Date of Birth : 07-05-53, 21 years of age at the time of his detention. Address : Goycolea No. 179, San Miguel, Santiago Marital Status : Single Occupation : High school graduate from the Liceo Salesiano Manuel Arriarán. Political Affiliation : Militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) Date of Detention : December 3, 1974

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Gregorio Palma Donoso, 21 years old, a militant of the MIR, had been detained in the first days of October 1973 at what was then his residence at Calle Santa Julia No. 135, Block D, Apt. 11, Villa Los Presidentes, Ñuñoa.

The military personnel who carried out the detention, without showing any warrant, raided the entire Block D in search of the victim's sister, Haydée Palma Donoso, without finding her. The victim was then taken by his captors to the Carabineros police station of the indicated commune, where he was interrogated about his sister and subjected to a mock execution, being released two days later.

Subsequently, on December 3, 1974, at 09:00 hours, Gregorio Palma was detained again, this time by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), at the intersection of Los Olmos and Macul streets, and taken to an unknown destination. Jacinto Hidalgo was a witness to his detention.

In a statement given in France, the aforementioned witness states that, "on December 3, 1974, we had contact with Gregorio, as I was a member of the leadership of a MIR structure. We walked together for an hour, discussed, exchanged information, and left toward Macul to say goodbye.

Then we walked toward the bus stop at Los Olmos and Macul. About ten meters from the stop, Gregorio asked me to get on a bus that was there; without arguing, I got on and realized that he did not. Before reaching the next stop, a DINA pickup truck parked along Macul, past Los Olmos.

The famous 'guatón Romo' and another short agent (1.50 or 1.55 meters tall) got out of this vehicle and ran toward Gregorio, who at that moment was walking along Macul toward Avenida Grecia, on the right-hand sidewalk, right where the DINA truck had parked.

Seeing all this, I got off the bus and realized there was nothing I could do. I left the area to escape the DINA thanks to the heroic attitude of Gregorio Palma Donoso."

Around 16:00 hours on the same day, December 3, the home of an aunt of the victim, located at Goycolea No. 179, San Miguel, was raided by plainclothes officers who did not show the corresponding warrant.

They acknowledged the detention of the victim to the people who were in the home at that time, Mrs. María Chacón Campos and Bernarda Donoso Chacón—aunt and cousin of Gregorio Palma, respectively. Likewise, days before receiving the victim's last visit, three people wearing sports clothing, carrying handguns, and traveling in a large red pickup truck appeared at the indicated address.

Without showing any type of credentials, they asked for the victim, noting that his disappearance had been reported, without providing further information on the matter.

Around 23:00 hours on the same day that Gregorio Palma's detention took place, a young man arrived at his home in a white pickup truck without license plates. Without identifying himself, he informed his family of the fact of the detention, as well as the time and place of the events.

Three years later, on January 16, 1978, the victim's sister, Haydée Palma Donoso, was detained and expelled from the country on February 18 of the same year via Tacna. One month later, she was expelled from Peru. Another brother, Jorge Palma Donoso, was detained in 1983; as of December 1992, he remained in prison as a political prisoner.

Over the years, it has been established that Gregorio Palma Donoso was seen at the secret detention and torture center run by the DINA, known as Villa Grimaldi and located at José Arrieta 8200, Peñalolén, by Héctor Hernán González Osorio.

The statements made by a former detainee regarding the reality experienced by men and women held in the aforementioned Villa Grimaldi facility are particularly illustrative.

The witness notes: "During my first period at Villa Grimaldi—December 1974—I stayed in a large room with a metal door, where wooden cells that were called 'Casas Chile' would later be built. When I arrived there, there was nothing yet.

We detainees were on the floor day and night, and the only 'activity' was waiting to be taken to torture or to witness the torture of another. The women were separated in another room. We remained blindfolded the whole time.

At night, they tied our feet and hands together behind our backs and made us lie on the floor, which was tiled. In the morning and before sleeping, they took us to the bathroom, which was the only one and was located next to the 'parrilla' room (torture room.

The reference to the 'parrilla' is made by a metal bed frame to which a naked detainee was tied to be subjected to electric shocks), which allowed us to hear the screams of those being tortured. We were fed three times a day.

For breakfast, an aluminum pot with coffee and a piece of bread; at lunchtime, a bowl of soup; and at night, the same again. Sometimes they untied our hands to eat, and other times only some, who then had to feed the person next to them.

Other times they made us eat on the floor, with our hands tied behind our backs, like dogs licking the plates however we could. This was very humiliating and desperate."

