"Every time Pinochet's military regime required false reports from the Legal Medical Service to cover up crimes, it had them, and the signature responsible for Dr. América González appears on all of them," denounced plaintiff lawyer Hiram Villagra.

The plaintiff lawyers in the Pinochet case, Hiram Villagra and Hugo Gutiérrez, filed a "take note" motion to the special judge, Juan Guzmán Tapia, pointing out that Dr. América González, coordinator of the Legal Medical Service (SML) team that examined Pinochet, performed "false" forensic examinations during the 1980s that sought to favor the military regime. "Every time Pinochet's military regime required false reports from the Legal Medical Service to cover up crimes, it had them, and the signature responsible for Dr.

América González appears on all of them," denounced Villagra.

Source: El Mostrador, January 27, 2001

Chile: The doctors of death

Cardiologists, psychiatrists, dentists, traumatologists, pediatricians, psychologists, gynecologists, and otolaryngologists applied the knowledge they acquired to save lives toward the administration of torture and executions against hundreds of political prisoners.

Most of them are still working in public hospitals, private clinics, and health institutions of the Armed Forces. The Hippocratic Oath states in some of its parts: "I swear by Apollo the Physician and Asclepius and Hygeia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill this oath and this covenant according to my ability and judgment.

I will hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money give him a share of mine, and will regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and will teach them this art - if they desire to learn it...

I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them. I will not give a deadly drug to any, though it be asked of me, nor will I counsel such a thing.

Likewise, I will not give a woman a pessary to produce abortion. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art... Now if I carry out this oath, and break it not, may I gain for ever reputation among all men for my life and for my art; but if I break it and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me." Evidently, those who placed their knowledge at the service of torture and death violated this oath and all norms regarding the defense of human rights.

The worst part is that, with the protection of the Armed Forces or the extreme negligence of the public hospital directors appointed by the Concertación, they remain in their positions, treating people who have no idea that "their doctor" has such a sinister past.

This occurred when the public protests known as funas began, with hundreds of patients calling doctors to confront them and cancel their visits upon learning of the facts. Among other cases, this happened with Alejandro Forero at the INDISA Clinic, Sergio Muñoz at the Barros Luco Hospital, and Roberto Lailhacar at his office on Calle Obispo Salas in the commune of Providencia.

From the first days

The collaboration of doctors who had sided with the coup plotters occurred from the very first days of the Pinochet dictatorship. The case of José María Fuentealba, an Army health official, is one of them.

On October 27, 1973, Néstor Hernán Castillo Sepúlveda, 23, Regional Secretary of the Communist Youth; José Rosendo Pérez Ríos, 24, employee and MAPU militant; and Juan Vera Oyarzún, 53, worker, Regional Secretary of the Communist Party, union leader, and former councilman of Punta Arenas, were handed over by the Argentine Gendarmerie to Chilean military personnel in the border town of Río Mayo.

On September 20, a group of four people, including Juan Vera, had crossed the border to seek political asylum in Argentina. Two days later, they were handed over to the Argentine Gendarmerie by the owner of a local ranch, taken to Aldea Veleiros, and subsequently to Río Mayo.

In this town, they remained under the custody of the 38th Squadron of the Gendarmerie. On the other hand, on September 28, José Rosendo Pérez and Néstor Castillo, who had also arrived from Chile days earlier, were arrested at a boarding house in Río Mayo.

Along with Juan Vera, they were tasked with performing labor at the Río Mayo Municipality while they remained detained. This lasted until October 27, when they were handed over to a military command consisting of Army Captain Joaquín Molina, a Carabinero with the surname Salinas, Sub-officer Evaldo Reidlich Hains, and Dr.

José María Fuentealba Suazo, who were traveling in an ambulance from the Coyhaique Regional Hospital. According to the newspaper La Epoca of November 2, 1988, the military "informed them that their families were waiting for them at the border.

Once in Chilean territory, the military patrol forced the group to get into a truck and began the return trip toward the Las Bandurrias prison camp. Hours later, the vehicle arrived at the military facility.

Only the uniformed men and the doctor were inside. The three detainees have never appeared to this day." The justice system indicted Dr. Fuentealba Suazo and retired Sub-officer Evaldo Reidlich, while continuing proceedings to identify the other member of the patrol and conducting inspections at the Coyhaique Forest Reserve of the El Claro Cemetery, the place where the three Chilean citizens were allegedly executed and forcibly disappeared.

