Through a letter sent to Minister Mario Carroza, Marcela Meza Lagos demands justice for the human remains found at the headquarters of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared (AFDD).

From Gothenburg, and through a letter addressed to the visiting minister Mario Carroza that was delivered on July 9, Marcela Meza Lagos, daughter of Gloria Lagos Nilsson, asserts that "emotions and frustrations have been changing" following the discovery of human fragments at the headquarters of the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared (AFDD).

"The stupor of the first few days, the pain and the unparalleled surprise, were mixed with the irrational hope that those remains might belong to a loved one. I cannot deny you, Don Mario, that my hopeless hope saw an end to my mother's heartbreaking wait. For a few moments, I was once again that eight-year-old girl who screamed desperately while they took her mother away," she expresses.

Recalling that she is no longer that little girl, she maintains that she cannot "understand how human bone fragments could have been inside an association for 23 years that knows better than anyone about the search and the waiting."

As reported in an article published a few days ago by La Tercera, of the 80 fragments contained in three bags, 10 were human: a small part of a skull, a piece of a lower jaw, a mastoid process, five teeth, and a jaw fragment with a molar.

Given this, and considering that the association indicated that the fragments—according to analyses by the Forensic Anthropology Group—date from before 1973, Lagos states that "regardless of the era they are from, they deserved proper treatment according to the relevant laws.

But above all, they deserve a dignified destination. Just as I so yearn for and fervently hope my mother will have one day."

"As the daughter of a forcibly disappeared woman, who was pregnant, Gloria Esther Lagos Nilsson, I can only cry out for the whole truth, wherever it may come from, and for those responsible to assume their responsibility, whoever it may affect!" she concludes.

The discovery of these fragments continues to amplify the wave of criticism toward the AFDD. From different sectors, it is asserted that the board has acted "negligently" by not handing them over and having them examined as appropriate.

Cecilia Hayder, who has been questioned for being the daughter of Army Captain Osvaldo Heyder Goycolea, asserts that "it is not fair that these were forgotten for 23 years. If they correspond to before the dictatorship, didn't they have relatives?

It is not known if these fragments correspond to one or more people. It was a human being; if they boast about searching for remains all over Chile, didn't they think that the person or people who are there had relatives?"

"It does not seem fair or dignified to me that they were forgotten in a bag. I do not believe the explanations they have given. The fairest thing is for them to acknowledge that they were wrong, because here the forcibly disappeared do not have owners; they belong to all Chileans.

If they want to take ownership, that's fantastic, but let them fight; one must be consistent with what one says. I do not doubt that they could be from before the dictatorship, they could be, but I believe the main thing here is to acknowledge that it was or they were human beings. Nobody has cared," she adds.

Felipe Henríquez Órdenes, a relative of victims of political executions, goes further and calls for the resignation of the association's board, as he considers what happened to constitute serious negligence. "I have the worst opinion, because an association that has dedicated itself to the search for remains cannot, under any circumstances, keep them in a dark and gloomy drawer for 23 years," he comments.

He also adds that "the gravity of the matter lies in the fact that they were hidden at the headquarters in plastic bags, because they did not even have the decency to leave them in boxes with carbon-14.

When I confront them, what I am looking for is for them to make their positions available, which does not mean that human rights work will end; it means that this leadership must end, because there must be new internal elections with correct parameters."

Consulted on this matter, the president of the Association of Relatives of Victims of Political Executions, Alicia Lira, asserts that the event is "an internal problem of the association, and each association is autonomous. We hope this is resolved, nothing more."

Contacted by La Tercera, Lorena Pizarro, president of the AFDD, asserted that this case "was handed over to the minister as appropriate" and that at this moment they are focused on "stopping the offensive of impunity that the government is carrying out. That is what concerns me and this association today, because that is what defines the country we are building."

Source: latercera.com 18/07/2018

Date: 18-07-2018

My mother, Gloria Esther Lagos Nilsson, born in Porvenir on September 29, 1945, was 28 years old, full of life, beautiful, mother of three children: Héctor, the oldest, ten years old; I, Marcela, eight; Patricio, the youngest, six; and another one on the way; she was almost three months pregnant.