"After some time, we detainees were moved into the 'Casas Chile,' which was a set of wooden cells, each with a camp bunk bed inside, built in what was originally called the 'large room.' In truth, it gave the impression that they had built the cells around the bunk beds, because inside there was only a small side space to be able to climb to the top bed.

They were also completely closed, without any type of light, and were distributed along the walls, leaving a circulation space in the middle that connected to the door. While in 'Casas Chile,' I remember seeing people in a lamentable state as a result of the torture to which they were subjected.

I remember a comrade over whose legs they drove a pickup truck and then left him on the floor, in the free space in the middle of the cells, where we could hear his constant moaning. The truth is that in Villa Grimaldi, one lived with torture, suffering, and death all the time, without stopping.

Day and night, you could hear the screams of men and women being 'parrillados,' beaten, or hung, which was another type of torture frequently used by the DINA. It consisted of suspending the detainees with their hands tied to a beam or tied by their hands and feet and hung like a lamb, in the position that the Brazilians christened the 'pau de arara.' Thus, naked and always blindfolded, electricity was applied to them everywhere.

When they took us to the bathroom, we could hear the sounds of torture, screams muffled by rags placed in our mouths, bodies shuddering, insults, gasping breaths. Living daily with this is horrible and is part of the process of psychological destruction of the detainee."

"There were also the so-called 'Casas Corvi,' which were small wooden cells built in another room, a kind of vertical box about 80 by 80 cm, designed to isolate prisoners individually, completely closed, with barely a hole the diameter of a finger in the door for air to enter.

It was very desperate to be inside there, without light, with very little air, and with a lot of heat, standing or sitting on the floor with our legs bent because it was not possible to stretch them."

"There was, in addition, the so-called 'Tower,' which was a sinister place feared by everyone, which was in a more isolated part of Villa Grimaldi and where prisoners were taken who they did not want others to see and who would likely be tortured to death.

At least this was the image we all had. Going to the 'Tower' was like being destined to die in Grimaldi. Thus, there was in that den of suffering and permanent madness a kind of territorial distribution of death; the 'Casas Chile' were an area of probable death, the 'Casas Corvi' increased that probability, and the 'Tower' made it certain."

Gregorio Palma Donoso has been forcibly disappeared since he was seen at Villa Grimaldi in December 1974.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On December 5, 1974, the victim's mother, Mrs. Sofía Donoso Quevedo, filed a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) in his favor before the Santiago Court of Appeals, which was registered under No. 1523-74.

During the course of its processing, various authorities—the Combat Command for Aviation Tribunals in Wartime, Minister of the Interior Raúl Benavides Escobar, Chief of the State of Siege Zone, Minister of Defense (who reported through his aide, Colonel Julio Vargas Muñoz)—reported that Gregorio Palma Donoso was not detained or prosecuted before the II Military Court of Santiago nor before the Aviation Tribunals.

After the petitioner requested the measure on more than one occasion, the Court of Appeals, on January 30, 1975, ordered a report on the detainee from the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), reiterating the request on March 5 of the same year.

Only on March 21, 1975, did the Director of Army Intelligence, Brigadier General Odlanier Mena Salinas, inform the Court that "no agency dependent on this Directorate has carried out the detention of Gregorio Palma Donoso."

Thus, on April 1, 1975, the Court rejected the filed writ of amparo, ordering the records to be sent to the 11th Criminal Court of Santiago so that it could immediately instruct the corresponding summary proceedings for the disappearance of the victim.

On April 8, 1975, a case was initiated before the aforementioned Court to investigate the alleged disappearance of Gregorio Palma Donoso, registered under No. 1939-5.

The investigation order issued in the case did not yield information that would allow the victim's whereabouts to be established. Likewise, when the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees (SENDET) was consulted, it was established that Gregorio Palma Donoso was not registered as a detainee.

On July 10, 1975, without further measures, the summary was declared closed and the case was temporarily dismissed, considering that the existence of the crime that motivated the formation of the process was not legally proven in the records.

The preceding resolution was appealed and was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals on September 10, 1975.

While the noted ruling of the Court of Appeals was pending, the victim's sister, Sara Palma Donoso, filed a complaint on July 29, 1975, for the illegal arrest of the victim before the 11th Criminal Court of Santiago, which was registered under No. 3157-3.

Subsequently, this case was consolidated with the case of alleged disappearance, substantiated before the same Court and regarding the same facts, retaining the file number of the latter.

