Héctor Jenaro González Fernández, single, a former Economics student at the University of Chile, linked to the MIR, and Administrative Chief of a construction site in Puente Alto for the company TECSA, was detained on September 6, 1974, along with his friend and coworker Roberto Chaer Vásquez, by members of the DINA, presumably in downtown Santiago around midday.

That morning, both men left work heading to the CORVI offices located at the intersection of Alameda and Arturo Prat to carry out duties related to their positions, as they usually did every Friday. However, they first went to Chaer's home, where they were seen by his wife, Ximena Palacios.

Later, around 11:00 a.m., González called his brother-in-law, Carlos Minder, in Concepción, after which all traces of him and his friend Roberto Chaer were lost.

Days later, on September 10, his cousin Carlos Fernández Zapata, a MIR militant and also a former Economics student at the University of Concepción, was detained at his workplace.

Finally, on the 13th of the same month, his girlfriend, Patricia Fernández Argandoña, was detained at her home by DINA agents and taken to a secret facility which, based on her description, could have been Villa Grimaldi.

At this location, where she arrived blindfolded and was kept that way for the entire duration of her stay, she was placed in a room where they brought her boyfriend. She was able to talk to him, hold his hands, and when they took him away, he said goodbye with a kiss.

Even though they were together for only a very short time, he expressed to her that he was very sorry she was going through that situation. He appeared to be physically well, but he was visibly very affected by his girlfriend's presence.

Both at the time of her arrest and while at Villa Grimaldi, Patricia Fernández was interrogated about Héctor's activities. They also read her a text containing a series of falsehoods about her.

The next day, she woke up to the sound of a radio or something similar playing the National Anthem. Around midday, they called several people, including her, her boyfriend Héctor González, and his cousin Carlos Fernández Zapata.

They were given their belongings and then loaded into a van, along with another woman she did not know, with their hands and feet tied. They were immediately transferred to another facility, which she later learned was the Cuatro Álamos camp, also under the authority of the DINA.

At this location, she was placed in a room with other women, and Héctor was placed in another with men. During the days she remained detained at Cuatro Álamos, she was able to communicate with him through other prisoners using a system they had invented. Héctor even sent her cigarettes and a toothbrush.

On September 17, Patricia Fernández was released from Cuatro Álamos; this was the last time she heard of Héctor. Before leaving, a guard told her there were no charges against her and she could live a normal life, but added, "forget about your boyfriend." That same day, another detainee told her that Héctor was suffering from a stomach illness and had been lying in bed.

Since then, nothing more has been heard of Héctor González, who remains forcibly disappeared, as do his cousin Carlos Fernández Zapata and his friend Roberto Chaer Vásquez.

Subsequently, on December 4, 1974, René Vergara Poch was detained in Concepción by Investigations personnel and taken to that service's barracks, where he was interrogated about Héctor González and Carlos Fernández, of whom he was shown photographs.

Vergara was later transferred to the Talcahuano Naval Base and subsequently to Santiago, where he was held in various DINA facilities and the Ritoque camp, before finally being expelled from the country on July 14, 1975.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

On October 14, 1974, a writ of amparo (habeas corpus) was filed on behalf of Héctor González and his cousin Carlos Fernández before the Santiago Court of Appeals, case file 1239-74. This appeal was denied, based on negative reports from the authorities.

It appears the records were sent to the 4th Criminal Court for investigation, as that court initiated case file 107.410 regarding the disappearance of both men.

On January 20, 1975, a new writ of amparo was filed on his behalf before the Santiago Court of Appeals, case file 152-75, which was rejected on June 19 of the same year. Once again, the authorities provided negative reports regarding the detention of the affected party.

The DINA, as was its habitual practice, refused to respond to the Court, stating that such inquiries should be directed to SENDET or the Ministry of the Interior.

On September 20, 1974, Roberto Chaer's wife filed a complaint with the 4th Criminal Court, case file 106.190, for the alleged disappearance of Chaer, Héctor González, and Patricia Fernández.

Investigations reported that inquiries to locate the victims had yielded no results, after interviewing the complainant—who ratified what she had already stated in her filing to the court—and after making inquiries to SENDET, prisons, and hospital facilities.

The Executive Secretary of SENDET, Colonel Jorge Espinoza, responded to the Court that his agency had no record of the detention of any of the persons inquired about. It should be noted that by that date, Patricia Fernández had already been released.

After learning of these facts and having Chaer's wife ratify the complaint, the Judge closed the summary proceedings and issued a temporary dismissal of the case on the grounds that the crime had not been proven.

This resolution was revoked by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which ordered the case to be reopened for summary investigation and for Patricia Fernández to be interrogated.

