In September 1973, Javier Enrique SOBARZO SEPULVEDA, 24 years old, a militant of the Partido Socialista, a civil servant, and a retired Sub-officer of the Ejército, was forcibly disappeared.

On the 11th of that month, he was detained along with his brother at his home by a military patrol from the Regimiento de Paracaidistas y Fuerzas Especiales de Peldehue and taken to that military unit's barracks.

Witnesses indicate that at that location, his captors shot him and subsequently sent his body to the Instituto Médico Legal. However, Javier Enrique Sobarzo had not yet died. He was transferred to the Hospital José Joaquín Aguirre, where he was seen by several witnesses.

After remaining at that medical center for a few hours, his agonizing body was removed by Ejército personnel in the presence of the public. Since that date, there has been no further news regarding his whereabouts.

This commission is convinced, based on the testimonies and background information already referred to, that Javier Sobarzo was a victim of a human rights violation, consisting of his detention and subsequent forced disappearance by state agents, who had also previously attempted to execute him.

Occupation: Retired Army Non-Commissioned Officer. Fiscal employee Repressive Status: Militant of the Partido Socialista. Union leader Date of Detention: September 11, 1973

REPRESSIVE SITUATION

Javier Sobarzo Sepúlveda, married, father of 2, retired Army Non-Commissioned Officer, employee of the Distribuidora Nacional DINAC, union leader, and militant of the Partido Socialista, was detained on September 11, 1973, at his home located on the Carretera San Martín s/n in Peldehue, within the Peldehue military compound, where his father-in-law worked as the key-keeper for the military camp.

His spouse, Rosa Elena Zúñiga Cárdenas, recounts the circumstances of the detention and subsequent events in a sworn statement provided before a notary: "On September 11, 1973, my spouse, Javier Sobarzo, left early, around 07:00 in the morning, heading to his work at the corner of Calle Huérfanos and Teatinos.

Around 14:00 he was back; he told me he had returned home for my safety. He knew that at some point he would be detained; his fear was based on the fact that he was a socialist and had been, until 1970, a 'Black Beret' (boina negra) at the Army Specialities School in Peldehue, in the same compound where we lived.

Days before the military coup, Javier had been detained by soldiers from the same unit due to a matter related to the discovery of weapons in Valparaíso; however, he was released hours after being detained.

Around 20:00, a large contingent of soldiers arrived at my home, all wearing their characteristic black berets. They surrounded the house and proceeded to detain my spouse, Javier Sobarzo Sepúlveda. The group of soldiers was commanded by the Director of the Peldehue Commando School himself, Alejandro Medina Lois.

When they were taking my husband away, I asked him why they were taking him; Medina Lois replied 'that they were taking him for being a traitor to his country and his flag.' The truck in which the soldiers were traveling headed toward the Army Commando and Paratrooper School, which was located on the same property but toward the Termas de Colina.

The next day and in the following days, when I went to the military unit where my husband was being held, they acknowledged his detention; however, they would not let me see him. On Thursday, September 14, a jeep arrived at my house with some soldiers who handed me some of my husband's belongings: some keys, a handkerchief, and the laces from his boots.

When I asked them if I could bring him some things, they replied that 'in the place where they had taken him, he didn't need anything; that I should go to the Morgue to look for him.' That same day, I went to the Instituto Médico Legal, where I was able to recognize my husband's clothes in a pile of clothing waiting to be burned.

I could not recognize his body because there were many corpses, most of them unrecognizable. I returned home and continued to go to the Instituto Médico Legal every day in the hope of recognizing his corpse.

I do not remember the exact date, but I believe it was at the end of September that a nun arrived at my house—under the pretext of buying sweaters that we were selling—who said her name was Sister Yolanda and that she was the Head of the Emergency Service at the Hospital José Joaquín Aguirre.

I was not at home at that moment, so she spoke with my mother, to whom she stated that my spouse, Javier Sobarzo Sepúlveda, was alive in the Emergency Service of the J.J. Aguirre and that he wanted to speak with me.