We had so much ahead of us, but August 26, 1974, changed the course of life for everyone. As the afternoon was ending, Mom arrived very agitated, saying she had to go out again, but that the next day we would all be together.

However, they knocked on the door, asked for her, and later I found out they were from the Military Intelligence Service. They told us not to worry, that they would ask her a few questions, and that the next morning she would be back home.

What an irony! Eleven years and seven months have passed since then. At that moment, when I saw my mother walking away, my reaction broke into tears; I did not understand why those people, whom I had never seen, were taking my mother away, and why there were soldiers dressed as if for war at the entrance of the building.

I didn't understand anything; I could only cry and scream, "Don't take her, don't take her." I wanted my mom to stay with me, but it wasn't like that. They had taken my mother, depriving me of the right to continue sharing my life with her, of developing as a daughter; they denied me the right to have a friend, a companion, the human being closest to my existence, and to her, along with denying her the right to be a mother, they denied her the right to develop as a free human being.

Now I am 19 years old; more than a decade has marked my path, and despite that, the memories remain engraved. They were so impatient for my childish mind; how could I forget the coup d'état if the only thing my mother repeated that September 11 was: "They killed him, those murderers killed him." Later I learned that President Allende was the one who had died, and I felt very sad because I knew him, since my mom worked at La Moneda, she was a secretary, and many times we were there; now everything had ended.

After the coup, our house was raided on two or three occasions, the windows broken, the beds torn apart; the whole wave of terror that would cover our lives and that of all Chileans was just beginning.

In the second quarter of '74, my uncle sought asylum in the Mexican embassy; my mom suffered a lot when she had to separate from her brother. At that moment, no one imagined that months later she would be detained and that nothing more would ever be known about what had happened to her.

A couple of years later, I would travel to Venezuela, the place where my uncles and cousins had moved, leaving my siblings here in Chile with my paternal grandparents (my maternal grandparents passed away in 1969).

With them, I lived and suffered exile and all its human problems, and this, coupled with the disappearance of my mom, made us live in constant anguish and uncertainty. Through my uncle, I was able to know my mother much better; he admired her a lot, he always filled her with virtues; thanks to him, I learned to love her infinitely, to feel proud of her person.

I know she was a great woman and that all she did was be consistent with her ideas; my uncle told me that having me by his side was having a little piece of her with him.

Legal procedures were carried out; on August 27, 1974, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed, case No. 1.004, and a complaint for alleged misfortune on May 31, 1976; in short, everything that would allow finding her whereabouts, but everything has been useless.

The government continues to deny, and I continue to wait. Two and a half years ago, I returned to my homeland; things have not been easy; so many people like me are still waiting for them to answer for so many facts.

Now I think of all the women who, like her, fell, of what their fate must have been in the hands of the criminals; I think of my uncle, exiled from the homeland that saw him born; I think of all the comrades who have been victims of this dictatorship of death, and I realize that there is so much to continue fighting for, so much to continue being strong on the path toward freedom and to continue demanding justice, because I will not renounce knowing the whole truth about what happened to my mother and to all the forcibly disappeared, and for justice to punish the guilty.

Source: by Marcela Meza Lagos (daughter)

Santiago Court sentences the State to pay compensation to the son of a forcibly disappeared woman.

The Court of Appeals ratified the challenged sentence, after establishing that as it is a crime against humanity, it is imprescriptible, both in the criminal and civil aspects.

In a unanimous ruling, the Santiago Court of Appeals confirmed the sentence that ordered the State to pay compensation of $70,000,000 to the son of Gloria Ester Lagos Nilsson, who was kidnapped by State agents on August 26, 1974.

The sentence maintains that regarding the payment that is alleged and which the judge rejected, it is necessary to take into consideration that, without prejudice to the benefits unilaterally set by Law 19.123, nothing prevents him from being able to take legal action as he does in his lawsuit, especially if it is considered that it was not proven that he had received any compensation for an indeterminate amount or in the form of periodic pensions that could be comparable to the one he is now claiming.