On April 24, 1975, Patricia Fernández and her mother, María Elisa Argandoña, testified before the Judge, both recounting the circumstances of the young woman's detention and the former detainee's encounter with Héctor González in the DINA facilities.

Without taking into consideration the new information provided by Patricia Fernández, the Judge closed the summary proceedings again on July 23 of that year, without ordering further investigative steps. On the same date, he issued a temporary dismissal on the grounds that the crime was not sufficiently justified.

While the file was at the Court of Appeals for review of the dismissal, new information was presented to the case, consisting of a news report in the press informing of the death of 119 Chileans abroad, some as a result of clashes with Argentine security forces and others executed by their own comrades due to internal MIR disputes.

These falsehoods were published by the Brazilian newspaper O'DIA and the Argentine magazine LEA, being reproduced by Chilean media and widely publicized by the military government authorities. It should be added that the two foreign publications were unknown in their respective countries, according to Brazilian and Argentine authorities, and were only published in that single issue, with no subsequent editions ever known.

Roberto Chaer Vásquez's name appeared on these lists, so the Court was requested to issue a writ to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to report on the matter.

A letter presented by family members to the President of the Santiago Court of Appeals denouncing these facts was also attached.

The file was requested from the appellate court, and the summary proceedings were reopened in order to request the relevant report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On September 9, 1975, Army Major Enrique Cid Coubles, Human Rights Secretary of that Ministry, responded to the Court that, after making the relevant inquiries, there was no official record that the persons named in the publications had died abroad, nor that they had left the country.

All those named were people detained by security services and have been forcibly disappeared ever since. Following this new information, the proceedings were closed again, and a temporary dismissal was issued.

On this occasion, the Court Prosecutor, mistakenly considering that the investigation was being conducted only for the disappearance of Roberto Chaer, reported favorably regarding the dismissal.

On November 21, 1975, the Court approved the resolution under review, and the temporary dismissal of the case became final, as the crime had not been proven.

On March 28, 1979, the Santiago Court of Appeals appointed Servando Jordán López as a Visiting Judge to investigate cases of the disappearance of persons detained by the Security Services in Santiago.

Judge Jordán received case file 14.566, which was being investigated in the 9th Criminal Court for the disappearance of Carlos Fernández Zapata, and ordered it to be consolidated with another, case file 107.410, which had been investigated in the 4th Criminal Court for Fernández and Héctor González, apparently initiated by the records sent to that court by the Santiago Court of Appeals after it denied an amparo in favor of both.

Very little is known about the processing of this case, but it is known that it was temporarily dismissed by Judge Jordán on December 7, 1981. This resolution was appealed by the affected party, who considered that there were pending investigative steps that were decisive for the investigation, including the summons to testify of the owner of the boarding house where Héctor González lived in Concepción.

On April 14, 1982, the members of the 4th Chamber of the Santiago Court of Appeals rejected the appeal, so a complaint was filed before the Supreme Court, which in turn confirmed the appealed resolution, leaving the temporary dismissal for the disappearance of Carlos Fernández Zapata and Héctor González Fernández as final.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad

The Supreme Court confirmed the conviction against former Army officers and leaders of the defunct National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), César Raúl Manríquez Bravo and Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, to a sentence of 15 years in prison as authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Roberto Salomón Chaer Vásquez, Héctor Genaro González Fernández, and Carlos Julio Zapata Fernández, committed in Santiago in September 1974. by Darío Núñez

In a unanimous ruling (case file 129.356-2020), the Second Chamber of the high court—composed of ministers Haroldo Brito, Manuel Antonio Valderrama, Leopoldo Llanos, María Teresa Letelier, and Eliana Quezada—rejected the cassation appeal filed by the defense of the convicted César Manríquez Bravo and maintained the prison sentence he must serve as an author of the crime; the same sentence must be served by Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, whose defense did not appeal, and therefore, it is confirmed.

In the first-instance ruling issued by the Visiting Judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vásquez Plaza, in June 2017, he also convicted Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes, and José Orlando Manzo Durán, but these three criminals passed away during the course of the proceedings.

Regarding civil matters, the Second Chamber of the high court established an error of law in the appealed sentence, issued by the Santiago Court of Appeals, which had unjustifiably lowered the compensation amount set by the first-instance ruling. Thus, it accepted the cassation appeals filed by the plaintiff and, in a replacement sentence, confirmed the initial resolution.

The victims in this case, Héctor Jenaro González Fernández, Roberto Salomón Chaer Vásquez, and Carlos Julio Fernández Zapata, were militants of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) since at least 1971 and carried out their party activities while studying at the University of Concepción.