Joaquín Molina Fuenzalida, the captain who commanded the group, was murdered by Manuel Contreras Valdebenito, son of the head of the DINA. As in this case, the Punta Arenas cardiologist Guillermo Aranda and Alejandro Babaich Schmith, Director of the "Cirujano Guzmán" Hospital in that city, also appear from the very beginning, recognized by many who were tortured in that locality.

Another is Darwin Arraigada Loyola, at that time a leader of the Medical Association of Chile, who was subsequently appointed by the Military Junta as Director General of Health and who is accused, among other things, of turning in numerous left-wing doctors, more than 30 of whom were murdered, and participating in the plan to administer drugs in food to murder political prisoners.

Doctor Raúl Díaz Doll, an official of the General Directorate of the National Health Service, was part of the military commission that investigated the political affiliation of doctors. He organized the spying within the service and participated personally in the interrogations of detained and tortured doctors.

In Iquique, pediatrician Werner Gálvez, a Health Colonel, administered intravenous injections of sodium pentothal, alternating with biological serum, during interrogations of prisoners of war. Meanwhile, in Valdivia, traumatologist Fernando Jara de la Maza participated directly in the application of torture to detainees.

In the province of Concepción, a Carabinero doctor with the surname Minoletti advised the torturers of Fuerte Borgoño and issued "natural death" certificates to cover up the crimes. Meanwhile, in Tejas Verdes, the cradle of the DINA, Dr.

Vittorio Orvieto Teplizky performed collaborative functions in the tortures committed at the Prisoner of War Camp Number Two of that military facility; he would later join the Health Brigade of said illicit association, appearing as director of the clandestine Santa Lucía clinic.

In the vicinity of Santiago, radiologist Bernardo Pulto, together with the military prosecutor of Melipilla, personally took part in the torture sessions of prisoners.

The Health Brigade

The DINA had its own team for the care of service personnel, collaborating prisoners, and the application of torment to those it considered its "enemies." Along with the aforementioned Vittorio Orvieto Teplizky, the following performed duties: Werner Zanghellini, Hernán Taricco, Nader Nasser, Osvaldo Eugenio Leyton Bahamondez, Rodrigo Vélez, Samuel Valdivia Soto, Luis Hernán Santibáñez Santelices, Eduardo Contreras Balcarce, gynecologist Juan Pablo Figueroa Yáñez, otolaryngologist Eugenio Fantuzzi Alliende, psychiatrist Roberto Lailhacar Chávez, dentist Sergio Roberto Muñoz Bonta, and nurse María Eliana Bolumburú Taboada. Another doctor, of whom only the surname is known, is the psychologist Bassaure. Without being part of the structure, the doctor Gregorio Burgos of the Los Angeles Regiment collaborated with DINA agents, looking for ways to torture without the detainee losing consciousness. Many of them seem to no longer practice in their respective areas, although they remain close, such as nurse María Eliana Bolumburú, who works in a chemical laboratory on Calle Ejército. Others remain active and assume prominent roles in their profession, such as Roberto Emilio Lailhacar Chávez, who in the final years of the 90s and until 2001 held the position of president of the Chilean Society of Sexology and Sexual Education, whose headquarters operated out of his private office at Obispo Salas 290 in the commune of Providencia. He integrated lawyer Víctor Manuel Avilés Mejías, a member of the DINA Legal Department, into this organization as a "natural person." For his part, dental surgeon Sergio Muñoz Bonta, who worked in the clandestine Santa Lucía and London clinics, treated, among other people, Marcia Merino, the "flaca Alejandra," and was a "founding partner" of the front company Pedro Diet Lobos, through which the DINA laundered money coming from the State, arms and drug trafficking, and legalized the theft of houses, cars, and assets of those prisoners who were forcibly disappeared. Here he was a "colleague," for example, of Francisco Ferrer Lima, Emilio Sajuria Alvear, Ricardo Lawrence Mires, Fernando Gómez Segovia, Augusto Pinochet Hiriart, and Pedro Espinoza Bravo. Luis Hernán Santibáñez Santelices appears implicated in the disappearance of Juan Elías Cortés Alruiz, a communist militant kidnapped in April 1976, a case for which he was even called to testify by Judge Servando Jordán in 1980 along with Germán Barriga Muñoz, Emilio Troncoso Vivillos, Heriberto Acevedo, Vianel Valdivieso, and Julio Leyton Robles, brother of Manuel Leyton, who died under strange circumstances at the London clinic. Dr. Santibáñez acknowledged on July 17, 1980, that he had been part of the DINA in the capacity of a doctor. He reported that the London Clinic existed on Calle Almirante Barroso, which was under the charge of Dr. Taricco. When shown a photo of Cortés, he said that the face looked familiar and that he might have possibly seen that person at the San Juan de Dios Hospital. In the same proceeding, he was interrogated about the case of Gabriel Castillo Tapia, who has been disappeared since August 5, 1976. Another doctor, Osvaldo Leyton Bahamondes, appears implicated in the death of Manuel Leyton Robles; he signed a death certificate stating that the DINA agent had died due to an epileptic seizure and cardiac arrhythmia. The death allegedly occurred at Almirante Barroso No. 76, where the London Clinic operated. The truth is that Manuel Leyton was murdered by his "colleagues" after his role as a DINA member was discovered following his participation in a job commissioned by Germán Barriga: the theft of a Renault 4. For his part, Sergio Marcelo Virgilio Bocaz, after finishing his work at the DINA, based at the Santa Lucía Clinic, continued working in the CNI Logistics Command, and at the end of the dictatorship, he was seen appearing in various types of advertising, such as one for Nescafé, another for Tritón cookies, and for financial institutions. He still holds a position at the Félix Bulnes Hospital. Dr. Eugenio Fantuzzi has his private practice and is Head of the Otolaryngology Service at the Dávila Clinic. Gynecologist Juan Pablo Figueroa sees patients from Monday to Friday at the Arauco Clinic, and Hernán Taricco Lavín continues to work for the Army at the Maipú Military Medical Center (see box). Werner Zanghellini Martínez, who injected the detainee Jorge Fuentes Alarcón with the rabies virus, quickly abandoned his office, located at Galvarino Gallardo 1983, when he was confronted by dozens of people a couple of years ago. It is known that he continues to see patients in an office on Avenida Providencia that belongs to a relative, although his name does not appear on the plaque attached to the door.

