretary of the Communist Party). Former union leader of the Petrochemical Workers (1970-1973). Date of Detention : October 30, 1975

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, married, father of three, furniture maker, and Communist Party militant, was detained under the following circumstances: on October 30, 1975, he was performing carpentry work in the furniture workshop located at his home.

Around 6:15 PM, three young men, approximately 25 years old, dressed in civilian clothes and shirt sleeves, appeared at the location. One of them was tall—approximately 1.80 meters—thin, with wavy brown hair.

The aforementioned individuals spoke briefly with the victim at the entrance of his home and then forced him into a light-colored Fiat 600 automobile, license plate DG-586, departing in an unknown direction. The driver of the vehicle was a thin subject with curly, frizzy hair who wore prescription glasses.

The victim's spouse, Aída de las Mercedes Pinilla Pinilla, realizing that something unusual was happening, left the house and saw her husband being driven away in the aforementioned car in the company of the three individuals. She also noticed that a patrol vehicle from the Carabineros and Investigations police was in the vicinity, apparently conducting a raid in the area.

On October 31, 1975, around 11:30 PM, eight individuals dressed in civilian clothes, with long hair and armed with submachine guns, appeared at the home of Mr. Raúl Armando Castro Vega—for whom the victim had built a closet in September of that same year—located at Avenida Vicuña Mackenna No. 7585.

They jumped over the exterior gate of the house and, after demanding that the front door be opened, entered the property. These individuals, who verbally identified themselves as FACH (Chilean Air Force) officials, brought Francisco Ortiz Valladares in, detained and handcuffed.

They forced him into the room where the closet he had built was located and proceeded to search it thoroughly, as they claimed they were looking for secret compartments where alleged weapons and documents were hidden.

Finding nothing, the subjects proceeded to leave the premises, taking the victim with them, still in custody, and after boarding the four vehicles in which they had arrived, they departed for an unknown destination.

Immediately, the witness called the Carabineros, who arrived minutes later, while the individuals who had raided his home were still on the street. The police did not even bother to speak with them; they only told the homeowner that it must have been a military operation.

These facts were presented by Mr. Castro Vega before the 2nd Criminal Court of Santiago and ratified before the same Tribunal by his wife, Mrs. Ena Acevedo Cerda, in the proceedings initiated by the complaint filed for illegal arrest and improper incommunicado detention of the victim.

In the report issued by the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation in February 1991, it is stated that Francisco Ortiz Valladares was detained by agents of the so-called Joint Command (Comando Conjunto).

Likewise, in testimony provided by Malaquías Delgadillo Navarro, who worked politically with the victim, he indicates that he was detained on October 27, 1975, by about eight civilians, among whom was Carol Fedor Flores Castillo—who had been a member of the Communist Party and, at the time of the detention, was a collaborator with the Joint Command—and a blond man of medium height and normal build.

They forced him into the trunk of a car that, by the sound of the engine, could have been a FIAT 125, and he was driven to an unknown location, passing a train line before reaching his destination. The journey lasted between thirty and forty-five minutes, arriving at a secret detention and torture center from which the sound of airplanes could be heard.

The witness explicitly stated that "they blindfolded me on the ground, beat me, and made me walk to a large room that echoed. I was stripped and hung, subjected to electric shocks, and beaten multiple times.

In this place, I was tortured and interrogated by an agent they called 'Juan,' who had a loud voice. Later, I was moved to a place where they beat me severely with their fists and where there were other detainees as well."

It was in this secret facility, unknown to the witness, where he heard the screams of Francisco Ortiz Valladares and where, on one occasion, he was confronted with him without being able to see him, but hearing his groans; the questions related to alleged weapons, and the victim was accused of being a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

To this date, Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares remains forcibly disappeared.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

The victim's spouse filed an amparo (habeas corpus) petition in his favor on November 4, 1975, before the Santiago Court of Appeals, registered under No. 1458-75.

Both the Minister of the Interior at the time, General Raúl Benavides Escobar, and the Director of National Intelligence (DINA) informed the Court that Francisco Ortiz Valladares was not being held in detention.

On November 27, 1975, the petitioner requested that an official letter be sent to the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA) to report whether they had any information regarding the victim. The Tribunal granted this request on the 28th of the same month and year.

On January 9, 1976, it was certified in the case file that the Director of Air Force Intelligence, via Official Letter No. 4144, had reported that Francisco Ortiz Valladares had not been detained by order of that Directorate.