Upon consulting the National Executive Secretariat of Detainees (SENDET) and Minister of the Interior Raúl Benavides Escobar, they informed the Court via official letter that the victim was not detained.

Having sent an official letter to the 4 Alamos Prisoner Camp at the request of the complainant, the National Executive Secretary of Detainees, Colonel Jorge Espinoza Ulloa, informed the Court on March 8, 1976, that Gregorio Palma Donoso had no records.

Likewise, after an official letter was sent to the National Intelligence Directorate, the Minister of the Interior, after repeating that the victim was not detained, noted that the DINA, in its confidential letter No. 3550/99/497 dated April 12, 1976, reported that Gregorio Palma Donoso had no records in its files and had not been detained by personnel of that agency. "Faced with these responses, the Court, on its own motion, at page 53 of the records, resolved to appear personally at the National Intelligence Directorate on September 13, 1976.

On February 15, 1977, the Court decreed that, as the aforementioned measure had not been carried out, it would be verified on this date. However, on April 29 of the same year, it was resolved that, as such measure had not been carried out because the Court lacked transportation, transportation should be requested to carry it out.

As a final result, the same Court, on July 30, 1977, annulled the decree at page 53 without substantiating this resolution.

Once the corresponding investigation order was processed, the impossibility of interviewing the complainant was recorded in the case file because she could not be found and her current address could not be located.

For her part, when questioned about the facts, Mrs. María Chacón Campos—the victim's aunt—stated that the last time she saw her nephew was in December 1974, and that two days before this occurred, three people appeared at her home wearing sports clothing, using handguns, and traveling in a large red pickup truck, and that they did not present credentials, asking for Gregorio Palma Donoso.

Likewise, following an official letter, the Director of the Legal Medical Service, Dr. Alfredo Vargas Baeza, informed the Court on March 19, 1976, that "having reviewed the records of this Service from December 1974 to March 1976, the body of Gregorio Palma Donoso has not been admitted."

Having carried out multiple efforts to locate the addresses of both the complainant Sara Palma Donoso and María Chacón Campos in order to summon them to the Court, without positive results, the presiding judge, Mr. Tomás Dahm Guíñez, temporarily dismissed the case on July 30, 1977.

The dismissal resolution was appealed and was approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals on December 28, 1977.

On November 25, 1992, a complaint for the kidnapping of Gregorio Palma Donoso was filed before the 11th Criminal Court, registered under No. 1939, which as of December 1992 had pending measures and was in the summary stage.

This new complaint is related to the detention, in those days, of the former DINA agent Osvaldo Romo Mena, who had remained hidden for 17 years in Brazil under a false identity and had been located after a series of measures in the case regarding the disappearance of Alfonso Chanfreau Oyarce. As of December 1992, Romo had been charged in six other cases involving forcibly disappeared persons.

Source: Vicariate of Solidarity

Last night, as reported by the family, Jorge Palma Donoso, a former member of the Resistance against the dictatorship and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), who resided in Belgium due to an expulsion decree from Chile that was in effect against him, passed away in a hospital center in the city of Brussels.

Jorge Palma Donoso was an active participant in the Resistance struggle against the dictatorship. He came from a leftist family in the commune of Ñuñoa, and both he and his siblings were active militants in the MIR. After the military coup, they had to live in hiding to try to avoid detention by the repressive organs.

Nevertheless, in December 1974, his brother Gregorio was detained by the DINA; since then, he has been a forcibly disappeared person. In January 1978, his sister Haydée was detained by the CNI; after weeks of kidnapping and torture, she was abandoned in Peruvian territory, north of Arica.

In Peru, she was arrested by the police and was later able to be rescued through international aid from human rights organizations. His mother and his sister Eliana were also detained and tortured at that time by the CNI at Villa Grimaldi.

Throughout that period, Jorge remained active in the clandestine resistance, assuming various tasks and responsibilities. He was part of the first armed propaganda detachments of the resistance and later of the first urban combat groups of the early 80s.

In September 1983, he was captured by the CNI in the context of the execution of the massacre on Calle Fuente Ovejuna, in Las Condes, and Janequeo, in Quinta Normal, which resulted in the murder of 5 MIR militants and the detention of a dozen of them.

Among them, Jorge Palma and an important part of his clandestine work group were detained. The massacre was a repressive action in retaliation for the execution of the Army General and Intendant of Santiago, Carol Urzúa, which had been carried out in recent days by combat groups of the MIR and the Resistance.