The CNI and the Joint Command

Although the presence of other doctors is known in the Joint Command, which was basically composed of members of the Air Force, the one who has been prosecuted as a permanent part of this illicit association is cardiologist Alejandro Jorge Forero Alvarez, a squadron commander of the FACH and an official of the institutional hospital.

Named in most of the cases involving the Joint Command, it is known that in 1976 he served as a second lieutenant at the El Bosque Air Base and at the Colina Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment, used as a clandestine detention center by the FACH.

In this place, he allegedly participated by supervising tortures and drugging the prisoners who were taken out to be forcibly disappeared. Forero participated in Patria y Libertad during the government of the Unidad Popular, where he met Roberto Fuentes Morrison, alias "el Wally." Once in the dictatorship, he was prosecuted by Judge Carlos Cerda, but said process was closed and amnestied by a judge appointed especially for that purpose.

For the crimes of illicit association and illegal detention of Víctor Vega Riquelme, he was prosecuted along with 20 other members of the Joint Command. In the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), Jorge León Alessandrini, a dentist and civilian agent, appears implicated in the murder of union leader Tucapel Jiménez, where he allegedly acted by providing the murder weapon.

The CNI also had its own medical team, especially in the clandestine torture centers located in Santiago, such as the Borgoña Barracks, and others in the regions. Cases that have reached notoriety exposed some of them, for example, those implicated in the death by torture of teacher Federico Alvarez Santibáñez in August 1979.

The young MIR militant was handed over by the Carabineros to the CNI, where he was subjected to terrible duress while being "monitored" by health professionals to prevent his death. Among these appear Luis Losada Fuenzalida, Manfred Jurgensen Caesar, and Camilo Azar Saba, all sanctioned by the Medical Association on March 31, 1986.

Losada Fuenzalida signed a report in which he indicated that the teacher was in good physical condition only one hour before the death of Alvarez Santibáñez. Camilo Azar is a traumatologist and orthopedist, so he knew perfectly well the most sensitive areas of the body, which could cause the greatest pain with the least danger of death.

However, in this case, they did not serve: Federico Alvarez died due to multiple contusions, hemoptysis, and pulmonary insufficiency. Another case is that of the transporter from La Serena, Mario Fernández López, kidnapped by the CNI in October 1984.

After Fernández's death by torture, doctors Víctor Carcuro Correa and Guido Mario Félix Díaz Paci, participants in the application of torment to the detainee, were sanctioned by the Medical Association.