She told her that my spouse had been rescued from the Instituto Médico Legal, where he had been taken as dead because his legs had been riddled with machine-gun fire. She left word for me to go to the hospital.

The next day I went to the Hospital J.J. Aguirre, where I met with Sister Yolanda, who told me the circumstances of how my husband had arrived at that hospital center and that he was registered under the name Enrique Sandoval Sepúlveda.

Later, I was able to see him; he was in a room with two other patients. He barely spoke; he was very frightened, he was very afraid, and he recommended that I be careful with the children. Making a great effort, he indicated to me that he had been executed by firing squad on the orders of Alejandro Medina Lois and Carlos Parera Silva, both of whom were the highest authorities in Peldehue.

As I said goodbye, he asked me to return in two or three days because they were going to operate on him to save his leg. On that occasion, he was wearing pajamas that, according to what he told me, had been given to him by a doctor; they were made of flannel with very pale blue and yellow stripes.

Days later, I visited the Social Worker, María Angélica Fuenzalida, at the Dirección Nacional de Comercialización (DINAC) at my husband's suggestion. She told me that the nun, Sister Yolanda, had informed her that my spouse had been removed from the Hospital J.J.

Aguirre by military personnel and transferred to the Hospital Militar. She pointed out that the nun had done the impossible to prevent the transfer, but it took place anyway. She also told me that Sister Yolanda had accompanied him to the very grounds of the Hospital Militar, where she was forbidden from entering.

After this event, I never heard anything more about my husband, Javier Sobarzo, and I remain unaware of his current whereabouts and fate.

Two years after the events, when I requested information at the Hospital J.J. Aguirre, they could not give me any information about my spouse's transfer, as he was not registered in the hospital's books."

For her part, María Angélica Fuenzalida Tobar, a Social Worker who served as Head of the Social Development Department of DINAC, left a record in a sworn statement that in mid-September 1973, while at work, she received a phone call from a woman who insisted on wanting to speak with her, for which she had to go to the Hospital J.J.

Aguirre. She adds that, at the Hospital's emergency ward, she managed to locate the Social Worker, who led her to a room where a patient was hospitalized who had been transferred from the Instituto Médico Legal and who had been operated on in one of his legs at the hospital by the Traumatology team, as he had arrived in serious condition.

She indicated that this person insisted on speaking with her. Upon entering the common ward where several patients were, she immediately recognized Javier Sobarzo Sepúlveda, whom the declarant knew because he was the president of the DINAC Workers' Union and a militant of the Partido Socialista.

The witness adds that she approached his bed and he hugged her and told her, crying, what had happened to him. He told her that he had been detained in Colina, where he lived, and that he had been tortured inside a facility, showing her his hands with evident signs of having been mistreated.

Several of his fingers were missing their nails, and on those that still had them, the marks of needles that had been driven into them were visible. His face looked very beaten. He told her that after the torture, he was taken out along with other detainees and transported in a truck to a place on the road where they were taken down and executed by firing squad.

Amidst the nervousness and fear that the victim felt, he gave the declarant to understand that those who had fired on the group of detainees knew him and that they had only shot him in the legs, which was the reason he was still alive.

María Angélica Fuenzalida continues by stating that she remained with Javier Sobarzo for 15 to 20 minutes and that throughout the entire time, he insisted that they were going to kill him and that he felt great fear.

The next day, she received a call from a nun who requested that she not go to the hospital, without providing further details. A few days after this call, the witness points out, she met with the nun again, who told her that Javier Sobarzo had been removed from the Hospital J.J. Aguirre by a doctor and personnel from the Hospital Militar, who transferred him to that Army hospital center.

The nun, Yolanda María Cecilia Ellies Santander, left a record in a sworn statement provided before a public notary that she had met Javier Sobarzo in September 1973 at the Hospital J.J. Aguirre, where she worked as a clinical nurse in the Emergency Service.

The affected party, who was hospitalized with fractured legs, explained to her that he had given a false identity upon being admitted and asked her to notify his spouse of his presence at that hospital center, a task the nun carried out.

She also points out that she accompanied the affected party's spouse to visit him, and that two days after this visit, Javier Sobarzo was transferred to the Traumatology Service, where he remained for about two or three days.