Palma Donoso and the members of his group were sentenced to life imprisonment. They remained in prison in Chile until 1992; on that date, their sentence was commuted to a 25-year sentence of banishment.

Jorge Palma Donoso was hospitalized in a Brussels hospital, suffering from cancer that finally took his life at 70 years of age.

Source: RESUMEN.CL 05/28/2020 Date: 05-28-2020

MINISTER MARIO CARROZA ISSUES INDICTMENT FOR THE KIDNAPPING OF GREGORIO PALMA DONOSO

The minister on extraordinary assignment for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Mario Carroza, issued an indictment against three agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in the crime of qualified kidnapping of Gregorio Palma Donoso, an illicit act perpetrated starting December 3, 1974, in the commune of Macul.

In the resolution, Minister Carroza accuses the former agents Manuel Contreras Sepúlveda, Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, and Pedro Espinoza Bravo as co-perpetrators of the qualified kidnapping of the high school graduate.

According to the information gathered during the investigation stage, the magistrate was able to determine the following facts: «Gregorio Palma Donoso, high school graduate, militant of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), political name «José», was detained on December 3, 1974, between Av.

Macul and Calle Los Olmos, in this city, by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), with Jacinto Hidalgo Durán being an eyewitness to his detention, who identifies Osvaldo Romo Mena among the captors.»

Subsequently, according to the version provided by the witness Héctor Hernán González Osorio, the victim was seen at the detention center known as «Villa Grimaldi» or «Terranova,» from where his trail is lost.

Source: cronicadigital.cl 6/27/2015 Date: 06-27-2015

Eliana Palma Donoso (sister of Gregorio Palma Donoso) passes away

Belonging to a family that, due to the militancy of some of its members in the MIR, was persecuted, suffered torture, and exile, our comrade Eliana Palma Donoso passed away early today at the Posta Central.

Eliana, like the entire Palma Donoso family, had to suffer the disappearance of her brother Gregorio in 1974. Later, in 1978, her partner Gabriel Riveros Ravelo, brother of the Teachers' Union leader Olimpia Riveros, would be executed by the CNI in a fake confrontation, from which Eliana survived.

Eliana remained kidnapped in Villa Grimaldi along with her mother, Mrs. Sofía, and it was from this same facility that her brother Gregorio disappeared in 1974.

Meanwhile, Haydée and Jorge Palma Donoso, her siblings, also lived through persecution, torture, and exile for their activity as active militants of the MIR during the dictatorship. Jorge Palma Donoso currently remains in Belgium serving an extended and unjustified 25-year sentence of banishment, at the time proposed as the only alternative to a death sentence.

The wake for Eliana Palma Donoso will be held at the Nuestra Señora del Carmen church located at Plaza Ñuñoa, Francisco de Molina s/n, starting at 17:00 hours today. Her funeral will take place tomorrow at noon, heading to the General Cemetery.

From the Villa Grimaldi Peace Park Corporation, we express our deepest condolences to all the members of the Palma Donoso family on the sensitive passing of our comrade Eliana.

Source: villagrimaldi.cl 09/28/2012 Date: 09-28-2012

Letter to my dear friend Gregorio (Poem)

I met you, dear Gregorio, during the year 1970.

I always remember you with nostalgia; I never forget the political and social meetings in those years together with other young people full of enthusiasm with whom we shared ideals and political work. You and I also developed a beautiful friendship.

I remember the many times that you and I would get together to take long walks and talk about life. You, despite your youth, were a very mature boy. You were very generous and had a desire to develop as a human being, on so many levels!

For you, your contribution to political work was so important in your life; you wished to create a more just society for everyone. You were always interested in learning more; you read a lot and shared with me your interesting reflections on society and politics.

You clearly saw the great challenges of combining theory and practice in everyday life, and you were tireless in your dedication to political and solidarity work. Dear Gregorio, I remember your stories about the enriching conversations you often held with Mr.

Clotario Blest. You, Gregorio, had a solid political formation and conviction and were always open to dialogue. Although at the time of your detention we were not in contact, dear Gregorio, you could have turned me in, but you did not.

Your silence and loyalty saved my life. I always remember you with admiration and immense gratitude. Many years have passed, but you remain present in my memory. I had the immense joy of being able to greet your dear mother, Mrs. Sofía, and your dear sister Haydée a few years ago in Santiago. Your family is a courageous and noble family. Dear Gregorio, you will never be forgotten. Ruth

Source: MEMORIAVIVA.COM - July 7, 2008 Date: 07-07-2008