Guido Díaz Paci, a well-known Army doctor, lied to the doctors on duty at the La Serena Hospital, claiming that the detainee came from a Carabinero station and not from the CNI, and requesting that the doctors hide the detainee's condition.

Once Mario Fernández had died, Díaz Paci attempted to have the physician who had performed emergency surgery on the victim falsify the diagnosis of his death, hiding the true motives for the passing. Back in 1974, when he participated in the exhumation of the body of María Avalos, murdered along with her husband Bernardo Lejdermann in December 1973 by a patrol of the Arica Regiment of La Serena, he lied when issuing a death certificate, claiming that the woman had blown herself up with dynamite.

Like many of these "doctors of death," Díaz Paci continues working in La Serena.

The workplace H. Darwin Arraigada Loyola, General medicine. Sees patients at Santa María 217, office 34, commune of Independencia. Phone 7372626. Dr. Eugenio Fantuzzi Alliende, Otolaryngologist. Chief Physician of the Otolaryngology Service of the Dávila Clinic, located at Avenida Recoleta 464, Santiago.

Private practice at Luis Thayer Ojeda Norte 073, office 606, Providencia. Phone 233 7524. Fax 234 1740. Dr. Juan Pablo Figueroa Yáñez, Gynecologist and Obstetrician. Sees patients from Monday to Friday at the Arauco Clinic, located at Parque Arauco.

Avenida Kennedy 5413-B. Phone 2990299. Werner Zanghellini Martínez, Cardiologist. Last known address: Galvarino Gallardo 1983, Providencia. Now sees patients without advertising at a relative's office, in the same commune.

Sergio Marcelo Virgilio Bocaz, General medicine. Still holds a position at the Félix Bulnes Hospital, located at Leoncio Fernández 2655, Quinta Normal, Santiago. Hernán Horacio Taricco Lavín, Pediatrician.

Sees patients Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, from 12:00 to 14:30, at the Maipú Military Medical Center, located at Avenida Ramón Freire No. 6097, Villa Militar Oeste, Paradero 3 1/2 de Pajaritos, Comuna Estación Central.

Phones: 450 8564, 450 8565, 450 8566. Fax: 450 8563. Manfred Jurgensen Caesar, General medicine. Works at the Military Hospital of Santiago. Alejandro Forero Alvarez, Cardiologist. Works at the INDISA Clinic, Avenida Santa María 1810, phone 2254555.

Private practice Apoquindo 6275, office 116. Guido Díaz Paci, Pediatrician. Sees patients at the Infantry Regiment No. 21 "Arica" of the Second Army Division based in La Serena, under the command of Brigadier General José Gabriel Gaete Paredes.

Camilo Azar Saba, Traumatologist. Since August 1, 2003, sees patients at Integramedica Alto Las Condes, located at Avenida Kennedy 9001, 7th floor, Mall Alto Las Condes. Phones: 6366666, 6796500, 6796566, and 6796567.

Assistant: Fabiola Banda, phone 6796576. Sergio Roberto Muñoz Bonta, Dentist. Sees patients at the Barros Luco-Trudeau Hospital and at the "San Lucas" dental medical office at José Domingo Santa María 1338. Phones 7377674 and 7379978. Roberto Lailhacar Chávez, Psychiatrist. Continues to see patients at Obispo Salas 290, Office 168. Phone 2239405.

THE ANGELS OF DEATH!

The doctors: Breaking the Hippocratic Oath "I swear by Apollo the Physician and Asclepius and Hygeia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill this oath and this covenant according to my ability and judgment...

I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them. I will not give a deadly drug to any, though it be asked of me, nor will I counsel such a thing.

Likewise, I will not give a woman a pessary to produce abortion. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art... Now if I carry out this oath, and break it not, may I gain for ever reputation among all men for my life and for my art; but if I break it and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me." Part of the Hippocratic Oath Darwin Arriagada.

Doctor, leader of the Medical Association of Chile in 1973. Was appointed by the Military Junta as Director General of Health. Participated in the plan to administer drugs in food to murder political prisoners.

Turned in numerous left-wing doctors, more than 30 of whom were murdered. Camilo Azar Saba. CNI doctor. Was suspended for six months from the Medical Association for his participation in tortures applied to prisoners in CNI barracks.