Without sending official letters to the Commander of the "Cuatro Alamos" camp or the Chief of Traffic of the Las Condes commune (the latter to identify the owner of the vehicle with license plate DG-586), as the petitioner had expressly requested, the Court rejected the amparo petition on January 13, 1976.

In the same resolution, it was ordered that the records be sent to the corresponding Criminal Judge to investigate the possible commission of a crime regarding the victim's disappearance.

The preceding resolution was appealed and confirmed by the Supreme Court on January 22, 1976.

While the transfer of the case files to the 2nd Criminal Court of Santiago was pending, the victim's sister, María Elena Ortiz Valladares, filed a complaint before that Tribunal on January 23, 1976, for the crimes of illegal arrest and improper incommunicado detention against the members of the Police or Intelligence services who appeared responsible. This case was registered under No. 84.526-8.

The acting National Executive Secretary for Detainees, Lieutenant Colonel Gastón Aguayo Bonnebaight, informed the Tribunal on January 30 and February 4, 1976, that Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares had no record.

The then-Minister of the Interior, General Raúl Benavides Escobar, reported the same to the Tribunal on February 2, 1976, and on February 5 of the same year, he sent an official letter noting that the DINA—in its Official Letter (R) No.

S.G.3550/75/129 dated the 2nd of the current month—stated that the victim had no record in their files and had not been detained by personnel of that agency. The investigation order dispatched did not provide information that would allow for the victim's whereabouts to be established.

Inquiries made at cemeteries, Santiago hospitals, First Aid Posts, the Morgue, prison facilities, as well as Investigations, Carabineros, and Sendet barracks, established that Mr. Ortiz Valladares could not be found. Lists of passengers traveling abroad and lists of political asylees were consulted, but the victim was not located among them.

In April and July 1976, the eyewitnesses to the victim's detention—his wife, Aída Pinilla Pinilla, and the couple Raúl Castro and Ena Acevedo Cerda—gave statements before the Tribunal.

On October 18, 1976, the Director of Traffic of the Illustrious Municipality of Las Condes reported that license plate DG-586 corresponded to a red 1975 FIAT 600, engine No. 2903348. When judicially interrogated, its owner stated that she used the car for personal use and had never lent the vehicle for any other purpose, nor had she traveled through the neighborhood of Romero and Maipú streets.

Finally, she stated she did not know any Francisco Ortiz Valladares.

Likewise, on January 24, 1977, the owner of a Mercedes Benz automobile, which held the license plate DG-586 in Las Condes in 1975, was interrogated. This person indicated the same as the previous owner.

On October 6, 1976, following an official request, the Director of Air Force Intelligence, Brigadier General Enrique Ruiz Bunger, informed the Tribunal that the victim had not been detained by Air Force personnel.

A new investigation order was dispatched, this time with the specific goal of locating Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, but it was noted in the case file that inquiries made at various penal and healthcare establishments in the Metropolitan Area yielded no positive results.

On March 30, 1977, the Tribunal declared the summary closed and, noting that the existence of the reported crime was not justified, temporarily dismissed the case. This resolution was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals on June 23, 1977, solely on the grounds that, although the evidence justified the perpetration of the crime that was the subject of the summary, there was insufficient evidence to identify a specific person as the author, accomplice, or accessory.

The Prosecutor of the Court of Appeals, in the respective report expressing his opinion in favor of approving the temporary dismissal, stated that "as a potential investigative step, the presence of the Carabineros on the occasion narrated by witness Raúl Castro Vega could be confirmed.

Such a step," he continued, "would aim to determine if military personnel were indeed the protagonists of the events, which would point toward a potential lack of jurisdiction. The concrete fact," he concluded, "is that no one knows anything about Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares and that, as inferred from the case files, the truth is that something serious must have happened to him."

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals having sent the amparo records to the 2nd Criminal Court to initiate a summary for the victim's alleged disappearance, these were consolidated with case file No. 84.526-8, proceeding with joint processing.

On January 30, 1976, the Minister of the Interior at the time, Division General Raúl Benavides Escobar, in a letter addressed to María Ortiz Valladares, stated that "in response to your note dated January 22, in which you appeal to this Secretariat of State requesting information regarding the whereabouts of Mr.

Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, presumably detained on October 30, 1975, I must inform you that this Ministry has no record and that, despite the investigative efforts carried out by the various agencies to which requests were made, they have communicated that there is no record of him having been detained, and they are unaware of his current whereabouts."