She adds that while she was in the facilities of the Religious Community of the aforementioned hospital, she was notified that Javier Sobarzo wanted to see her because he was going to be transferred to the Hospital Militar and was asking to be accompanied.

The nun went to a common ward of the Traumatology Service where the affected party was located along with several patients. Inside were two soldiers with their characteristic black berets and their weapons, who took Sobarzo on a stretcher to a vehicle driven by black-beret soldiers.

Sister Yolanda got into the vehicle, despite the protests of the uniformed men. She points out that it stopped in front of the Hospital Militar, where Javier Sobarzo was taken down and admitted through the back doors, which are normally used for the entry of patients brought by ambulance.

The nun was denied entry and forced to return to the Hospital J.J. Aguirre. That was the last time she saw the victim.

For his part, Luis Mercedes Sobarzo Sepúlveda, the brother of the affected party and who was detained along with him, states in a notarized declaration: "I am the legitimate brother of Javier Enrique Sobarzo Sepúlveda, detained on September 11, 1973, an employee by profession, married to Rosa Zúñiga, who at that time lived with her in-laws at the Military Compound of the Paratrooper School in the commune of Colina, in the city of Santiago.

My brother had turned 28 years old in June of that year, and he was detained along with me, as I had traveled to that city in search of work. The detention occurred around 20:00 and was carried out by members of the Paratrooper School, in an operation of about 25 to 30 people, all military, who raided the house. They were heavily armed.

We were taken to that Military Compound, where we were savagely beaten, without any compassion shown toward us. In my case, I remained there until September 13, 1973, the day I was released. I must state that during my interrogation, I was asked about my brother's activities, to which I replied that he worked at the Distribuidora Nacional (DINAC) in Santiago.

During my stay in that compound, I was interrogated twice by the same people.

On the night of September 12, my brother, during his second interrogation, returned to the room where I and another person were staying, showing great signs of having been savagely beaten, as his mouth was bleeding profusely because they had knocked out his teeth, and he was also complaining a lot, the result of broken ribs from the ruthless punishment to which he was subjected.

Approximately an hour passed when he was again taken out of there along with the other person. From that date, I never saw my brother again.

On September 13, around 15:00, they took me to the Guardhouse of the Paratrooper School, where I was accompanied by a soldier who told me that my brother had been taken to the Estadio Nacional. There, I was given my personal documentation and my brother's Saxoline document holder."

It should be noted that the affected party belonged to a group of young members of the Army's Paratrooper and Special Forces School who were discharged during 1970 and were politically linked to the Partido Socialista.

Several of them were executed or forcibly disappeared after September 11, 1973; among them, Mario Melo Pradenas, Enrique Toledo Garay, Luis Barraza Ruhl, and Jorge Vicente Piérola Piérola, who are currently forcibly disappeared, and Julio Martínez Lara, Alberto Ampuero Angel, and David González Venegas, who were executed on September 15, 1973.

To date, the fate or whereabouts of the affected party after having been removed from the Hospital J.J. Aguirre by military personnel and transferred to the Hospital Militar remain unknown.

JUDICIAL AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS

The family of the affected party, out of fear, did not take judicial action until April 15, 1991, when they filed a complaint for alleged disappearance before the 19th Criminal Court of Santiago, requesting a series of investigative steps, including issuing official letters to the Instituto Médico Legal, the Hospital J.J.

Aguirre, the Hospital Militar, and the Army Commando and Paratrooper School of Peldehue. This case was registered under File No. 38483-1 and is currently in the summary investigation phase (1992).

The anthropometric data of Javier Enrique Sobarzo Sepúlveda were attached to case 4449-AF of the 22nd Criminal Court of Santiago for the crime of illegal burial in Patio 29 of the Cementerio General of unidentified persons who died between September and December 1973.

The investigating judge of the case ordered the excavation of 108 graves in September 1991. From there, 125 bodies were exhumed and sent to the Instituto Médico Legal. Currently (late 1992), the expert identification reports are pending.

Source: Vicaría de la Solidaridad