Implicated in the Federico Alvarez Santibáñez case. Guillermo Aranda. Punta Arenas doctor, Cardiologist. Applied his knowledge to the torture of prisoners in this city. Alejandro Babaich Schmith. Director of the "Cirujano Guzmán" Hospital of Punta Arenas.

Advisor in t torture against political prisoners. Gregorio Burgos. Physician at the Los Angeles Regiment. He advised DINA agents on how to apply torture without the detainee losing consciousness. Víctor Carcuro Correa.

Physician for the CNI. This doctor was suspended from his rights by the Medical Association for his participation in the torture that culminated in the death of the transporter Mario Fernández López, in La Serena, in October 1984.

Raúl Díaz Doll. Physician, official of the General Directorate of the National Health Service. He was a member of the military commission that investigated the political affiliation of physicians. He organized espionage within the service and personally participated in the interrogations of detained and tortured physicians.

Guido Mario Félix Díaz Paci. Army and CNI physician. A military health officer of the Army who participated in the events that culminated in the death of the transporter Mario Fernández López, in La Serena.

The causes of Fernández López's death were the torture suffered at the CNI barracks in that city in October 1984. When Mario Fernández had to be transferred to the La Serena Hospital, Díaz Paci lied to the doctors on duty at the hospital, claiming that the detainee came from a Carabineros station and not from the CNI, requesting that the doctors conceal the detainee's condition.

Once Fernández had passed away, the physician and CNI agent attempted to have the doctor who had performed emergency surgery on the victim falsify the death diagnosis, concealing the true causes of death.

For all these reasons, Guido Díaz Paci was expelled from the Medical Association. In 1974, he participated in the exhumation of the body of María Avalos, murdered along with her husband, Bernardo Lejdermann, in December 1973 by a patrol from the Arica Regiment of La Serena.

In the death certificate, he asserted that the woman had blown herself up with dynamite. José María Fuentealba Suazo. Army physician. On October 27, 1973, José Fuentealba participated in the delegation that traveled to Río Mayo, in Argentina, to transfer 3 detainees, Juan Vera, Néstor Castillo, and José Rosendo Pérez, who had been captured by the Argentine Gendarmerie when they escaped in search of political asylum.

The delegation was under the command of Captain Joaquín Molina Fuenzalida (murdered by the son of Manuel Contreras) and also included a Carabineros officer surnamed Salinas and the non-commissioned officer Evaldo Reidlich Hains.

The three prisoners were loaded into a vehicle from the Coyhaique Regional Hospital and transported toward Chile, but they never reached their destination. In April 2002, the judge of the First Criminal Court of Coyhaique, Luis Sepúlveda, indicted Fuentealba Suazo and the retired Carabineros non-commissioned officer Evaldo Reidlich Hains.

Alejandro Jorge Forero Alvarez. Cardiologist. Medical Association Registry 9580-K. Squadron Commander and physician who was working at the FACH Hospital at the time of the coup d'état. In 1976, he served as a second soldier at the El Bosque Air Base and at the Colina Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment.

In this location, he participated in the Joint Command (Comando Conjunto), supervising torture and drugging prisoners who were taken out to be forcibly disappeared. He was indicted by Judge Carlos Cerda during the dictatorship.

Recently, he has been summoned again in new proceedings regarding the Joint Command. Werner Gálvez. Pediatrician, Colonel of Health in Iquique. At the beginning of the military regime, he administered intravenous injections of sodium pentothal, alternating with biological serum, during interrogations in this city.

Fernando Jara de la Maza. Traumatologist in Valdivia. In the days following the military coup, he participated directly in the application of torture to detainees. Manfred Jurgensen Caesar. CNI physician.

This physician, who was also a CNI agent, was expelled from the Medical Association for his participation in torture applied to prisoners in clandestine barracks of this repressive agency. Implicated in the death of Federico Alvarez Santibáñez.

Luis Losada Fuenzalida. CNI physician. He was also expelled from the Medical Association for his participation in the torture that culminated in the death of the teacher Federico Álvarez Santibáñez. One hour before the death of Álvarez Santibáñez, who was tortured in August 1979 for seven days in secret CNI barracks in Santiago, he signed a report indicating that the teacher was in good physical condition.

Minoletti. Carabineros physician, Concepción province. He advised the torturers at Fuerte Borgoño and issued natural death certificates to cover up the crimes. Vittorio Orvieto Teplizky. Army physician.