After the military coup, they moved to the city of Santiago at different times, where they continued their ties and militant participation, albeit in a clandestine situation. In that condition, they suffered detention by DINA agents at different times.

On September 6, 1974, Roberto Salomón Chaer Vásquez, 21 years old, and Héctor Genaro González Fernández, 27 years old, were seized. The detention occurred on a public street in downtown Santiago, where they had gone to carry out work tasks assigned by the construction company where they worked, located in the commune of Puente Alto.

Meanwhile, Carlos Julio Fernández Zapata, 26 years old, was detained on September 10, also at his workplace located on Frontera Street in the commune of Quinta Normal.

In the first-instance sentence, Judge Vázquez Plaza established that a group of agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who depended on the Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade (BIM), focused on investigating the activities of people who were part of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) and those who collaborated with said organization, proceeding to detain members and/or adherents of the cited movement, taking them to secret detention centers maintained by the organization, where they were interrogated under physical duress, and they would go out with them to tour different places on public streets with the aim of identifying other members of the MIR.

Thus, after obtaining information from other detainees, they proceeded to detain, respectively, Héctor Jenaro González Fernández, Roberto Salomón Chaer Vásquez, and Carlos Julio Fernández Zapata, who were then taken to the clandestine DINA detention center known as 'José Domingo Cañas' or 'Ollagüe' for the purpose of interrogating them under physical duress.

They were later taken to the detention center known as 'Cuatro Álamos', where they were seen by other surviving detainees. From this facility, they were taken out, and their whereabouts have been unknown ever since.

Some time later, in July 1975, the name of Roberto Chaer Vásquez was included in the list of 119 people mentioned in the fateful disinformation operation mounted by the DINA known as "Operation Colombo." The three victims of this case remain forcibly disappeared to this day, with no information or data regarding their fate.

Source: resumen.cl, March 10, 2023 Date: 03-10-2023

DINA agents convicted for aggravated kidnapping and disappearance of three former UdeC students

The extraordinary visiting judge for human rights violation cases of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Miguel Vázquez Plaza, issued a sentence against former members of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) for their responsibility in three crimes of aggravated kidnapping of former students of the University of Concepción. These crimes were perpetrated in September 1974 in Santiago.

In the ruling (case file 11.844-Volume F), issued on Friday, June 30, the visiting judge convicted four DINA agents as co-authors of the crime of aggravated kidnapping of MIR militants Héctor Jenaro González Fernández, Roberto Salomón Chaer Vásquez (a victim of Operation Colombo), and Carlos Julio Fernández Zapata.

The kidnappings were perpetrated on September 6 and 10, 1974, in the city of Santiago.

In the resolution, Judge Vázquez sentenced Miguel Krassnoff Martchenko, Ciro Ernesto Torré Sáez, Orlando José Manzo Durán, and Basclay Humberto Zapata Reyes to effective prison terms of 15 years for their responsibility in the crimes; and acquitted agent César Manríquez Bravo.

During the investigation stage, the magistrate managed to establish the following facts:

a) That a group of agents belonging to the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), who depended on the Metropolitan Intelligence Brigade (BIM), focused on investigating the activities of people who were part of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) and those who collaborated with said organization, proceeding to detain members and/or adherents of the cited movement, taking them to secret detention centers maintained by the organization, where they were interrogated under physical duress, and they would go out with them to tour different places on public streets with the aim of identifying other members of the MIR.

b) That Héctor Jenaro González Fernández, Roberto Salomón Chaer Vásquez, and Carlos Julio Fernández Zapata were militants of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) since at least 1971 and developed their activities in said conglomerate while they were at the University of Concepción.

c) That, within the activities carried out by the agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA), after obtaining information from other detainees, on September 6, 1974, and September 10, 1974, subjects of the organization called "DINA" proceeded to detain, respectively, Héctor Jenaro González Fernández and Roberto Salomón Chaer Vásquez on a public street in downtown Santiago, and Carlos Julio Fernández Zapata at his workplace located at 2857 Frontera Street, Quinta Normal, who were then taken to the clandestine detention center of the National Intelligence Directorate known as "José Domingo Cañas" or "Ollagüe" for the purpose of interrogating them under physical duress, and were later taken to the detention center known as "Cuatro Álamos," where they were seen by other detainees, from where they were taken out, their whereabouts remaining unknown ever since, as well as the fate that has befallen their physical and mental health and personal integrity.

d) That, some time later, the news appeared in some foreign journalistic media, replicated by national media, that Roberto Salomón Chaer Vásquez had died, along with 118 other people, in a clash between leftist militants and/or in a clash with foreign forces, without said news being confirmed by any national or foreign authority.

Source: resumen.cl, July 4, 2017 Date: 07-04-2017