The resolution adds that regarding the statute of limitations that is alleged, the uniform jurisprudence that exists on the matter will be taken into account, in particular what was resolved by the Supreme Court subsequent to the ruling on the unification of jurisprudence that is cited, in the sense that the internal civil law on this matter expressly contradicts International Human Rights Law, which enshrines the right of victims and other legitimate holders to obtain reparation for all damages suffered, as recognized by Law 19.123 itself, so it is not possible to make a differentiation between the criminal and civil action that emanate from the same facts.

Source: diarioconstitucional.cl 25/09/2018

Date: 25-09-2018

Gloria Lagos Nilsson: Military Justice refuses to investigate the case of a forcibly disappeared woman

The Court Martial referred the background information to Minister Alejandro Solís and for the first time established that military courts cannot investigate proceedings for the kidnapping of forcibly disappeared persons.

Civil agent of the repressive organizations Osvaldo Romo appears as the only one investigated in the process, but the plaintiff hopes that the new magistrate will determine other responsible parties and participants in her disappearance.

For the first time, military justice declined to continue investigating a case of a forcibly disappeared person and sent the background of the case regarding the kidnapping of MIR militant Gloria Lagos Nilsson, detained in August 1974 by DINA agents, when she was three months pregnant.

In a unanimous ruling, the ministers of the Court Martial Joaquín Billard, Juan Escobar Zepeda (both civilians); Waldo Martínez, representative of the Army; Patricio Franjola, member for the Air Force; and Manuel Arancibia, of the Carabineros, determined to refer all the background of the process to Judge Alejandro Solís, since the magistrate is investigating the woman's disappearance in the chapter of the clandestine detention center of Londres 38.

The resolution states that "Given the merit of the background, particularly the records of Case File 2182-98 'Londres 38 Episode,' from which it is clear that a special minister is instructing, among other processes, the one referring to the kidnapping of Gloria Lagos Nilsson, in which facts are investigated that are not under the jurisdiction of military justice."

The case was analyzed by the military tribunal after the military judge closed the investigation into the kidnapping of Gloria Lagos Nilsson, despite the fact that a Supreme Court resolution ordered him to continue with the investigation of a process in which only the former DINA civil agent Osvaldo Romo Mena was investigated.

Plaintiff lawyer Nelson Caucoto valued the Court Martial's ruling, as he asserted that "in an unprecedented manner, the judges say they are not competent to investigate cases of forcibly disappeared persons" and stated that he hopes the investigation by Judge Solís will determine other responsible parties, since "Romo could not have acted alone in this case."

Story of a betrayal

Gloria Lagos Nilsson was 28 years old and a mother of three children aged 10, 8, and 6 at the time she was detained by agents of the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) at her home on August 26, 1974. The secretary, after having arrived home from work, was violently taken from her home by state agents who assured that they would release her in a few hours.

The woman had been denounced, amidst torture, as a member of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) by Julio Humberto Rodríguez Jorquera, her partner at the time, who betrayed her to save his own life. The man was taken to Gloria's house, where she saw him brutally tortured. However, despite how weak he was, Rodríguez managed to evade the repressive agents by escaping through the kitchen.

After his escape, Rodríguez Jorquera managed to obtain asylum at the French embassy to leave the country a few days later. Although Gloria Lagos's relatives have tried to contact him to testify before the Chilean justice system, the man has never wanted to provide his testimony and reveal the names of the agents who apprehended them.

The young secretary was seen at the Londres 38 center by Adriana Urrutia, a survivor of that detention center, who was also with Muriel Dockendorf and María Elena González, who are also forcibly disappeared.

Source: January 29, 2007 El Mostrador

Date: 29-01-2007

Court Martial acquitted 'Guatón' Romo for kidnapping in 1974

The Court Martial acquitted Osvaldo Romo Mena, a former agent of the former National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), in the process that was being followed against him for the kidnapping and disappearance of Gloria Lagos Nilson in August 1974.