He collaborated in the torture committed at the Tejas Verdes Prisoner Camp Number Two. He also participated in the DINA Health Brigade as director of the Santa Lucía Clinic. América González Figueroa. Hired during the dictatorship to work at the Legal Medical Service (SML), where she falsified information regarding the causes of death of several victims of political executions.

Among the cases in which she is implicated are the death due to torture of Carlos Godoy Echegoyen, which she presented as "sudden death"; the murder of Cecilia Magni Camino, asserting that she had drowned and concealing the signs of torture on her body; and the crime of the DC student leader Mario Martínez, who appeared on the coast of Rocas de Santo Domingo after being kidnapped in Santiago.

Another "service to the fatherland" was her participation in the examinations that culminated in the fraud regarding Pinochet's dementia. In the final period, while still at the SML, she was appointed head of the Department of Thanatology and acting director of the service.

On December 21, 2000, shortly after her responsibility was proven in the mistaken delivery of the bodies of three young men burned inside the San Miguel Prison, she received a merit annotation in her personnel file signed by the Minister of Justice, José Antonio Gómez, a Radical Party militant.

Jorge León Alessandrini. Dentist, civil agent of the DINE, implicated in the murder of union leader Tucapel Jiménez Alfaro. Osvaldo Leyton Bahamondes. DINA physician. Implicated in the death by torture of Manuel Leyton Robles, a DINA agent who was murdered by his "colleagues" after being publicly involved in the theft of a Renault 4, a job commissioned by his superior Germán Barriga Muñoz.

Dr. Leyton Bahamondes signed a certificate in which the agent appeared to have died due to an epileptic seizure and cardiac arrhythmia at Almirante Barroso 76, the location of the clandestine London clinic.

Bernardo Pulto. Radiologist in Melipilla. Together with the military prosecutor of Melipilla, he personally took part in torture sessions of prisoners. Luis Hernán Santibáñez Santelices. DINA physician.

Member of the Health Brigade that operated at the London Clinic (Almirante Barroso). Implicated in the disappearance of Juan Elías Cortés. Hernán Horacio Taricco Lavín. DINA physician. Head of the Health Brigade that operated at the London Clinic.

Implicated in the death of DINA agent Manuel Jesús Leyton Robles. Hernán Twane. Psychologist who administered Sodium Pentothal to prisoners so they could be interrogated by the Investigations Service. He maintains a shared office in the vicinity of the Diego Portales building.

Werner Zanghellini Martínez. Director of the Santa Lucía Clinic between 1975 and 1976. He is accused by survivors of Villa Grimaldi of having injected the rabies virus into Jorge Fuentes Alarcón, a forcibly disappeared person.

He was confronted (funado) at his private clinic at Galvarino Gallardo 1983, Providencia, and the following day he moved to a nearby office belonging to a relative. Sergio Marcelo Virgilio Bocaz. Physician of the DINA Health Brigade, with duties at the clandestine Santa Lucía clinic, who continued working at the CNI Logistics Command.

Marcia Merino claims to have seen him in advertisements for coffee and financial companies. DINA Health Brigade. Composed, among others, of doctors Vittorio Orvietto, Werner Zanghellini, Hernán Taricco, Nader Nasser, Osvaldo Eugenio Leyton Bahamondez, Rodrigo Vélez, Samuel Valdivia Soto, Luis Hernán Santibáñez Santelices, Eduardo Contreras Balcarce, the gynecologist Juan Pablo Figueroa Yáñez, the otolaryngologist Eugenio Fantuzzi Alliende, the psychiatrist Roberto Lailhacar Chávez, the dentist Sergio Roberto Muñoz Bonta, and the nurse María Eliana Bolumburú Taboada.

Another physician, of whom only the surname is known, is the psychologist Bassaure. Their current addresses H. Darwin Arraigada Loyola, General medicine. Attends at Santa María 217, office 34, Independencia commune.

Phone 7372626. Eugenio Fantuzzi Alliende, Otolaryngologist. Chief Physician of the Otolaryngology Service at the Dávila Clinic, located at Avenida Recoleta 464, Santiago. Private practice at Luis Thayer Ojeda Norte 073, office 606, Providencia.

Phone 233 7524. Fax 234 1740. Juan Pablo Figueroa Yáñez, Gynecologist and Obstetrician. Attends Monday through Friday at the Arauco Clinic, located at Parque Arauco. Avenida Kennedy 5413-B. Phone 2990299.