Likewise, the victim's sister, already identified, presented his case to the International Commission of Jurists on February 12, 1977, requesting its members to intercede on behalf of Francisco Ortiz with the Chilean Government and relevant international organizations.

Similarly, the victim's case was presented by his family on February 20, 1978, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Following the detention and disappearance of 13 high-ranking leaders of left-wing political parties—11 from the Communist Party and 2 from the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR)—in November and December 1976, and after the respective amparo petitions were rejected, the victims' families requested that the Supreme Court appoint a Ministro en Visita (Special Investigating Judge) to investigate such an irregular situation.

The Supreme Court of the Republic ordered the Santiago Court of Appeals to make such an appointment, which fell to Minister Guastavino. After requesting a report from the Ministry of the Interior—which reported that the victims had left the country through a mountain pass toward the Argentine Republic—he dismissed the case.

That resolution was revoked by the Santiago Court of Appeals, as it was a second time when a new closure of the summary was decreed.

Subsequently, taking charge of the proceedings—known as the "Case of the Thirteen"—Minister Carlos Letelier Bobadilla, who replaced the previous Minister, closed the summary in August 1978, stating that "no progress could be made in the investigation."

That resolution was challenged by lawyers who pointed out to the Minister that progress could indeed be made in the investigation, as there were pending investigative steps requested and others would arise from the state of the proceedings. Thus, Minister Letelier annulled his own resolution and ordered further investigative steps.

Later, upon resuming his duties, Minister Guastavino decreed a permanent dismissal by applying Decree Law 2.191 in December 1980. The Court of Appeals, this time, revoked the resolution to close the summary, and the Ministro en Visita himself annulled the dismissal due to the omission of a legal formality. In this way, the proceedings continued.

By 1983, Minister Carlos Cerda Fernández took charge of the investigation into the "Case of the Thirteen."

Minister Cerda ordered hundreds of investigative steps, consisting of summoning individuals, identifying locations and persons, expert reports, reviewing criminal files, and dispatching official letters requesting reports from State services, branches of the Armed Forces, private institutions, and others of vital importance.

In total, he received nearly 200 testimonies from eyewitnesses to the detentions of the victims and their confinement in clandestine centers. These testimonies also included those of members of the Armed Forces who participated in Intelligence Services, as well as officials from the Carabineros and Investigations.

Also included were statements from civilians who collaborated with the Security Services, such as the case of Otto Trujillo and Miguel Estay Reyno ("El Fanta").

There was also the statement of a first-class soldier of the Chilean Air Force, Andrés Valenzuela Morales, who deserted from the institution in 1984. Through his statement, he provided accounts and data that in the mid-1970s, a so-called Joint Command or Anti-Subversive Joint Command began operating, composed of members from the different branches of the Armed Forces and Order, plus some civilians who belonged to left-wing parties and who, after being detained by Intelligence Services and subjected to pressure or extortion, became collaborators.

This Command had material resources at its disposal, such as vehicles, weaponry, transmission equipment, and clandestine detention centers.

At this stage of the investigation, Minister Carlos Cerda managed to establish valuable and clarifying data regarding other cases of human rights violations, some of them involving the disappearance of persons, even ordering the transfer of some parts of the "Case of the Thirteen" to other Tribunals handling criminal cases related to them.

Among the latter is the case of Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares.

Faced with the refusal of the Supreme Court to grant Minister Cerda's request to extend his Extraordinary Visit to include the present crime, the magistrate ordered, on August 14, 1986, that duly authorized copies of the following parts of the process be sent to the 2nd Criminal Court of Santiago, as they pertained to case file No. 84.526-8, regarding the crimes of illegal arrest and improper incommunicado detention of the victim, which was currently dismissed:

The document on page 4,684, which contains the judicial statement provided by Mario Enrique Pulgar Ortega on November 23, 1985.

In it, he states that he was detained on October 25, 1975, at his home by a group of subjects in civilian clothes who verbally identified themselves as members of intelligence services—among whom was a young man who lived in the neighborhood and was a FACH official named Eduardo Cartagena—and acting as chief was a tall guy, with light complexion, hair, and eyes, somewhat curly, with a mustache, and an athletic build.

He also expressed having been taken to a secret facility, which he could not identify because he remained blindfolded at all times, where he was interrogated and tortured, recognizing by voice one of the torturers as the individual who acted as chief when his detention was carried out.