The tribunal adopted this decision as a result of a two-to-two vote tie among its members, with the position in favor of acquittal held by the representative of the Army, Hernán Sandoval, and of the Carabineros, Angel Sobarzo. Voting against were the ministers of the Santiago Court of Appeals Alejandro Solís and Juan González.

For this case, Romo had been sentenced to 20 years in prison by the head of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Liliana Medina, in July 1997.

However, this resolution was annulled due to judicial procedural errors by the Santiago Court of Appeals and was referred to the Military Prosecutor's Office, which decided to acquit Romo, also known as "Guatón Romo," a ruling that was ratified today.

After learning of the ruling, lawyer Nelson Caucoto filed an appeal for cassation before the Supreme Court, with the aim of rectifying the resolution and sentencing Romo for the kidnapping of Lagos Nilson, who was three months pregnant at the time of her detention and, in addition, had three children.

"We had already heard how military justice had cleared human rights violators of charges through the path of the statute of limitations, amnesty, or res judicata, and now it does so through an acquittal sentence that is null, because it contains innumerable legal vices," he asserted.

Source: June 19, 2003 El Mostrador

Date: 19-06-2003

Theater at Villa Grimaldi: 'La Gloria', a play based on the story of Gloria Lagos Nilsson, will be presented

The Amputada theater company will exhibit next Saturday, June 16, at 6:00 PM at the Villa Grimaldi Park for Peace, the play 'La Gloria', a work that seeks to recompose the intangible heritage memory of pregnant women who were forcibly disappeared during the civil-military dictatorship.

The play is inspired by the story of Gloria Lagos Nilsson, one of the disappeared pregnant women, who at the time of her kidnapping was a mother of three children. Lagos Nilsson was a native of the town of Porvenir and has been a forcibly disappeared person since August 26, 1974, in Santiago.

The story is approached through theatrical performance, live music, and audiovisual projections, and invites, explains the director of the play, Romina Urbina, "to reflect today in relation to the family and social breakdown that affected the execution of human rights violations in our culture."

She adds that the play is built from the perspective of a daughter who searches for her mother to recompose her life in timeless situations and encounters of the past, present, and future.

The exhibition of the play is part of the project financed by the 2018 National Fondart call, obtained by the Cultural Management Area of the Villa Grimaldi Park for Peace Corporation.

La Gloria by the Amputada theater company Saturday, June 16

6:00 PM

Free admission Villa Grimaldi Park for Peace José Arrieta 8401, Peñalolén

Source: villagrimaldi.cl no date

Gloria Lagos: young MIR militant, pregnant, detained, raped, and disappeared.

The story of Gloria Lagos: Young MIR militant, forcibly disappeared.

On August 26, 1974, in the Lo Espejo district, Marcela, an 8-year-old girl, and her two brothers saw how the military took their mother away, who promised them that the next day they would be together again: "I didn't understand why those people, whom I had never seen, were taking my mother away, and why there were soldiers dressed as if for war at the entrance of the building...

I wanted my mom to stay with me."

Gloria Lagos Nilsson was 28 years old and three months pregnant at the time of her detention. She was a militant of the MIR. She was last seen at the torture and extermination center of Cuatro Álamos.

That 8-year-old girl has returned to Chile 41 years later to reconstruct her own story, to join the pieces that the horror of the dark and infamous history of this country dismembered.

She threw red and white carnations over the sea in San Antonio to remember so many bodies that were thrown into the sea, "memory is an act of love and future."

Her steps retraced that cold August day in the apartment block of Lo Espejo, while a few blocks away the gray walls of Avenida Ferrocarril are filled with colors and hopes with the silhouettes of the pregnant forcibly disappeared women, and where Anton, the little one who left with Gloria, reunites with his siblings in an eternal embrace.

The memories, the sorrow, the rebellion, the pain, and the acts of memory crowd into this sad September that still cannot fully bloom because many are missing, because there is no justice.