His last known address is Américo Vespucio Norte 1303, apartment 71, Vitacura. Phone 2069147. Werner Zanghellini Martínez, Cardiologist. Last known address: Galvarino Gallardo 1983, Providencia. Now attends without advertising at a relative's office in the same commune.

Sergio Marcelo Virgilio Bocaz, General medicine. Still working at the Félix Bulnes Hospital, located at Leoncio Fernández 2655, Quinta Normal, Santiago. His last known address is Tupungato 10.279, Vitacura.

Phone 2154768. Hernán Horacio Taricco Lavín, Pediatrician. Attends Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, from 12:00 to 14:30, at the Maipú Military Medical Center, located at Avenida Ramón Freire Nº6097, Villa Militar Oeste, Paradero 3 1/2 of Pajaritos, Estación Central commune.

Phones: 450 8564, 450 8565, 450 8566. Fax: 450 8563. His last known address is at Tabancura 1278, phones 2433425 and 2433444. Sergio Roberto Muñoz Bonta, Dentist. Attends the public at the Barros Luco-Trudeau Hospital and at the "San Lucas" dental medical office at José Domingo Santa María 1338.

Phones 7377674 and 7379978. Roberto Lailhacar Chávez, Psychiatrist. Former president of the Chilean Society of Sexology and Sexual Education. Attends at Obispo Salas 290, Office 168. Phone 2239405. His last known address is Los Ranchos 8763, Vitacura, phone 3262178.

Manfred Jurgensen Caesar, General medicine. Works at the Military Hospital of Santiago. Private practice Hernando de Aguirre 194, office 301. Alejandro Forero Alvarez, Cardiologist. Works at the INDISA Clinic, Avenida Santa María 1810, phone 2254555.

Private practice Apoquindo 6275, office 116. His last known address is Camino La brisa 14.199-2, Lo Barnechea. Phone 2161253. Medical Association Registry 9580-K. Guido Díaz Paci, Pediatrician. Attends at the Infantry Regiment N°21 "Arica" of the Second Army Division based in La Serena, under the command of Brigadier General José Gabriel Gaete Paredes.

Maintains a private practice in this city. Camilo Azar Saba, Traumatologist. Since August 1, 2003, he attends at Integramedica Alto Las Condes, located at Avenida Kennedy 9001, 7th floor, Mall Alto Las Condes.

Phones: 6366666, 6796500, 6796566, and 6796567. Assistant: Fabiola Banda, phone 6796576. His last known address is Echeñique 8801-B (interior). Phones 3265277 – 3265294. Vitorio Orvieto Tiplizki, Ophthalmologist.

Attends at the Integramedica centers in Maipú, Av. Pajaritos 1605, phone 6366500, and at Plaza Oeste, located at Américo Vespucio 1501, Cerrillos, phone 6367200. Luis Santibáñez Santelices, Bronchopulmonary specialist. Attends at Integramedica Las Condes, located at the Alto Las Condes mall, Av. Kennedy 9001, third floor. Phone 6796500.

Source: elsiglo.cl, February 13, 2004

Report from Great Britain University: Identification errors were confirmed by experts external to Glasgow

Although judicial and political authorities have maintained that the errors detected by the Legal Medical Service (SML) itself in the identification of at least 48 forcibly disappeared persons are not conclusive, in October 2002 another European academic entity detected serious flaws in the first identification process carried out by the national forensic agency.

Although the report prepared by the Legal Medical Service (SML) regarding errors in the identification of at least 48 forcibly disappeared persons has been described as "not conclusive" by both the magistrate in charge of the case, Carlos Gajardo, and the government delegate intervening in the matter, María Luisa Sepúlveda, these acts of negligence by the forensic agency were previously confirmed by forensic medicine professionals external to the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

In October 2002, nine months after Dr. Peter Vanezis's report was delivered to the courts, the University of Granada conducted a deep review of the methods used by the Identification Unit, then headed by Dr.

Patricia Hernández, who had to personally account to President Michelle Bachelet regarding the errors committed. In that sense, although this same study also dismissed the scope of the report by the aforementioned Scottish professional, as it was an analysis based on unreliable evidence, it simultaneously issued harsh criticisms against the procedures used at the local forensic institute.

Errors of form and substance Of the 128 bodies found in Patio 29 of the General Cemetery in 1991, a commission headed by Dr. Fernando Botella López, director of the Anthropology Laboratory of the University of Granada, Spain, chose 25 cases to review, in which it later reported the serious flaws of form and substance in carrying out these forensic medical examinations.