In the aforementioned facility, he was confronted on one occasion with another detainee, whom—upon seeing photographs—he fully identified as Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares.

The witness was released on November 6, 1976, along with other prisoners, among whom he knew the brothers Matías and Malaquías Delgadillo Navarro.

After regaining his freedom, Pulgar Ortega learned from an acquaintance that the aforementioned "chief" was a subject nicknamed "Wally."

Finally, upon being shown photographs of agents who were part of the so-called Joint Command, he unequivocally recognized those on page 3,563 and following—corresponding to Roberto Fuentes Morrison—as the subject who commanded the group that carried out his detention.

The document on page 5,043, which corresponds to the anthropometric file of the victim.

Despite Minister Cerda's efforts to ensure that the evidence presented was added to the process substantiated by the 2nd Criminal Court of Santiago for the crimes of illegal arrest and improper incommunicado detention, so that they could serve as a basis for carrying out new and important investigative steps, annulling the decreed dismissal and continuing the investigation, there is no record that this occurred.

For further information regarding the so-called "Case of the Thirteen," which was fundamentally substantiated by the Ministro en Visita Extraordinaria Carlos Cerda Fernández, see the file containing the circumstances of the detention and subsequent disappearance of the Communist Party militant, Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza.

Source: Rettig Report

The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court upheld the convictions handed down against former uniformed officers and agents of the Joint Command, accused of the aggravated kidnapping of 5 communist militants between 1975 and 1976, dismissing possible modifications to the sentences of the accused.

The session concluded with the rejection by the ministers and assigned lawyers of the cassation appeals that had been filed by the defense of the two sentenced individuals. These appeals were initially filed against the ruling issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals in April 2019.

They sought a reduction of the sentences of the accused through the application of "half-prescription" (a legal mechanism that functions when half of the required time has elapsed and the offender presents themselves or is found before the full term is completed)—a measure that was finally dismissed by the court.

Thus, the Court dismissed the modification of the sentences of Navy officer Daniel Guipert Corvalán and sentenced him to twelve years of major imprisonment as the principal author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping regarding three of the victims.

The same occurred with Navy member Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal, who was sentenced to 5 years and one day of major imprisonment in its minimum degree as a co-author of the kidnappings. Lawyer Nelson Caucoto, representative of 3 of the 5 victims, stated that "A new process against the Joint Command comes to an end with the ruling of the highest court.

The crimes of that organization have definitively been brought to light, and the administration of justice has fulfilled its function by sanctioning them." "It is a great sorrow not to have located the whereabouts of the victims, and that revives the obligation of the State of Chile and its authorities to locate them, without wavering and making the maximum efforts in that regard," the lawyer added.

The individuals who were disappeared by the Joint Command were: Carlos Sánchez Cornejo, a postal and telegraph pensioner, detained on December 17, 1975; Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, furniture maker, detained on October 30, 1975; José Santos Rocha Álvarez, textile artisan, detained on October 31, 1975; José Weibel Navarrete, leader of the Communist Youth, which occurred on March 29, 1976; and hydraulic engineer Mariano Turiel Palomera, on July 15 of the same year.

Joint Command The Joint Command operated between 1975 and 1976. It was composed of agents from the Air Force Intelligence Directorate (DIFA), Carabineros (DICAR), Navy (SIN), and Army (DINE), plus civilians, with its main objective being the repression of the Communist Youth and the Communist Party.

To achieve this goal, they proceeded to detain individuals linked to said party, who were deprived of their liberty to obtain information through physical and psychological torture, and subsequently released, transferred to an unknown destination, or murdered.

The Facts On December 17, 1975, Carlos Sánchez Cornejo, a militant of the Communist Party, left his home located in this city, Huemul housing project No. 2, in the afternoon to buy the evening newspaper, when he was detained by agents of the Joint Command and taken to "Remo Cero," a place where he was seen by other detainees and from where his trail was lost.

On the afternoon of the 30th of the same month, around 6:30 PM, the member of the Communist Party of Chile, Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, was detained in his furniture workshop located inside his home at Calle Romero No. 3016 by two individuals in civilian clothes, who took him from the area in a car driven by a third individual.

Around 11:30 PM that same day, about eight individuals in civilian clothes carrying submachine guns entered the home of Raúl Armando Castro Vega, jumping over the exterior gate of the property, with Ortiz Valladares handcuffed.