Tall, thin, dark-skinned, beautiful, cheerful, full of life. With gray eyes, a deep and sweet gaze, extraordinarily affectionate, a secretary by profession, she worked at La Moneda alongside President Salvador Allende, whom Gloria deeply admired, a place where her children had accompanied her many times.

The day of her detention, she was coming from filing a new writ of amparo for Julio Humberto Rodríguez Jorquera, her life partner, which is recorded in the archives of the Committee for Peace. Neighbors warned her that there were armed men at her home, not to enter; she replied: "How can I not enter, if my children are there."

After the coup, her house had been violently raided on two occasions. That night, Gloria was taken hostage due to the flight of Julio Humberto Rodríguez, who later managed to obtain asylum in an embassy.

For this case, Romo had been sentenced to 20 years in prison by the head of the Third Criminal Court of Santiago, Liliana Medina, in July 1997.

However, this resolution was annulled by the Santiago Court of Appeals, arguing judicial procedural errors, and was referred to the Military Prosecutor's Office, which decided to acquit Romo, also known as the "Guatón Romo."

Source: radiovillafrancia.cl 28/08/2016

Date: 28-08-2016

WE WERE ALL GOING TO BE QUEENS -(book) Excerpt

Study on nine pregnant women who were detained and disappeared in Chile - Truth and Justice Series - Volume 1 - CODEPU - 1990

GLORIA ESTER LAGOS NILSSON

She was tall, thin, dark-skinned, beautiful, cheerful, full of life. With gray eyes, a deep and sweet gaze, extraordinarily affectionate.

At the time of being detained on August 26, 1974, she was 28 years old and was three and a half months pregnant. She had three children from her first marriage: Héctor, 10 years old; Marcela, 8; and Patricio, 6.

She had been born in Porvenir, in the south of Chile, on September 29, 1945. Gloria's brother had sought asylum at the beginning of 1974 in the Mexican Embassy because he was being intensely persecuted; this fact caused Gloria enormous sadness.

A secretary by profession, she worked at La Moneda alongside President Salvador Allende, whom Gloria deeply admired. Her young children had accompanied her several times to the presidential palace.

After the military coup, her house was violently raided on two occasions.

Two days before her kidnapping, she had filed a writ of amparo with the Committee for Peace for Julio Humberto Rodríguez Jorquera, her partner, who had been detained by the Military Intelligence Service.

The same day she was detained, she was coming from filing a new writ of amparo, which is recorded in the archives of the Committee for Peace. Upon arriving at her house, neighbors warned her not to enter because there were armed men in her apartment. She replied: "How can I not enter if my children are inside."

That night, the agents had taken Julio Humberto to Gloria's house, where she and her children saw him brutally tortured. On that occasion, Julio Humberto managed to flee through the apartment's kitchen due to the carelessness of his captors.

Apparently, based on information we have, Gloria was taken hostage due to the flight of Julio Humberto Rodríguez, who later managed to obtain asylum in an embassy.

Many years later, her daughter Marcela recounts her kidnapping as follows:

"at that moment they knocked on the door violently, asking for my mother; before our desperation and plea, the military responded not to worry, that they would ask her a few questions and that the next day she would be back."

Her daughter Marcela has the image clearly engraved in her memory, as if it had been yesterday:

"when I saw my mother walking away, I looked out the window crying and screaming again and again for them not to take her; there I saw some dressed as if for war. I wanted my mother to stay with me, with the three of us, but it wasn't like that."

.............

Regarding what happened to GLORIA LAGOS NILSSON after her detention, we have managed to find out through Adriana Urrutia, I.D. 2.136.718-4 from Santiago, who was detained with her in an incommunicado room at Cuatro Álamos, approximately at the end of August and the first days of September 1974.

Adriana Urrutia says

"I was detained on August 8, 1974, at my house, together with my husband Ernesto Mewes. We were denounced by Marcia Merino Vega, whom they called 'la Flaca Alejandra' and who had lived with us like a daughter for almost a year. After the coup, she took refuge in our house."