Without pronouncing on the result of the examinations themselves, it established that the SML "did not use anthropological methodology correctly. It is necessary to address a complete and systematic review of all protocols as soon as possible.

Once this phase is concluded, it will be necessary to study all or part of the cases, with sufficient scientific guarantee and under the charge of specialists of proven quality." "It is essential to adequately train the personnel in charge of these studies and to provide the (Identification) Unit with means and measuring instruments.

It would be advisable to train new technicians to join the existing ones to incorporate the most recent advances in the field of forensic anthropology into daily work," the study adds. In this document, the professionals in charge of the methodology analysis noted the disorder and lack of care regarding the preparation of autopsy protocols drawn up by the agency. "The reports, minutes, and the rest of the documents are piled up without following a chronological succession or any other type.

It is the general trend to include draft folders and copies of reports, sometimes up to five drafts with corrections, which have no relevance whatsoever and only contribute to increasing the size of the folder," the statement establishes.

Likewise, it notes that in a large number of identification files, there were no photographs of the skeletal remains that had been identified, and also that under the belief that a particular skeleton had obvious similarities with a person, other types of evidence to check this possibility were immediately distorted, giving rise to errors, since the greater the number of scientific references, the higher the degree of certainty.

Alleged role of Dr. González A fact that draws attention in the investigation by the Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office is that its corresponding report establishes that the SML never received the receipt for the payment made to the University of Glasgow for the preparation of the controversial report, establishing that the account where 23,813 pounds sterling (21,920,117 pesos at present) were deposited was indicated by Dr.

América González, who completed a specialization course in video-superimposition at that university. This doctor also appears mentioned on repeated occasions in the complaints made by former officials of the agency to the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic in 2002, being linked to the conclusion of agreements with private universities during the time of the questioned SML director, Jorge Rodríguez Díaz.

In the implementation of the agreements and courses taught to universities, Dr. América González Figueroa plays a very important role; she was appointed for this purpose as Head of the Teaching Department of the Legal Medical Service, a former contract official with 44 hours of performance in the Department of Thanatology, whose services at the Legal Medical Service originated during the military government.

According to the document, which gave rise to an investigation that has not yet concluded, this physician would play "an important role in his (Rodríguez Díaz's) ambitious plans to commercialize the thanatological experience of the SML through 'agreements,' and also regarding the management of support that she provides him in general in the administration of the agency." In the presentation, the former leadership of the officials stated that, in addition to this specialist being appointed by the former director as titular and substitute Head of the Department of Thanatology, Acting National Director, and Head of the Extension and Teaching Department, she was awarded scholarships for multiple courses held in Chile and abroad. But the greatest of her potential gratifications would refer to avoiding her official responsibility in several irregular events. The history of errors by Dr. González, which would not have been sanctioned, included the following episodes: serious forensic error in the autopsy of Sergio Godoy Echegoyen, a student murdered in Quillota in a Carabineros station, to whom she attributed sudden death as the cause, concealing that he died due to polytraumatism from the torture received; autopsy of Cecilia Magni, murdered by military personnel of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) in the Tinguirica River, to whom she attributed death by asphyxia due to submersion, concealing that it occurred due to polytraumatism, with signs of having been anally raped and tortured; forensic error in the autopsy of prisoners burned in the San Miguel Prison, corresponding to seven prisoners burned in a fire that occurred in the San Miguel Prison, in which case the identification errors resulted in the mistaken delivery of three bodies to families to whom they did not belong, which caused a serious national scandal. Dr. González would also have been responsible for the negligent loss of a report that accounted for the forensic error committed regarding those burned in San Miguel, as well as the loss of the DNA report, which disappeared from her desk and which accounted for the forensic error that had been incurred in the cases of the aforementioned penitentiary facility. "It was up to the medical technologist Hugo Jorquera González, Head of the Molecular Biology Unit, to discover the true identity of those burned; he wrote the report and personally confided its result to Dr. González. She hid the official report written and signed by Jorquera, claiming that she lost it and that she was never informed of its content. The technologist Jorquera, in turn, kept complete silence," the document maintains. "Despite these repeated and serious forensic errors, Dr. González has not been sanctioned, with the National Director Dr. Jorge Luis Rodríguez Díaz always providing her with his fullest support and backing. He has appointed her Head of the Identification Unit and has insisted on naming her Head or Person in Charge of the Teaching Unit for the application of the Agreements," it adds.

Source: El Mostrador, April 27, 2006