Following this event, he would remain disappeared to this day, with his actual whereabouts unknown. Added to this attack is the one that occurred on December 31, 1975, in which the Communist Party member José Santos Rocha Álvarez, known and politically related to Ortiz Valladares, was detained.

He would finally be captured and taken to an unknown destination by a group armed with firearms. Subsequently, Ortiz Valladares would be seen at "Remo Cero," a place where he was interrogated and tortured, and a political investigation file was created for him by agents of said command, dated 11/04/1975.

A file of the same type was created for Rocha Álvarez on 11/02/1975, with the final destination of both remaining unknown. Similarly, on March 29, 1976, José Weibel Navarrete was kidnapped during a bus trip on the Américo Vespucio route, where he was with his spouse and 2 minor children.

The Joint Command agents intercepted and boarded the bus, taking advantage of the commotion to forcibly remove Navarrete, putting him into a vehicle in which he was transported to the "La Firma" detention center.

On July 15, 1976, at 8:00 AM, the member of the Communist Youth of Chile, Mariano León Turiel Palomera, was seen leaving his home with his wife; the latter went to her work, and he went to carry out various errands.

In the afternoon of that day, after withdrawing money for a housing subsidy at the Banco Estado, located at Bandera and San Pablo, his trail was lost. Subsequent to the disappearance of Turiel Palomera, an anonymous letter was sent to the courts, the author of which states that the Communist Youth militant Mariano León Turiel Palomera was detained near the Mapocho Station by the so-called Joint Command, and that the material perpetrators were the team of Chilean Navy agents belonging to said command, which fully coincides with the place where the trail of Mariano León Turiel Palomera was lost that day, 07/15/1976.

Source: elclarin.cl 07/22/2022 Date: 07-22-2022

In a split decision. Joint Command: Santiago Court sentences former agents to effective prison terms as authors of five aggravated kidnappings.

The appellate court confirmed the challenged sentence, which sentenced Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18 years in prison, plus legal accessories, as authors of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping.

In a split decision, the Santiago Court of Appeals sentenced former agents of the "Joint Command" to effective prison terms for their responsibility in the crime of aggravated kidnapping of José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, Mariano León Turiel Palomera, Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, José Santos Rocha Álvarez, and Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo.

These crimes were committed between October 15, 1975, and July 15, 1976. The appellate court confirmed the challenged sentence, issued by Ministro en Visita Miguel Vázquez Plaza, which sentenced Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, Juan Francisco Saavedra Loyola, and Manuel Agustín Muñoz Gamboa to 18 years in prison, plus legal accessories, as authors of the crimes of aggravated kidnapping of Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, José Santos Rocha Álvarez, Carlos Enrique Sánchez Cornejo, José Arturo Weibel Navarrete, and Mariano León Turiel Palomera.

Meanwhile, Antonio Benedicto Quirós Reyes must serve a sentence of 6 years in prison, plus legal accessories, as the author of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Mariano León Turiel Palomera. Finally, agents Alejandro Segundo Sáez Mardones, Roberto Alfonso Flores Cisterna, and Carlos Hernán Rodrigo Villarreal must serve 5 years and one day in prison, plus legal accessories, as authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of José Arturo Weibel Navarrete.

Likewise, due to death, partial and permanent dismissals were approved regarding Jorge Rodrigo Cobos Manríquez, César Luis Palma Ramírez, and Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger. The sentence maintains that regarding the statute of limitations and amnesty alleged by all the defendants, it should be specified that these chapters are duly addressed in the thirty-fifth and forty-first grounds of the appealed sentence, and given the repeated jurisprudence of the highest court that kidnapping is a permanent crime, the application of such institutes is not appropriate.

Amnesty has only a limited temporal space of application, and for the statute of limitations, it is not yet possible to begin counting the term given the permanent nature of the crime and the situation of a crime against humanity that prevents its application.

It also states that the mitigating factors of criminal responsibility alleged are analyzed in the ruling under review, and this court agrees with their application. Regarding civil matters, the sentence ordering the State to pay a total compensation of $1,520,000,000 to the victims' families was ratified.