"In the operation, there were 3 men and Marcia, who remained in the truck's cabin. It was about 11 at night, I was already in a robe, they knocked loudly on the door, upon opening it two men entered violently... one tall, solid, somewhat brutal, with very bad skin, as if pockmarked, red, sanguine face, black hair... the other, somewhat blond, thin, fair-skinned, well-mannered.

They asked us few questions, then ordered me to get dressed and take two blankets. After we left, I learned that our house was subsequently occupied by the DINA. Upon getting into the back of the truck, I spotted Marcia Merino Vega, who covered her face with her hands.

Once inside, they put tape over our eyes. They drove us toward the city center; upon arriving at a house, they asked for our full names, identity cards, marital status, that is, all our background. Then they left us sitting in what must have been the hall.

With my husband, we were determined not to give the names of the MIR youths we knew: not to say a word, nor give a sign. After a while, they took us to a room; Marcia Merino, 'la Flaca Alejandra', took the tape off me and said: 'look at me, Adriana, how I am'; and she begged me to tell everything.

Beside her was Osvaldo Romo, whom I also knew from before. I refused, I ignored her, and then I was stripped, tied to a metal bed, and tortured; they did the same with my husband. We both remained silent."

"On the morning of August 9, they took me out of that house, alone, without a blindfold. I realize I am on Londres street and I see No. 38. Then they put me in a car, they put a handkerchief, my own handkerchief, over my eyes.

I could see through it because it was silk. They drove me toward the upper-class neighborhood; I recognized Arrieta street and the house where we stopped. I had been there for an auction; it had been the residence of Allende's Ambassador in Rome, Carlos Vasallo. That house is known as Villa Grimaldi; at that time they didn't seem to have prisoners there; they were conditioning it."

"They introduced me into a large room; it was Osvaldo Romo who was leading me. In front of me, an immense desk; behind it, a man sitting, who interrogated me. Years later, upon seeing his photo, I recognized the military man Pedro Espinoza Bravo.

He insisted that I recognize Marcia Merino; I refused. He offered me a ticket to Buenos Aires if I spoke; I insisted on my refusal. Then he changed his tone and ordered violently that they take me out of the room.

It was something frightening; outside, a real pack of men awaited me; there were about 10 who shouted at me, insulted me, they dragged me to a patio, tying my arms and legs to the ground. Then I felt the noise of an engine, of a machine; they shouted at me, 'speak or we will run you over'; I remained desperately silent.

Someone said, 'we don't kill here, but we leave people crippled for the rest of their lives.' They ran a wheel over both my legs, burning, atrocious... I confessed... I lost consciousness."

Adriana was transferred that night of August 9 back to the house on Londres street. There they left her lying on a mattress in the hall, her legs bruised, swollen, edematous; it was impossible for her to even lean on them.

"During those three days, I was a witness to the presence of Mauricio Jorquera in that room. Mauricio is now disappeared. To that boy who was complaining, asking for water, they said, 'if you talk you go to the hospital, if not you are going to die'."

She remembers, "they left us alone, I spoke to him by his name and demanded that they bring him water."

After 3 days, they tortured Adriana again along with her husband. With a whip, they caused an injury to her spine, an injury that would later be confirmed in a hospital in Denmark and of which the exams are kept.

Adriana continues her account

"on August 18 or perhaps 19, we were transferred along with all the prisoners who were at Londres 38 to the incommunicado pavilion of Cuatro Álamos. There I was with Muriel Dokendorff, María Elena González, and Patricia Herrera."

"At the end of August, a tall, thin woman, fair-skinned, hair almost blond, very beautiful eyes, possibly green, entered our room. She was pregnant. She came very scared, nervous; she told us that they had detained her at her home.

She was desperate because her three children had been left alone crying in her apartment. She told us her name was Gloria Esther Lagos Nilsson; she revealed everything that had happened to her, how she entered her house anyway despite the warning from her neighbors, how her partner had escaped from the DINA...".

At the beginning of September, Adriana was transferred to free speech, Gloria remained in the incommunicado pavilion.

"We waited for her; she never arrived at Tres Álamos."

Source: CODEPU - 1990