The decision was adopted with the dissenting vote of lawyer Herrera Fuenzalida, who states: A) Regarding the criminal sanction, she was of the opinion to accept what was referred to regarding the half-prescription of the criminal action and consequently reduce the imposed sentence, making its effects applicable to all those convicted, since gradual prescription constitutes a qualified mitigating factor of criminal responsibility, the effects of which affect the determination of the quantum of the corporal sanction, independent of the statute of limitations, with different foundations and consequences. Thus, this is also explained thanks to humanitarian regulations that find their reason for being in how senseless such a high penalty is for events that occurred more than 40 years ago. The above does not imply that the crime is left unpunished, but rather that an attenuated penalty is imposed. Likewise, as it is a rule of public order, the judge must apply it, as it is favorable to the accused. B) Regarding civil actions, she was in favor of rejecting them and accepting the exception of payment deduced by the State of Chile, understanding that these had already been paid, due to the reparatory nature of the compensation given by the State of Chile, which was taken into account for the enactment of Law No. 19.123, which created the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" or "Rettig Commission," where reference is made to the moral and patrimonial reparation that said project sought, so the sums of money agreed upon are to address the extra-contractual responsibility of the State, establishing within the functions of the Commission the promotion of the reparation of the moral damage of the victims referred to in its article 18. That, due to such purposes, the mentioned law, along with No. 19.980, contemplates direct payment in money to human rights victims, such as their children, which is the case in these proceedings, along with other reparations, such as those through the assignment of rights to state benefits and symbolic reparations, all with the same reparatory object. Therefore, it is evident that all those legal benefits have the same foundation and the same reparatory purpose for moral damage as the compensation claimed in these proceedings.

Source: April 11, 2019 Date: 04-11-2019

Justice orders the prosecution of five agents of the so-called "Joint Command"

The agents will be prosecuted for the kidnapping of Francisco Ortiz Valladares and José Rocha Álvarez, which occurred on October 30 and 31, 1975. The defendants will be subject to a national travel ban after being notified of the resolution.

The Ministro en Visita of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, ordered the prosecution of five former members of the so-called "Joint Command" for their responsibility in two cases of forcibly disappeared persons in October 1975.

They are Freddy Enrique Ruiz Bunger, César Palma Ramírez, Juan Saavedra Loyola, Manuel Muñoz Gamboa, and Daniel Guimpert Corvalán, who are identified as co-authors of the crimes of kidnapping of Francisco Ortiz Valladares and José Rocha Álvarez, which occurred on October 30 and 31, 1975, respectively, in different sectors of the Metropolitan Region.

As reported by the Judiciary, according to the investigation's background, it is proven: "That, on the afternoon of October 30, 1975, around 6:30 PM, the member of the Communist Party of Chile, Francisco Hernán Ortiz Valladares, was detained in his furniture workshop located inside his home at Calle Romero No. 3016 by two individuals in civilian clothes, who took him from the area in a car driven by a third individual." It was also proven that "around 11:30 PM that same day, about eight individuals in civilian clothes carrying submachine guns entered the home of Raúl Armando Castro Vega, jumping over the exterior gate of the property, holding Ortiz Valladares detained and handcuffed, a place where in September of that same year he had made a closet; one of the subjects stated that they were looking for a double bottom in the closet where weapons or documents were hidden, and finding nothing, they left the place in four cars." Finally, the investigation confirmed that "a few hours after these events, in the early hours of the following day, October 31 of the same year, between 3:00 AM and 4:00 AM, the member of the Communist Party José Santos Rocha Álvarez, known and politically related to Ortiz Valladares, was detained at his home in Puerto Aysén, site 155, Las Casas housing project, Barrancas commune, by people in civilian clothes who were moving in three vehicles, and firearms were found at that location. Both detainees were taken to an unknown destination, with Ortiz Valladares being seen subsequently at the facilities of the Air Force Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment, located in Colina, inside which a detention center called 'La Prevención,' also known as 'Remo-0,' operated. It was a place where he was allegedly interrogated and tortured, and a political investigation file was created for him by agents of said Command, dated November 4, 1975, and for Rocha Álvarez, the same type of file was created on November 2, 1975. He was allegedly seen subsequently at the DINA detention center, Villa Grimaldi, starting from mid-November of that same year, 1975. The members of the Joint Command were required to hand over detainees found with weapons along with the weapons themselves, by superior order; there being a precedent in the investigation of cases of crimes against Human Rights that among the political repression agencies of the time, there was the lending of detainees, in addition to the handing over of them when weapons were found, with the final destination of both remaining unknown." The defendants will be subject to a national travel ban after being notified of the resolution.

Source: radio.uchile.cl 03/21/2013 Date: 03-21-2013